Reality TV’s latest West End colonisation…..

After the transformation of Connie Fisher from (Drama school trained) nobody who had not yet worked professionally to overnight star, round 2 in the reality TV casting stakes saw actors who actually already had professional credits to their names seeking to go the extra mile. So last night it was the turn of Lee Mead to graduate from West End understudy and chorus to principal role when he took the title role in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, after winning the TV series Any Dream Will Do, and though the part hardly allows the colour and range of an actor’s talents to be displayed in the same way that Maria in The Sound of Music does, what was (in this production’s original 1991 incarnation at the London Palladium) a star vehicle for Jason Donovan – sitting last night in the stalls beside Daily Mail critic Quentin Letts – has now turned into a star-making vehicle.

But yesterday, too, just hours before the first night, the producers of Monty Python’s Spamalot issued a release that actually made me wonder whether it was a spoofalot and had me checking whether the date was actually April 1. Apparently a Swedish broadcaster TV3 is going to stage a reality TV show to find the West End’s next Lady of the Lake for the show, in a nine-part live series called West End Story. After open auditions in Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmo, a shortlist of 12 contestants will be produced and one a week will be voted off the show. When there are four finalists left, they will be flown to London to rehearse the show with the West End cast, returning once a week to face the judges and the Swedish viewing public, with the eventual winner joining the London cast.

So how, exactly, will it profit the London production, apart from delivering a calculated snub to the West End acting community, that is? According to the press announcement, Sweden is one of the biggest markets for musical theatre across Europe – and London sees over 700,000 visits every year from Swedes, with a very high percentage of them seeing a show. So this will position Spamalot as the show, presumably, that they should see.

Myself, I think the producers have missed a trick. Far closer to home is the Lakeside Shopping Centre in Thurrock, Essex, and perhaps the contest – The Lady of the Lake(side) – could have been staged there. But why stop there? Perhaps Robert Fox could have passed on Maggie Smith in The Lady from Dubuque and done a star search for title character in Dubuque itself. (Mind you, perhaps he should have passed on the show entirely). The RSC should search for its next Hamlet in Denmark; Mamma Mia!, for its next cast in Greece; and Trevor Nunn, soon to stage a musical version of Gone with the Wind, needs to scour Atlanta to find his Scarlett O’Hara.

Or how about, as I suggested to Mark Ravenhill at the opening of Joseph last night, a reality TV show to cast a revival of his play Shopping and Fucking? The boys could demonstrate their skills at both activities live. Perhaps a proposal could be put to Channel 5 now…..