Most of the musical theatre community was shocked and appalled by David Sexton’s recent article in which he attacked not just the genre of musical theatre but the people who enjoy and work in musicals. There have been brilliant responses by @Westendproducer and Lyn Gardner and I don’t wish to add to their good work, but I did want to take this blog as a chance to voice my concern over one line of Sexton’s article: “They [musical theatre fans] just want to be pumped up with emotion by any means, lacking perhaps any interior life of their own.”

I pride myself on being a realist and also a fair human being. I do not mind if Sexton dislikes musical theatre because he has every right to his opinion. My brother also strongly dislikes musicals and despite what our banter on Facebook might suggest he would never attack me by calling me devoid of emotion for liking musicals. This is where I was caused the most upset by Sexton because, despite it being in an article for thousands of readers, I felt very personally insulted; this is an area of theatre I want to study at PhD level and to which I have invested the past five years of study.

Lyn Gardner made the point that this is a deliberately controversial article making a point of going against the tide of praise for the Les Miserables film, which is fine as newspapers need to guarantee readers and we know journalism can be a brutal place. Gardner also states in the article that “musical theatre occupies such a fragile place in theatre culture”. This is the crux of what really saddens me. Musical theatre is always hounded as the less important and less worthy branch of theatre. In Sexton’s view it also the lowly cousin of the just-about-tolerable genre of Opera.

Of course this is grossly unfair and sad for anyone working in a genre which requires a great level of artistry from writers and performers alike. So to hear that our form is “idiotic” is deeply upsetting. Musical theatre is an easy target because to many it seems so removed from life because of the singing and dancing (N.B. interestingly, not all shows use dance) yet I’m sure many ethnomusicologists would disagree. Music is and always has been inherent in our lives as humans so it makes perfect sense for us to enjoy it in our theatre, a fact proved by the popularity world-wide and box office figures.

In reality, and in academic life, I deal heavily with the prejudice facing musical theatre and specifically the twentieth-century construct of the ‘musical’. I like to imagine this is because it is a baby at less than 100 years old and that over time it will be more and more accepted as a legitimate form of theatre; I dream that it will be written about academically and appreciated for the work that goes into them. However, with writers such as Sexton getting such a soapbox to air their disparaging views it does seem like it will only ever be a dream.

Image: “A Chorus Line” at the Strand Theatre Thursday, March 24 (adapted)

In the past two weeks the process of casting in musical theatre has been well and truly turned on its head.

It started with @westendproducer‘s #Search For A Twitter Star (SFATS) final held in the West End – a talent show judged by agents, performers, directors and the public through YouTube and a live final. It provided the biggest and best exposure for many of these finalists, with the chance to perform in front of their peers and idols. There was also an announcement of the child and international winners the following night. One of the children has felt the benefit of this Twitter search already, with judge Gemma Lowry Hamilton, a theatrical agent, signing her up – Emily Carey recently started rehearsals for Shrek the Musical. It is only a matter of time before the adult performers also get their breaks. The whole project was so well received that there have been calls to make it a yearly event, with The Stage saying it has potential.

A week later and a second talent search was on our TV screens: the search for Jesus in the arena tour of Jesus Christ Superstar. There has been a lot of controversy about this one stealing work from trained professionals. However, some beady-eyed people noticed that many who made it through to ‘Superstar Island’ were professionals, such as Alex Gaumond (WWRY, Legally Blonde) and Oliver Tompsett (Wicked, Rock of Ages). In fact, many who went home in the early stages were young and untrained; the panel thought they wouldn’t be able to handle the role.

Even the final eleven is made up of people who have trained or worked for a while in the industry: Roger Wright (Lion King, Thriller Live), Niall Sheehy (Mountview, Wicked), Ben (Italia Conti, Grease) and David Hunter (LIPA, One Man, Two Governors). Many lamented that such leading men have had to go through this public audition hoopla but it was also praised. Despite this, the show hasn’t been pulling in the crowds; three million was the audience figure for the first shows. I wonder if we lose something through the TV – performers often sound out of tune but the judges say nothing. There is also discontent about the song choices with the contestants singing pop songs for a musical theatre role, but as JCS is a rock opera it does have more of a pop sound than other shows. Yet if @westendproducer was casting it I’m sure contestants would audition with musical theatre songs; the whole idea of his SFATS live final gives me hope that you can cast through a talent search without selling your soul to television.

Tompsett wrote a status/blog (9 July) on Facebook about how he feels: sadly he had pulled out due to commitments to another show (a move some other Jesus’ should have emulated). He said that these TV talent shows (like SFATS) breathe new life and talent into musical theatre and I find myself going against what I have ever said before and almost agreeing. I have friends struggling to break into the industry because they don’t have an agent so can’t get the big auditions and talent searches like this may be an option for them. But that doesn’t mean I’m going to come quietly – I still feel that the TV shows ruin the normal casting process and put trained professionals out in the cold.

He’s the twitter sensation who drinks “too much dom”, has a “Lloyd Webber glove puppet”, sleeps in “Phantom pyjamas”, and has more 18,000 follows… and nobody knows who he actually is. In fact the “theatre impresario” @WestEndProducer has created quite a storm in theatrical circles, as many have tried to work out who this person – who has such clear inside knowledge – is. In truth, it’s more fun not knowing, and rather amazing that this account of amusing theatre tweets led to an event in the Lyric Theatre on Shaftesbury Avenue. @Westendproducer and lead producer @mrtonygreen teamed up to launch a search for a Twitter leading man and Twitter leading lady, asking hopefuls to upload their best singing on YouTube. I was amazed to learn they had had more 600 entries from across the UK. Whittled down via a host of industry professionals and through a voting campaign through Twitter, I found myself sat amongst a host of fans and supporters in the Lyric Theatre awaiting the ten finalists… whilst also not knowing what to expect at all.

As the lights dimmed and a masked figure took his seat in the box, complete with Valjean teddy and famed bottle of Dom Perignon, a voiceover announced the arrival of the ten contestants. Wearing different coloured t-shirts, you’d be forgiven for thinking that you had just sat down to watch the final of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s BBC search for Joseph. Singing their hearts out to ‘A star is born’, the voiceover duly announced each twitter hopeful. It’s at this point I learnt just how serious the nature of this competition would be.

Host Aled Jones bounded on stage to tell us all to keep our phones on, informing us that Twitter would play an integral part in the voting system and encouraging us to tweet our thoughts throughout the show using the hash tag #sfatslive.

@jacqui_archer: So weird being able to tweet! #sfatslive

What’s interesting is that the audience becomes quite giddy at being allowed to break the biggest taboo of theatre etiquette and what is often the most frustrating act of going to a performance becomes the norm, as the audience members’ faces have a faint glow as they frantically type their opinions with immediate response.

@bernadettaaa: The Finalists are amazing singing together #sfatslive

The contestants then took to the stage one by one to perform for the panel of judges. Rest assured, the crowd by this time have been wound up into a frenzy of good feeling and support, each act would have been able to have gauged their performance instantly as they headed to the wings, by searching twitter. The response from the audience was electric and all received hearty applause, none more so than @mikewooster who had an army of fans who instantly rose to their feet upon his final note.

The celebratory atmosphere however had not quite made it to the separate boxes for the four industry judges.  @louisedearman @mikedixonmusic @gemmalowyhamil and the croaky @davidkingshows didn’t quite seem to share the apathy of the excitable audience. Their harsh and firm analysis of each performance very often silenced the auditorium, David King often damming the direction of the performances and telling another “you should go back to college”. Upon reaching the announcement of the crowned winners, Aled Jones asked Gemma Lowy Hamilton if the pair would make it to become West End Stars. Surely, in the nature of this Twitter production, the thing to do would have been to just say “yes”, but instead after an uncomfortable silence she managed to splutter a few words about “with further training”. By making the show interactive the judges had no place to hide as the audience furiously tweeted about their verdicts.

@dannylane94: cannot BELIEVE what I’m reading re: some of the judges comments. Those poor people – making their WE (west end) debut & everything!

@craftymiss: some of these judges are tough #sfatslive

@rosiebaker10: Been left feeling disappointed with judges @ #sfatslive Too much unnecessary criticism resulted in a bad atmos[phere]. They were ALL brilliant.

The frustration of the critical judges was only emphasised by an agitated @westendproducer himself who flailed wildly in his box. During the interval, he told me of his frustration that not all were in the same spirit as he. I still have no idea who he is, before you ask.

Fortunately as the audience all tweeted furiously about who they didn’t want to put through to the final four or in some cases…

@jamespenford: can’t we vote for our least favourite judges? #sfatslive

…the audience returned to their seats as the host of backing singers sang us into act two with ‘I want to make Magic’ from Fame. As the votes were counted and verified, Louise Dearman made a quick costume change and stood centre stage to treat the audience to a fantastic rendition of ‘Astonishing’ from Little Women, showing all the finalists how to do it. After rapturous applause Jones returned to the stage to whittle the contestants down and bring the ten to four.

The twitter feed then reopened allowing the audience to vote for their favourite remaining act. As the audience tweeted their winners, Associated Studios presented two girls who sang outstanding renditions of ‘Once Upon a Time’ from Brooklyn and ‘Here’s where I stand’ from Camp, leading the audience to cheer heartily and the grumbly David King to proclaim that he could take the two girls and put them in his shows in Las Vegas.

The crowned winners of the first Search for a Twitter Star, an idea that I’m not sure even the muse behind the show would have imagined would reach a West End Theatre, were the delightful Felipe Bejerano @felipebejarano_ and the wonderful Kara Bayer @karabayer. Both seemed overwhelmed at the title of Twitter’s Leading Man and Lady. They also received industry prizes, including Spotlight membership. They then took to the stage to sing respective duets with Jon Lee and Kerry Ellis, both met with ecstatic applause from the audience.

From a light-hearted theatre-based Twitter account to the West End Stage, I think it’s incredibly important to understand what this event was about and what it achieved. A hugely enjoyable evening for all concerned and the opportunity for people outside London to get in on the action – even if they weren’t inside the walls of the theatre. The standard of the production was high and I’m sure that, although they seemed to put a downer on proceedings, the panel wanted to be fair and realistic in their judging –  although Dearman was met with cheers when in the second half she announced she would keep a positive spin on her criticism.

Congratulations to all for dreaming big, and producing an evening’s entertainment that offered an opportunity for the audience to get involved in a unique way. #dear

A Twitter storm has once more erupted around the use of celebrity casting for the Jesus Christ Superstar arena tour taking place at the end of this year, and I can’t help wondering why industry professionals are again being overlooked?

The first controversy was the use of a TV talent show to find the actor who will play Jesus – even the show’s lyricist Tim Rice was against this idea. This has now been compounded by the casting of Tim Minchin and Melanie Chisholm (aka Sporty Spice) as Judas and Mary Magdalene. Minchin is known for basing his comedy around music and songs, as well as winning awards for his score to Matilda. Melanie Chisholm has also won praise for her stint as Mrs Johnston in the West End show Blood Brothers. The casting of these two has been begrudgingly accepted, however the biggest uncertainty is the casting of Radio 1 DJ Chris Moyles in the role of Herod. People are outraged that a role that could have gone to a trained performer has gone to the breakfast broadcast presenter who, apart from singing on a couple of TV shows, has no obvious musical theatre connection.

Time Out has justified Lloyd Webber’s decision by the fact Herod is not a character to be liked: “It’s probably best not to dwell on the presence of noisy breakfast DJ Chris Moyles as Herod, but you have to concede that Webber knows how to pick a hate figure.” The cynic in me assumes all these casting decisions are to get bums on seats as opposed to being pure artistic choices; these big venues need to sell out. And it is working – the first date at the O2 has already sold out and an extra date has been added.

Like most people I follow on Twitter, I feel it is a let-down to bypass all these trained professionals for big names; these are dream roles for many and it could make them feel like all that training and hard graft was for nothing. This is why there is a buzz surrounding @westendproducer‘s Twitter talent search – what started as a simple online Twitter/Youtube competition and has expanded and resulted in a live final in the West End. The competition has been so popular that they have added a category for under 15s and an international listing which will be judged online.

The judges for the live show of UK adults include West End leading lady Louise Dearman, theatrical agent Gemma Lowry Hamilton, director Anne Vosser and performer Mike Dixon. Theatre stalwart Peter Polycarpou has also had a hand in deciding the quarter finalists. The best part is that unlike TV Talent shows which like to focus on ‘off the street’ characters or a sob story, nearly all of the quarter finalists are performers working in the industry and for them this is a whole different level of exposure. The title the winner receives may not be at the top of their CV, but it opens doors for them, something that is so important in this industry. I hope others take notice of what @WestEndProducer and his/her colleagues are doing; finding ways to use the internet to help professionals get a leg up in their careers. Do check out the quarter finalists and vote for your favourite, I wish all the competitors the best of luck for the live final on 9 July!

Image: Tim Minchin, Melanie Chisholm and Chris Moyles, courtesy of the Jesus Christ Superstar website.