|
|
|
|
||
|
Articles
|
||
|
Articles
|
Solving the Problem of MariaDateline: 2nd April, 2006 There was a time when publicity stunts were one-off events which would attract the attention of the press - and particularly press photographers - to get a bit of coverage in the papers. Later, of course, the aim was to get TV coverage, which meant that the visual element had to be stronger, For local TV coverage sometimes the surest way was to have one or, preferably, a number of pretty girls. I remember being told by one local TV news editor in the early eighties that anything that got "birds on the box" stood a pretty good chance of being used as a "filler" in a regional news programme. A touch of showbiz (which included the modelling business) glamour increased the chances of coverage. Not any more! Nowadays you link up with a national TV network and create a prime-time show to get your publicity. Or you do if you're Andrew Lloyd Webber, for what is the proposed Pop Idol style TV hunt for someone to play Maria in his forthcoming revival of The Sound of Music if it's not a publicity stunt? Well, actually, it'll probably be a nice little earner, too. Surely that couldn't have entered his calculations? Of course not.... Equity has called it an insult to trained professionals, and so it is, but it will also raise false expectations in thousands of young hopefuls who may well have the enthusiasm and talent necessary to play the part but who - and let us be brutally frank here - simply could not hack the demands made by eight shows a week of singing, dancing and acting for week after week for a very long run. And The Sound of Music will run for a long time. Music theatre is a demanding discipline. It's not just a case of being able to carry a tune, tell the song's tale and learn a few dance routines. It is physically demanding, not just on the body but also on the voice, and on the mind and the emotions. Most music theatre performers go through three years of rigorous training and then work their way through the chorus to small parts to leads, honing their skills and developing the physical strengths needed for the job as they go. The talent and the desire to do the job are not enough: witness how the physical nature of the work affected both Martine McCutcheon and Sarah Lancashire in their forays into the musical. They both had the talent and the acting training, but is was not enough to enablke them to endure the rigours of playing major parts in music theatre for performance after performance. There is nothing, we are told, to prevent professionals auditioning, and, indeed, the winner could be one. Most people in the business think they would be mad not to choose a pro. Imagine what would happen if they choose an inexperienced, untrained amateur and she is unable to stand the pace - it would be good neither for her nor for the show. One of the recurring themes of my reviews of musicals over the last couple of years has been the strength in depth that there is in music theatre in this country, where the quality of chorus work is usually of a tremendously high standard. And in every chorus I have seen, tere has been at least one - and often more - who has the elusive and indefinable quality we call stage presence. They are the people for whom, if there is any justice in the business, "next day on your dressing room they hang a star"! Andrew Lloyd Webber is a very astute man, as are his fellow producers, and he knows this as well as anyone else. But what a publicity stunt! - high profile on national TV, and a good way of making money into the bargain - not to mention the public altruism of devoting the income from voting phone calls to setting up bursaries for would-be music theatre performers. And of course there's the great public image of having given lots of wannabes the chance to say, "I was a contender"! Now Equity, having lost this battle, is turning its attention to making sure that those who take part in the series are properly paid for their work. Surely ALW, if he really has the welfare of British music theatre at heart, cannot refuse...
|
|
|
|