Apparently, tommorrow's Elaine Paige show on Radio 2 is going to be an ALW special.

LINKY THING

Should be interesting, and you can submit requests for your favourite songs to be played.

I caught part of this and they spoke about the tv shows and how he'd found a new Maria, Joseph, Nancy etc and then broke to play a song, Next time you fall in love, from Starlight Express but it wasn't Lee and Connie's version which I was disappointed about and shouted at the radio accordingly!! Not likely to do another 'search' show as he was only meant to do 3 and had done 6 including the itv JCS one. Elaine asked him if he was to do one and he said there isn't really a character from a show to choose except maybe Eliza Dolittle from My Fair Lady. I'd like to see that but won't happen by sound of it. Talked about new musical 'Stephen Ward '. He is also working with Paramount films to bring the film 'School of Rock' to the stage but no time frame given. It was interesting but not happy with version of song they played!!

I forgot it was on! Was any reference made to any of the contestants/winners or was it just a general mention of the shows? ALW actually has done 7 casting shows Maria (UK), Joseph (UK), Nancy (UK), Dorothy (UK), Jesus (UK), Maria (Canada) and Dorothy (Canada). I have to say, after the debacle of 'Superstar', I'm not surprised that ALW is cautious about doing another. It takes a lot of time and energy, and I get the impression that ALW was struggling when he was doing 'Superstar' (the format of nightly shows over 3 weeks wasn't helping), which ended up with him having an on-air meltdown at a contestant.

I agree also that many roles aren't suitable for casting via TV. In Holland, they did 'Evita' and 'Mary Poppins' casting shows (as well as 'Joseph' and 'Saturday Night Fever'), but the difference there was that pretty much all the contestants were working pros, so they could cast the more ambitious roles and those that required older/more experienced actors.

It suprises me that nobody has thought to use the TV casting process for roles in established shows (so, perhaps, Eponine/Cosette/Marius from 'Les Mis' or Fiyero from 'Wicked').

In the part I heard the shows were just mentioned in passing with no names named. ALW did say that he was still in touch with all the contestants so it would be interesting to find out who is doing what. It should be on iplayer to catch up on. I missed the first hour so will listen to it backwards!