Just in case anyone is interested:
The Story of Musicals : C4 : 9pm : Tonight (Tuesday 12th Nov)
New series: Behind the scenes of London's West End, beginning with a look at Sam Mendes' re-imaging of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and how to bring a classic tale to life.
Enjoy!
Just watching this. It's good so far. £15million to stage a musical! Blimey!
Thomas (the boy playing Charlie) is cute!
The Set Designer of Charlie & The Chocolate Factory was also the Set Designer for Joseph.
Aww, the poor boy whose voice broke!
Book Of Mormon crowd - scary!
New Augustus Gloop actor Jenson - "I'm not going back to small theatre". Hmmm!
Thomas is wise beyond his years. Such a sweetie.
Overall, a good episode, though they could have easily focussed all the episodes on the run-up to the opening night of a musical. This way, with a musical per episode, it felt rushed.
Watching episode 2
Blimey, a warning about nudity! I'm guessing it's to do with the clip of a man's naked bum in the opening montage!
Cameron Mackintosh is worth over £800million!
'Happy Days' the Musical. Hmmm, not sure I'd want to put my life savings into it (and I'm saying that as someone who loved the TV show)!
David Ian is the same colour as the Welsh Dresser in my dining-room!
Mama Mia - saw this a few years back and loved it! And a bit of Lee trivia - he once auditioned for the role of Sky (Sophie's fiance)! He'd have been a fab Sky!
Aah, here comes the nudity! Blimey, did Lee have to go through that every week when he was in 'Joseph'?
'Craig Revel Horwood's Happy Days' - very modest is or Mr R-H!
Chico is to singing what Lee is to Particle Physics!
Singing while walking a tightrope - they so should have had that as a mission in ADWD!
One of the Fonz auditionees doesn't want to be shown on camera! I wonder who he was? Oh dear, I hope he's not watching this!
Ooh, Cameron's swearing!
Craig R-H has pulled out of 'Happy Days' and Producer Amy is stalking Henry Winkler to get him to replace Craig! She sent him 15 emails! Will she get him on board or will she get a restraining order slapped on her?
Cameron's getting cross!
Dickie Wood (Mama Mia) is sweet.
Yay, Chris got across the tightrope! (Barnum)
Director Amy didn't get a restraining order slapped on her!
A good episode this week!
I'm just catching up on four7, interesting use of a sock 
No wonder Lee kept trying to avoid the weekly tanning sessions when he was in 'Joseph'!
Interesting viewing though!!!! 
I missed this last week but really enjoyed last night's episode!
I see someone with sharp hearing has identified the 'shy' popstar and tweeted him: "I'd recognise that voice of the pop star who doesnt want2b seen on the #soundofmusicals any day. So why did @kavana_official not want2b seen?"
And Kavana replied: "Cos it was a total set up ...stupid twats.."
To be honest, I've never heard of Kavana. Apparently he released a couple of albums in 1997-1999 and has since appeared in the Grease TV casting show and in The Voice where he didn't make it past the audition stage.
I really liked Christoher Fitzgerald (star of Barnum) - he seemed like a lovely guy and it's unfortunate that Barnum wasn't more successful for him.
I thought Cameron Mackintosh didn't come across particularly well - he rode rough shod all over his poor Director. Why hire someone if you don't trust them to do the job? If Cameron likes to be 'hands on', he should just take on the directing duties himself.
I saw Barnum at Chichester & thought it was a great production made even more spectacular by being performed in the Big Top. Christopher Fitzgerald was a brilliant Barnum & yes, he made it across the tighrope singing all the way. Little did I know that CM was still making changes right up to the opening night!
I'm really enjoying this series although I may never get over the tanning scene!
Kavana got to the final of the ITV Grease casting show (which was thrashed in the ratings by ADWD! ), which doesn't say much for the standard of the contestants in that series!
On June 9th 2007, on the BBC, we had Lee singing Davil In Disguise/NYNY/Paint It Black, and on ITV, there was Anthony Kavana:-
LINKY THING
Episode 3
Top Hat - who will replace Tom Chambers?
Happy Days Producer woman flogging Hair Removal devices on QVC!
Blimey, £30,000! That's a lot of money!
They're still looking for their Fonzie! Is there anyone they haven't approached? Have they approached Lee?
David Ian's tan is getting deeper and deeper with every episode!
The Bodyguard. I'm not keen on Heather Headley's voice.
New Top Hat ensemble being put through their paces. Good dancers, but a mixed bag when it comes to singing.
Tom Chambers' replacement is...Gavin Lee. My first thought is...who? He's very good, though!
First night. Scary! And Gavin has a sore throat!
Happy Days Amy is funding the auditions out of her own pocket, and she's holding open auditions. I'm getting ADWD deja vu!
Cheryl Baker from Bucks Fizz. Seems a bit nervous.
Wise advice from David Ian. Unfortunately, Amy doesn't seem to be following it.
Oh dear - Heather missing performances (Bodyguard).
Looks like Gavin is also ill (Tophat) and understudy Alan is being rehearsed!
Aww, Alan has been in the ensemble for 10 years! He's having a snoop round the Star dressing-room.
Still no Fonz!
Ooh, Ben Freeman is auditioning. Amy is very enthusiastic about him, though he isn't that good. Anyone would think he was Lee with the way she's going on about him! If he was Lee, she'd probably explode!
Top Hat Press Night and Gavin is AWOL! He's lost his voice! Understudy Alan is going on!
Ooh, a glimpse of Alan's bare bottom!
Yay, he did it!
Interesting comment from a member of the audience about 'name' casting.
Amy has her Happy Days cast, and (surprise, surprise) she's cast Ben Freeman as Fonze.
Good episode.
Next week looks fascinating, especially the WE pro.
Episode 4
Nica owns 6 theatres!
Gary Barlow - 'I don't really like Musicals' - that's a good start, then!
Top Hat gets extended for another year.
Thriller Live with a new lead.
Andrew Derbyshire. He was in Joseph? I'm assuming it was the tour?
Andrew went to stage school - there's a surprise.
Top Hat - in trouble.
Olivier Nominations - Top Hat nominated for 7 Awards!
Crowds gathered outside the Lyric theatre after Michael Jackson's death. Odd.
Thriller auditions - Keiran is very good.
Andrew is a walking MT cliche!
If Andrew's a Rock God, I'm Mrs Potiphar!
Andrew getting paranoid.
Now Andrew is getting a pep-talk from his actor friend, Jonathan, who offers words of advice - "That's why we became actors...because we didn't get enough attention"
Keiran got the part in Thriller - great stuff!
Will Keiron get to go on? Tense stuff as he performs for the producers (Thriller).
Top Hat at the Oliviers. Bill (the choreographer) wins an award. Top Hat also wins Best Musical.
Keiran is going on (Thriller).
Top Hat - Oh dear, the show is closing. Very sad.
Andrew still doesn't know if he's got the part (Thriller)....oh, he didn't get it.
Overall, a good series. I wonder if they'll do another series?
Thanks A/Liz!
In the photos on the link, he looks like Craig Chalmers. Looking at him in the documentary, it's hard to believe that he's younger than Lee!
He was Joseph when I saw Lee as Pharaoh on the tour in 2004. No wonder Lee stole the show! He (Lee) was the only one we were talking about afterwards.
Lee clearly remembers Andrew Derbyshire well - I see he was tweeting him today!
@leemeadofficial: "@andrewderbs @Tudor5678 Mr Derbyshire :) .. 2004 tour house party. All I'm gonna say. X"
@andrewderbs: "@leemeadofficial ha ha ha Oh dear !!!! Hope you are well x"
