Role play - Reality TV and Musical Theatre

Published Thursday 1 May 2008 at 12:05 by Matthew Hemley

Although reality TV shows can offer trained musical performers a platform to launch their careers, contestants with little training are unlikely to gain adequate skills and stamina from the experience, suggests Matthew Hemley

When Connie Fisher won the leading role in The Sound of Music following her stint on the BBC1 show How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?, much noise was made about the fact she had been working as a telesales assistant before becoming the new leading lady of the West End.

The rise to fame of an ordinary office working girl was too good a story to ignore.

And although no one is denying Connie’s journey was not a tremendous one, it is important to remember that Fisher was actually a trained actress who had completed a course at Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts in London prior to auditioning for the BBC1 programme.

The fact is, the talent displayed on our television screens was not raw - it was the result of a rigorous training that had given her the experience and stamina she needed to compete in the show.

And Fisher was not alone. On the programme, most of the contestants had previously partaken in some sort of theatre training, with several having completed courses at schools such as the Guildford School of Acting and the Central School of Speech and Drama.

Subsequent shows have not been short of trained performers either. Lee Mead, winner of Any Dream Will Do, had studied at Whitehall Performing Arts College and was working as an understudy in The Phantom of the Opera before finding success on the show, while seven of the remaining 11 contestants had some sort of training behind them.

The latest, I’d Do Anything, has plenty of trained performers in the show too.

None of this is a surprise when you consider that those who audition with no training are unlikely to display the skills and control of those who have been to drama school.

The panel putting contestants through to the final stages of the show is looking for talent that could lead a West End production - someone who has the stamina and experience to carry such a role.

And even when the contestants appear to have this stamina, the pressure of nightly performances can prove too much - something Fisher discovered after taking on her role in The Sound of Music. She was eventually forced to cut the number of shows she did a week in order to protect her voice.

All of which goes to show that even with experience, the challenge of taking on lead roles is immense and whilst it would not be impossible for someone with very little or no training to walk away with a leading role from one of these BBC shows, it is unlikely.

Trained performers have at least refined their talent, have some idea of the pressure of performing night after night and are likely to stand out more in the initial audition process.

So, given that so many are auditioning for these BBC shows, the question has to be asked - why do they need to look for their next role through television?

Obviously, for the majority of contestants, the show has the potential to offer them a fast track to a high-profile place on the West End stage - perhaps a ticket out of an understudy or chorus role into a leading role.

This certainly seems to be the view of Denise Van Outen, who was a judge on Any Dream Will Do and is currently appearing on the panel of I’d Do Anything.

She told The Stage that shows today rely on big names and that someone such as Mead would have been hard pressed to secure a lead role without the help of the BBC.

“To get people to the theatre now, you have to have a known face,” she said. “I always wanted to do musical theatre, but I was aware of the fact that unless I took the TV route, I would always just be in the chorus - that’s just the way it is. It is great Lee Mead took the chance because otherwise he would have always been in the chorus. It would be very hard to make that push and without people knowing who you are.”

Van Outen may have a point, but she is still talking about people who have trained and are looking for their next step in their career.

The fact is, contestants who have come on to shows such as Any Dream Will Do or I’d Do Anything without training have often been told they need to go and get more experience by the panel of judges.

This is because the likes of Van Outen and John Barrowman know how much work and stamina is needed to sustain a show every night, something someone who has not experienced it before is likely to be able to do.

Mary Hammond, head of musical theatre at the Royal Academy of Music, has seen her fair share of ex-pupils trying their luck on such shows and acknowledges that it is one way someone can achieve their goal of taking a leading role in the West End.

However, she refuses to allow her students to take part in shows when they are in the middle of their course, saying their attention should be focused on their studies.

Even when they have graduated, she would rather see her former pupils working their way up the ladder on a touring show or a repertory theatre company, where novices can perfect their craft away from the glare of the public eye. Being in the public eye week after week on something like I’d Do Anything, has the power to break a career as much as it has the power to make one.

Song choices, the panels’ comments and the way the show is put together can all impact on the way the nation views someone on the show, explains Hammond. One bad performance on a live TV show could stick in the mind of a producer for years to come.

She also believes the show might make it more difficult for people to be taken seriously when they start to look for roles later on in their career.

With this in mind, Hammond now makes it an element of her course to talk to students about the shows and the advantages and disadvantages of taking part.

“As part of my training, I talk through the whole thing and how you deal with it,” she says. “I will bring in past contestants to talk to them - people who enjoyed their experiences and people who were destroyed by it and whose careers have not been helped by it. I want to make sure they know the score.”

That is not to say that the shows themselves aren’t doing their bit to nurture talent in the industry. Hammond herself has worked with the BBC to help some of the contestants who did not make it on to Any Dream Will Do, on a two-day residential where she shared advice and training tips.

Helping those who did not make it all the way is evidently something the Corporation takes seriously. In addition to the support people taking part in the show get, the BBC uses money raised from the talent shows to plough money into its Performing Arts Fund, which will this year be awarding £150,000 in bursaries to musical theatre students.

So, as a result of its musical theatre shows, some contestants with no prior training have landed themselves places at well known schools, where they will acquire all the relevant skills needed to make it in the industry.

Yet all of this goes to show that the BBC programmes, whilst providing great entertainment and helping to showcase some of the best young talent around, can not be taken as sufficient training alone. They should be seen as an addition to training.

For those who have trained before taking part, they could potentially be a stepping stone to something great. And for those coming to them cold, they should be a taster of what to expect if they embark upon professional training in musical theatre afterwards.

* This feature is part of The Stage’s comprehensive supplement on Musical Theatre Training, published in the paper on May 1, 2008