The Stage

Write your own

Published Monday 8 January 2007 at 15:10

Having solved the casting of Maria in The Sound of Music, television viewers are now to be asked to cast the entire company for Andrew Lloyd Webber’s revival of Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat coming to the West End, as well as David Ian’s leads in the new production of Grease.

We all know of the savage economies being suffered by the media and the consequences are an increasing reliance on cheap or even free programming on television, radio, newspapers and magazines.

Not only do we get hundreds of hours of reality television whereby we can watch relatively unknown people sleeping or eating caterpillars in a jungle, but we have readers sending in their own reviews of films, plays and musicals, their own photographs for free publication and their own comments on Question Time or Any Answers.

Thus the days of truly creative work are slowly being limited and, following on the recent West End play written by a member of the public, no doubt we shall soon have a “compose your own musical” for presentation in the West End.

Harold Little

Foley House

Colts Bay

Aldwick

West Sussex