Lloyd Webber Likes Sound of Reality TV Casting???

Andrew Lloyd Webber may be destined to become the next Simon Cowell, as he widens the net to reality TV in his search for the star of his forthcoming project, The Sound of Music, which he’s co-producing with Clear Channel. The impresario is reportedly in talks with the BBC about an X Factor-style show that would see members of the public audition in front of a panel (including Lloyd Webber). Unlike the recent Musicality TV competition, in which winners made a special one-off appearance in West End musical Chicago (although some went on to longer stage stints), the winner of Lloyd Webber’s programme would be signed up for at least a three-month contract to play nun-turned-nanny Maria (immortalised on screen by Julie Andrews) for the show’s opening. for the chance to star in the first three months of the production, which is due to open in London in autumn 2006. The big-budget revival of the Rodgers and Hammerstein’s classic was originally tipped to star Hollywood screen actress Scarlett Johansson (See The Goss, 17 May 2005), who has apparently turned down the role.

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