Honour Bayes: Am dram & the dilemma of reality TV casting

Last night at the Lyric Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue the great and good of the West End came out for the launch of Sky Arts’ new reality TV show “Nation’s Best Am Dram”.

The series (airing in September 2012) seeks to find Britain’s best amateur dramatics groups and will see them do battle to win the chance to perform on a West End stage.

Throughout the process each group will be assigned a mentor with pretty juicy credentials – Dame Harriet Walter, Roger Allam and Niamh Cusack among them.

Before you groan and switch back to @westendproducer‘s Search for a Twitter Star (at least it’s ironic… or is it? Well more of that later) it’s worth thinking about a lovely article that came out in the Independent earlier this year.

Although in London it was widely agreed that Mark Rylance had made the role of Johnny ‘Rooster’ Byron in Jerusalem impossible for anyone else to play, no-one had told the amateur actors having a go at it, often to great acclaim.

‘Am dram’ has long been the butt of jokes to a professional theatre community who, ironically, often don’t get paid themselves. As with everything some of these stereotypes must be true. But it also seems possible that, like the actors taking on Rooster with integrity, there are Am Dram groups out there with ‘professional’ standards who deserve to be seen. How else are they to do so without shows like this?

But ever since Connie Fisher charmed her way to the top of a mountain, the ability of reality TV shows to thrust people into the spotlight has ruffled certain feathers, most recently Tim Rice.

The usually placid lyricist angrily disagreed with Andrew Lloyd Webber’s decision to cast Jesus Christ Superstar with a TV show intent to find the Saviour saying, rather grumpily “I really don’t think Superstar needs that tasteless reality television treatment. Those shows are relentlessly downmarket.” I wonder what Dame Harriet Walter would say about that?

Rice has threatened to veto the person who eventually wins if he doesn’t like them, an admirable sentiment until you think back to Nick Hytner’s witty response when Jodie Prenger won out over the judge’s choice Jessica Buckley in I’d Do Anything: “For the first time, somebody said no to Cameron. And it was the public. Which proves that democracy does work.”

Surely in a world full of old boys network casting, shows that allow the average Joe their moment in the spotlight are a good thing? But then the public also voted for John Sergeant and as charming as that man was, he really couldn’t dance (interestingly Lloyd Webber didn’t trust this method when casting his baby Love Never Dies, preferring the more traditional route).

Rice was also afraid people would end up ridiculing the religious search in such a TV show, not realising of course that in this world of social networks he was already being ridiculed by another West End big shot.

“Having hot chocolate with a little tipple of Dom. Slightly upset because my Lloyd Webber glove puppet just castrated my Tim Rice one, #dear”

Theatrical twitter sensation @westendproducer has put his money where his tweets are and started his own reality TV casting competition. Only this time the TV is online. Search for a Twitter Star has seen thousands of entrants post audition tapes of themselves on YouTube for the consideration of this West End phantom.

Twenty potentials have been picked to go forward to public vote ending in a live performance in the Lyric Theatre (a reality TV favourite it seems) on 9 July 2012. With ticket prices topping at £51 for a box seat the voices on offer had better be pretty good. Luckily on inspection of the shortlist they really rather are, better than good in fact, some are stunning.

Perhaps the key to reality TV casting then is in the original selection of those on offer the public; if these selections are done responsibly and knowledgably, then it will only be actual diamonds that will be taken from the rough.