Lloyd Webber to search for new Dorothy Gale in 2010
Tuesday, September 9th, 2008
Saturday night musical format to be further milked
Andrew Lloyd Webber has announced that he will not be judging another BBC talent contest next year, since he will be working on the sequel to his West-End hit Phantom of the Opera. However, he plans to return to the small screen again in 2010 as he goes in search of a Dorothy for the stage version of The Wizard of Oz.
“I have my own musical in Phantom 2 to get on with and bits and pieces to do in America,” Lloyd Webber told Closer magazine. “There will not be another custom show with the BBC next year – [not] with me anyway. But I will do the search in 2010 to find Dorothy and possibly Toto the dog.”
The original talent search How do you Solve a Problem like Maria which was based on The Sound of Music attracted huge audiences, as did its successor Any Dream will Do. However, Lloyd Webber’s most recent BBC1 project, I’d Do Anything, failed to bring in viewers with the same success.
Lloyd Webber attributes this to the fact that he didn’t produce the show, which was based on the musical Oliver!, and that viewers liked to see his “head on the block”. Lloyd Webber said “I think Oliver didn’t connect half as well with the public because neither had I wrote Oliver nor was I producing it”. Instead, the new show will be produced by fellow theatrical producer Sir Cameron Mackintosh.
The BBC has received criticism for using its Saturday night slot to promote Lloyd Webber’s work. However, the Corporation has pointed out that the popularity of its West-End talent shows has pushed up theatre attendance across the board.
