Thats very very interesting playhousechick! I wonder where you heard that from? As it wasnt Sam that Ben chose during the seduction scene!!!
Ben who also stars in footballers wifes may not be the best choice for Bill Sykes but as you say make up can change looks dramatically.
James Nesbitt rumours where for him playing Fagin but alas that has now gone to Rowan who will do a fantastic job and bring many more people throgh the theatre doors!

Sorry jumped the gun a bit then. As after re-reading I see you say she was chosen from her group of 3 which she was but Ben chose someone overall who impressed him

playhousechick - is it this guy?

http://www.benrichards.com/

If so, I think he looks OK for Bill Sikes. I had got him confused with another actor called Ben at first who would be totally inappropriate.

If that's the guy I can see him with the right look with just a little makeup, when he's not smiling he can look quite stern.
http://www.benrichards.com/images/large/ben26_1024.jpg

Please not James Nesbit for Sikes.

The Nesbit rumours were scotched anyway. I thought he'd be a good choice . The bloke in spider's picture is physically fine for the part. Sykes just needs to be a hard bastard.

Playhousechick, with reference to Sam and her age, I guess this is part of the reason why they set the limit at 17, so as not to offend these kind of sensibilities. A quite blatant sexuality is, imo, a very important aspect of Nancy's character. In the Dickens original she is supposed to be a prostitute although these indications were edited out of subsequent editions and I don't imagine they made their way into Bart's libretto. (Just as I don't imagine they'll make their way into ALW's saturday night family entertainment show).

Given that they are all seventeen and over, I wouldn't personally have any qualms about their relationship with Sykes. However, this raises another point, which is that there must be chemistry between Sykes and Nancy if the part is to be believable. Nancy's love for Sykes is the most important thing about her, otherwise her loyalty to this total bastard becomes contrived and unbelievable.

If I remember correctly, the lack chemistry between Connie and her leading man was one of the major flaws the critics picked up on in The Sound of Music. In this show it's even more important. IMO, Andrew and co would be wise to have their Sykes ready before the final stages and bring him in, at least for the final, preferably before, so that the public can see how his relationship with each potential Nancy comes across. They probably won't bother their collective arse, but if their chosen Nancy has no chemistry with their Sykes, then they're in big trouble.

You can now see the girls moving in to the Nancy house on video at -
http://www.bbc.co.uk/oliver/video/index.shtml?week=12
Its worth a peek

[quote=MrSpielberg;22569060]Thats very very interesting playhousechick! I wonder where you heard that from? As it wasnt Sam that Ben chose during the seduction scene!!!
Ben who also stars in footballers wifes may not be the best choice for Bill Sykes but as you say make up can change looks dramatically.
James Nesbitt rumours where for him playing Fagin but alas that has now gone to Rowan who will do a fantastic job and bring many more people throgh the theatre doors![/QUO

Really, I was almost certain that it was her he picked, well if he didn't pick her out he most definitly gave her a lot of attention, it was a very close call between her and one of the other 3 then.

Thats ok Spielberg, I thought that was the case but I have already replied to your previous post anyway, well we are all clear now.

Thats him xactly, although he does look a lot younger in some of those pics.

I agree, there needs to be definite chemistry, the relationship, sexula and other wise between Sykes and Nancy, does not bother me at all, if it were someone oF Sams age and Bens age, then that would be fine, but I just hope they donr get someone too old for sykes. Nesbitt is not old at all, but slightly too old for a 17 year old Nancy me thinks. Its funny thought but if it was on film I probably wouldn't have anything to say about it at all. Ben can definitely be roughed up and I do think that Sykes does have to have some kind of Sex Appeal just like Oliver Reed did, he was GORGEOUS, dangerous looking, but sexy.

Yeah its great, but wished they had shown more.

I'm amazed that Francesca was in the sing-off. She wasn't at all bad. I wasn't surprised that ALW saved her. I think I'd probably have done the same.

If anyone's interested, Amy was on BBC News 24 this morning, talking about her training and how different auditioning in this more public way is from the private auditions that actors usually go to.

She seemed very up and very confident that her future was set now that she's been in the final 12 and if previous shows are anything to go by, she's probably right.

For anyone who's interested, the full lowdown on all the contestants and the training they've had can be found on http://blogs.thestage.co.uk/tvtoday/...-nancies/#more

On there you'll see that Amy actually won a fistful of nominations for performance during her training so clearly she has an acting future even though she's not Nancy.

It's interesting to see (and not really surprising) that really there are no surprise 'super talented novices' amongst them although the levels of training are different. They've all had previous performance successes of various types.