Putting Jodie in the chorus of another show may be sensible for her development - but it devalues her brand.

It says "she is not ready to be a leading lady, the public got it wrong, lets hope she gets better with practice."

On winning the prize of leading lady - Jodie needs to be treated like a leading lady. Otherwise everything is devalued.

If she succeeds then she has a career, if not then comiserations - but at least she deserves a fair chance.

i see this point too Barry and agree with it. this whole show has been one devalue tactic after another anyway. i think with main rehearsals starting in October, she needs to do something before that though. Perhaps it is just employing her until then and letting her practice? i totally see what you are saying though.

Until Jodie starts rehearsals, she isn't a leading lady. She has no previous WE experience and, as far as I can gather, has no previous acting experience. Therefore putting her into another WE show in a supporting role (prior to rehearsals for Oliver! starting) is a good idea. It would give her that much needed experience (which no amount of coaching in a rehearsal room can give) and would surely be more productive than having her do nothing until October!

no acting experience you say? none? i doubt that. and i don't care if it is on the WE stage or not, acting experience on stage is experience.

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my my......get your reading glasses dear

Cam is putting her in a show BEFORE Nancy..

do we need to highlight in bold for you now

it will give her some experience before Nancy...lol

she is.............she is singing with Daniel..

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at her audition JB states the he knows she has had some acting experience........so looks like she does have

it wasn't right away and I think she's taken on at the point when Connie couldn't manage 8. That just begs the question how long is enough for another Maria/Nancy to move into the role. It depends if you think the public voted to put a Nancy on the stage or the other Nancies not on the stage and either way there doesn't seem any promise how long they can be held to that voters decision. Jodie on stage meets the remit. Jessie on twice a week may too. Jodie off and Jessie on is possible in the future or not? The problem is that once you are doing the job twice a week - let alone covering for complete weeks its difficult to argue why you shouldn't be taking the lead yourself as youa re clearly good enough.

Aoife was covering as Maria all this week and is simply superb. The audience seemed full and sounded very happy and didn't notice that the lead was on her holiday. Its an interesting question why if Aoife can fill the theatre, people will pay £55 to see her, she acts her socks off and can do 6 shows a week, she isn't given the lead herself. Its pretty unfair if you can't do a job because someone else beat you in a phone vote 2 years ago when in fact you can arguably do it better than anyone.

in this one, if any of them got a super lead role in a west end show, then got approached to do Nancy for a couple of days, it would be "nancy who?" oh, they would do it, but would realize it isn't their dream role after all.

my my......get your reading glasses dear

Cam is putting her in a show BEFORE Nancy..

do we need to highlight in bold for you now

it will give her some experience before Nancy...lol[/quote]

i know, i realized it after

Given that Connie is no longer playing the lead role, surely the TV show has nothing to do with why she has not been given the lead role - there must be another reason.

Yes Summer Strallen was cast in a tv reality format. Although different from the norm. She was specifically cast in Hollyoaks with story line written in to give her the part of Maria. ALW fine actor that he is (NOT!!) appeared in the show. It is back to bums on seats. High profile actress which sadly Aoife is not although from what I have heard she is a fantastic performer.

at her audition JB states the he knows she has had some acting experience........so looks like she does have[/quote]

"she has had some acting experience, but is it enough?"

I'd say John, she acted like she was in love with a guy she met on a sugardaddies website and not salsa dancing and people believed her.

lol

I think if Jodie isn't given 8 shows a week it makes a mockery of each member of the panel, after all it was used as a point in each of the episodes to tell us to pick the Nancy who could manage that. I also think that shoehorning in Jessie shows Mr Mackintosh up as a sore loser who is throwing his toys out of the pram because he didn't get his own way directly so he's going to do it by the back door. I also think that unless they are resting Rowan Atkinson twice a week (and they may well be, I don't know) with Fagin being a much more demanding role than Nancy, then the point of putting Jessie in the role is wrong.

That said, in the grand scheme of things, who really cares! Jodie is going to be on the West End stage as the female lead in Oliver! for 6 performances a week (at least - as I Understand it they haven't mae a decision on this point yet) including both Saturday shows for at least 6 months, even if she never gets another role she'll always be able to say that.

The only thing is, I was planning on going to see Cabaret in Liverpool but if Jessie is in the lead I think I would change my mind, I thought she was too young and naive to play Nancy, there's no way she could be Sally Bowles. I'd even rather see Niamh in that role although Rachel would be the dream.

I see what you mean, but to be fair to Summer Strallen (who I'd never heard of before I came on this board ) her real background is musical theatre from what I've read.

Yep, Summer Strallen is the sister of Scarlett Strallen who has played Mary Poppins on the West End (they are the nieces of Bonnie Langford). She is professionally trained up to her eyeballs and is absolutely the kind of person who got cast in these kinds of roles before the advent of reality tv. The Hollyoaks thing was gimmicky trick to raise her profile and create interest, especially among youngsters. My Mum saw her as Maria and apparently she was fabulous. But then so is Aoife.

according to someone on whats on stage the belfast telegraph reported on the 20th that rachel is to play the lead in the touring cabaret hope this is true she will do great

that is brill. I will definitely go and see it if it plays anywhere close by!
Go Rachel!

Great. She so deserves it.
Good for you Rachel

That may be true (you seem to need a name and someone with lots of TV coverage and publicity behind them for some jobs - or ALW thinks you do if its SOM ) but its not true of all shows and Aoife herself got the Roxie job , being a "runner up" in Maria has some publicity value and she can do the job as well or better than the names can.

You wonder though if its not happening (yet) because they don't want to undermine the logic of the TV show. Someone who didn't win getting the job raises very real questions about not only the value of the public vote but why the person didn't get to show their talents fully on the show and the reasons the judges invented for not backing the person in the first place. Looking at the comments on the Maria's its pretty clear from subsequent experience that the ones who were not deemed up to 8 shows a week were actually more capable than Connie of doing it and the ones that were called inconsistent are not - you wonder whether the Nancies will disprove their comments too.

Jessie would be even better placed as she came second and already has the media profile and fans to sell tickets. Would they dare use her though? If she showed that she was perfectly up to it where would that leave some of the judges comments that she wasn't . If you prove that the shows judges talk nonsense where does that leave the show's credibility?

It would be surprising to give Jessie Sally given the enormous range of emotions to act, the dancing and the German setting. Irish Nancy made great sense - Jessie was near enough to the role without acting that hard and Irish was a credible accent option historically , Irish Maria is brilliant and the odd Irish vowel adds to the character's distinctiveness but Irish Sally would need a lot of work. I can't see Niamh in it - though she showed some acting ability in some songs - she's far too weak and vulnerable and young and its too complex a role. Rachel didn't connect with the characters for me and her version of Cabaret just didn't have the impact of Helena's two years a before. More a job for one of the more robust pro Nancy's who perhaps didn't get to show what they could do acting or an Abi who could become Sally or even a Helena if you want a Liza like quirkyness to the character and a belt that will wake up the back row.

Do you really see Niamh getting better though? if she is far too young and fragile now, how much better will she get? the great actors out there could pull it off at 15 and the excuse of too young wasn't used. i know that is very rare, but am just saying. Irish Nancy made sense to me too, until i started to figure it out a bit more. it made as much sense as a dark Oliver really. she was raised in a cockney gang from the age of 5 and he was described as a pale boy (that is just from the book though)

Summer Strallen was cast long before she appeared in Hollyoaks, her appearances there were simply to keep the public furore up around the production whilst Connie served out the remainder of her term as Maria. Though if I'd have been Aoife I'd've been somewhat miffed!

Use different judges next time???? as for IDA no one is perfect not even JB
Last edited by Bree1955 : 23-06-2008 at 02:42

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but don't WE leading ladies normally only do 6 performances a week? I thought Connie did 8 because she asked to, so that people who voted for her would see her in the show and not someone else that they didn't vote for?

I don't get this constant focus on 8 shows a week????


I'm not saying she wasn't, I'm saying she has a well established background in WE MT and isn't a 'reality TV wannabe' for want of a better phrase, so it is not really the same thing. I can understand Aoife being disappointed maybe, but not miffed - what was planned wasn't exactly a secret was it?