I'm not sure what is considered normal practice. However, having just seen the touring version of Evita, I know that Louise Dearborn doesn't play the part for all performances, there is an alternate.

You do raise an interesting point about Connie. For what it's worth, Connie was never supposed to play Maria for eight shows a week. In fact, I think right at the beginning, the original plan was to have the winner do only two shows. By the time Connie won, that had been revised to six shows a week with a professional actress (Emma someone) supposed to be doing the other two. She quit when it became clear that everyone wanted to see Connie and noone wanted to see her. Connie then volunteered for the whole eight, which turned out to be a bad idea.

However, it seems to depend on the difficulty of the part in question. When it came round to Joseph, there was never any suggestion that Lee would do anything less than all of the performances. It's not the most difficult of sings and he was well capable of it.

With Nancy, it's worth remembering that it isn't actually a leading role and I feel that Jodie could handle all the shows no problem. However, Cam is legally contracted to give her six and he can do whatever the hell he wants with the other two. There is no need to bring someone else in, but all evidence suggests that Cam wants to.

I think it is different in touring productions and as you say it does depends on the role - Maria is a far more demanding role than Joseph and Joseph is a far more demanding role than Nancy.

I've no doubt that Jodie could do all 8 shows, but she may not want to or it may not be wise for her to do that. I'm sure not every actor in a starring role on the WE wants to work 7 days a week nor would they be automatically expected to.

Buddy, the 8 ahows a week is over 6 days. 2 matinees a week one on a Sat and one on another day which always used to be a Wed but now is different days for different theatres/productions. Theatre land is closed on a Sunday

QUOTE from Marjangles - "If I'd have been Aoife I'd have been somewhat miffed."

I don't think Aoife is miffed at all. She has been doing work other than SOM - This May she performed in Chess at the Royal Albert Hall, in July she will be performing a series of concerts in Galway and is also planning to possibly take the concert to Dublin and she has also been contracted to act in a Danny Patrick film 'The Best Years' which is in the pre-production stage at the moment.

Aoife came 4th in HDYSAPLM and her career is developing nicely so there's bound to be plenty of opportunities for Jessie and the other girls.

for me the only reason i focus on the winner not getting this immediately is because the judges harp on it "you can handle 8 shows a week baby" " i don't know about one night only, but i see 8 shows only" "not strong enough for 8 shows a week" for example. i kept getting miffed when hearing it because we knew it wasn't going to start out this way. i guess they assume it will graduate to this. did Lee start 8 shows a week? I know Connie didn't either in the beginning.

I can see that for sure, don't know about Lee.

Sorry I did know that about Sundays, although I didn't know the 'Wed' matinee might not be on a Wednesday any more!

Mind you, I've never seen the leading man/woman at a matinee myself and just thought that's how it was - always wondered why some performers talked about two shows a day bring hard work LOL!

Lee did 8 shows a week right from week one as well as promotion , interviews etc and the Princess Diana concert. GULP some work load! But I think am correct in saying he had more experience than Connie

Yes he did - he really stepped right up to the mark.

Mind you I read/heard this last week that one of the Marias (or it might have been a Nancy ) is doing a Joseph tour as the Narrator and doing 12 (yes 12!) shows a week! (sorry my memory is going again ).

Yep and it was Tara, which makes it even more strange

That's it! I remember now it was on the Stage interview thing last week - maybe we didn't hear her at her best after all?

I think the 12 shows a week was until the understudy was trained up ( still huge amount though even for a few weeks) I have also heard that she is very very good . Some have even said better than Keith Jack who she took over from

that is absolutely true

It is - Connie was a graduate of Mountview (prestigious Performing Arts college), but had not had any professional work prior to HDYSAPLM. Lee (who is two years older than Connie) had been working for 5 years in a variety of entertainment jobs and had appeared in three touring productions (Tommy, Miss Saigon and Joseph). He had also done 5 months as an understudy in the WE (in Phantom) - he had to give his job up when he got through to the final 12 in ADWD.

Lee really was thrown in at the deep end after ADWD - in the five weeks between winning the final and 'opening night', he had to do PR for the show, film a video for the ADWD single (and promote that), prepare for the Diana concert (and perform at the concert)...and rehearse with the rest of the Joseph cast!

It surprises me that Jodie hasn't recorded a single (Lee's was done to raise money for Children In Need) - in fact I find it ironic that Lee was expected to do that, despite having no real time to do it (and Connie somehow managed to record a whole album while rehearsing for SOM), yet Jodie, who has time in abundance at the moment, doesn't appear to be doing any recording.

I don't think it's Jodie personally not being expected to do anything -- no plans were made for the winner of IDA to do anything but intensive training before rehearsals start in October. They were assuming the winner would be someone who needed a lot of work. Instead Jodie won, and now there's nothing for her to do until October.

There's a much bigger gap between winning and the show starting though.

Plus we don't know what Jodie's plans are yet, or do we?

That's odd because I saw a Sunday matinee of The Lion King just a couple of months ago. It was great BTW

Lion King does have a Sunday matinee, but no Monday performances, so still only 8 shows a week, 3 matinees and 5 evenings.

I think the Lion King is the only West End musical to have a show on Sunday at the moment. I have read that other theatres, such as the National Theatre, are considering Sunday matinees which would appeal to the family market. However, as with the Lion King, the actors would still have to have one day off a week - probably Monday as this is often a 'slow' night in theatreland.

Dickens Unplugged at the Comedy Theatre has a 4pm Sunday performance.

(Think they have Tuesdays off though!)

Are the runner-up Olivers playing urchins in the musical?

It would seem that way!

Brilliant!

I wasn't sure cos the Oliver website says they are holding open auditions for Fagin's gang and for Workhouse boys.

someone on whats on stage is now adamant rachel has been offered the other nancy lol i'm getting confused now lol

Maybe it's true. But perhaps they have offered the position to John Barrowman..