Joe McElderry, Olly Murs, and controversial West End performer Diana Vickers were seen visiting Les Miserables together by The Sun newspaper’s eagle-eyed paps.

The three pop singers stopped off in Soho for a quick bite to eat at Kettner’s before heading the the Queen’s Theatre to see the hit musical. Presumably they were there to show support for fellow X Factor veteran Lucie Jones, who is currently playing Cosette.

We know that celebrities are pretty big in today’s society; they’re on television, front covers of magazines and newspapers – but have they always been prominent in Theatreland?

Diana Vickers in Little Voice

Not only are West End casts awash with reality stars, I have noticed more and more appear to be attending opening nights of the latest shows. Not quite in the same volume as a Leicester Square premiere, but a close second. The real the question is – is the arrival of the latest girl band or reality show winner making the show more or less appealing to the wider audience?

At the recent opening night of Hair, there were a whole tribe of celebs there to celebrate the return of the musical back to London. Girl band The Saturdays were posing for the cameras and papped at the afterparty. Although one member has a link to Theatreland – band member Vanessa White played Young Nala in The Lion King London – after watching Hair it seems two of The Saturdays were a little shocked by the nudity on stage. While I believe it’s a good thing that musicals are making an impact in the press and ultimately drawing in a new crowd of theater-goers, it could be argued by critics that it’s becoming too widely available and losing its exclusivity, but that’s a whole different blog.

Certain figures in Theatreland agree that it should be open to the masses and as long as the the seats are full, then that’s all that counts. Over the Rainbow judge, Sheila Hancock has knocked the critics who believe that the theatre should remain exclusive. But if theatre tickets continue to remain pricey, then it will never be as readily available as the cinema, will it?

Of course, Hair isn’t the only opening night to draw in famous faces. When Avenue Q moved to the Wyndam Theatre in March this year, TV personalities Chris Evans and Dawn Porter turned up and Britain’s Got Talent winner George Sampson attended the first night of Oliver! I get the feeling that there are a large amount of people who are more interested in who turned up for an opening night and what they were wearing, than reading a good review of the play itself.

This can’t be a good thing. I’m pretty sure this celeb-obessed world in which we live isn’t a new phenomenon, but it certainly feels magnified lately.

Would it be controversial to only invite those involved with the show to opening nights. I can’t see that ever being the case and as sad as it sounds, I think we may have become a nation so obsessed with all things celeb, we will only pay attention if the latest ‘it’ girl has attended.

Jodie Prenger as Nancy from Oliver!

Then there is the much wider debate of celebrity cast members. Do they make a show more appealing, opening it up to a wider audience who may not have considered seeing it before their favorite singer got the lead role? Or does it take away the exclusivity that Theatreland once had? I am personally all for reality shows that open up the West End roles to unknown actress’ and showcasing their talent. It keeps me entertained for hours on a Saturday night, but others aren’t so keen.

I’m sure this on-going debate is only going to get worse as the celeb craze becomes more and more a part of our lives. Sigh.

Congratulations! After quitting your job (isn’t teaching supposed to be a vocation?), you’ve ended up fourth on The X Factor. Your exceptional ability to open your mouth very wide and bellow a melody line that in no way resembles the original (sorry, “make the song your own”) has won you legions of fans, who are already very excited indeed at your tenuous hint that you might fancy a foray on to the West End stage.

Admittedly, it’s a very vague suggestion, centring on your admiration for last year’s roller-skate-wearing, claw-hand-waving, diva-palely-imitating Diana Vickers, who also left the competition prior to the final. But do you really think you’re equipped for the West End?

We already know that you’re very down-to-earth; Simon Cowell reminded us enough times. But just in case you forget yourself and allow your rapid rise to fame to inflate your ego, remember that theatreland is no place for budding prima donnas. That’ll be knocked out of you soon enough when you’re made to rehearse a dance routine a dozen times in a row without breaks, or when you’re told that you have to do your own make-up rather than having a fawning team of Syco minions to satisfy your whims, or when you’re offered a flat Equity minimum fee to do high profile but off-West End work (Olivier Award-winners do it – you’ll have to as well).

Oh, and that casual disregard for music as it is written? Yeah, that’ll have to go. Even those famously riffing Elphabas have to stick to the tune by and large.

Having said that, your voice certainly has power. Get some decent coaching and begin to differentiate between “volume” and “emotion”, you could do quite well. What do you fancy? Do you think you could make a decent Billy Flynn? Or do you yearn after some hefty self-irony by appearing in the talent show-mockery of We Will Rock You?

Still, good luck with it all. People often think that musical theatre is a closed shop and cliquey, and it’s really not. It just has a funny way of brutally highlighting who has genuine talent. If you do – and I mean proper talent, not the X Factor version of it, hidden behind the Brian Friedman gloss – you will soon find out.

Merry Christmas!

All the best,

Carrie.

Mark Owen

Elton John (The Lion King, Billy Elliot, Aida)

The modern master of musicals began his theatrical career by scoring the Disney film The Lion King, which then transferred to stage. He clearly got a taste for it after that. The Olivier-winning Billy Elliot’s been in residence at the Victoria Palace for nearly five years, transferring to Broadway to great acclaim (and a plethora of Tony Awards) this year. Aida was a huge hit in the US, and has also been staged in Germany, Switzerland, Japan, South Korea, Netherlands, Uruguay, Australia, Philippines, Mexico, Croatia, Peru, Argentina, Estonia, Canada, Hungary, Brazil, Sweden, Denmark, China, and Israel. But not the UK.

Benny and Bjorn (Chess, Kristina)

It is a source of great pain to me that while Mamma Mia! The Musical continues to pack ‘em in all over the globe, Benny and Bjorn’s masterwork Chess is consigned to the vaults and revived only every so often when somebody thinks they can fix the flaws with the book. I don’t dispute that there are issues with the storyline; but it is a fact that the score and the orchestrations (as heard on what I deem the definitive recording, the Concert staging of 1992) are some of the most beautiful writing for musicals in the 20th century.

Dave Bryan (The Toxic Avenger, Memphis)

The masses were unsurprisingly sceptical when Bon Jovi’s keyboardist announced his intentions to write a musical with Joe DiPietro, librettist for shows including I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change. The scepticism multiplied when they learnt that the new creative team were going to base their new show on B-movie The Toxic Avenger, about a geeky smalltown boy who falls into a vat of toxic waste and is endowed with superhuman strength. But weirdly, it works – it’s funny, endearing, and has a rockin’ score. The smallness of the venue at the New World Stages off-Broadway works too – it creates a sense of intimacy and enforces tricky staging decisions (such as the cast doubling up on roles, to terrific comedy effect). Word is that their new extravaganza, Memphis, on the Great White Way is somewhat less successful.

Any other pop star composers I’ve missed?

I’ll preface this review by saying that I didn’t follow X Factor while she was on it so I had no pre-formed opinions one way or the other about her. I also don’t consider myself to be a theatre snob, and openly admit to loving shows which the majority of critics think are trash. So all in all, I went in relatively unbiased.

Despite my open-mindedness, I walked away a little horrified. Can she sing? Sure. Can she act? To be fair, I’ve seen much worse performances on West End stages. Can she do even half-decent vocal impersonations? Absolutely not. My friend and I were left wondering if any of Vickers’ fans in the audience had ever actually heard Judy Garland, Shirley Bassey, Edith Piaf or Cilla Black (surely everyone knows what Cilla is supposed to sound like?!), as the spontaneous applause that followed mediocre impression after mediocre impression seemed to suggest not.

Diana Vickers: Not all that.

While we’re on the subject of applause, if you’ve never been to the theatre before but decide that the casting of your most favourite starlet is reason enough to remedy that, here’s a little tip; the applause comes at the end of songs, not just whenever you can’t contain yourself any longer. Still, maybe I’m expecting too much from people who, for example, spend the first five minutes of Act II trying to shove their empty wine glass into their handbag (yes, I did notice you doing that).

Putting aside all things Vickers for a moment, I’m still undecided how I feel about Lez Brotherston’s set design. While the rotation of the set seemed to provide a logical solution to the lack of space on the Vaudeville’s stage, it destroyed any sense of illusion and seeing stealthy stagehands creeping around in other parts of the set stole focus from the actors. I was also fearful for a precariously-balanced lamp that wobbled worryingly every time the set rotated.

In general, it’s a shame to admit that this production very much suffers from its stunt-casting. While there were some genuinely excellent performances from the adult cast (Scarborough accents notwithstanding), and even some compelling acting from Vickers at times, the authenticity of this play never comes down to simply casting people who can act. Choosing to cast a pop singer who is not vocally mature enough to carry off the impersonations makes the discovery of the character’s miraculous talent rather anti-climactic and makes the whole thing quite, well, pointless.

One shouldn’t find themselves siding with Little Voice’s awful mother who shrieks that she will never let her go on stage again (I’m inclined to agree that Edith Piaf has been through enough).

I’d be very interested to see Natalie Garner, Vickers’ understudy, perform the role. Whether she could carry off the impersonations any better, and whether this would bring a cohesiveness to the production which was very much lacking with Vickers in the role, I don’t know. What I do know is that despite the atrocious vocal impersonations, Vickers will most likely continue to get standing ovations because people are not there for the play; they are there to see that girl off the X Factor.

As you no doubt know, X Factor’s Diana is coming to the West End in The Rise and Fall of Little Voice, and an old debate about the West End and reality television has been reignited.

I can’t help but point out that mixing reality television with the theatre has had quite a positive effect on the West End. In fact, it’s genius.

A whole new generation of theatregoers have been drawn to theatreland by the performances of those plucky little wannabes whose progress they’ve followed so faithfully on the telly.

Hollywood actor and Old Vic theatre artistic director, Kevin Spacey, actually complained that reality shows give an unfair advantage to some of the musicals, if that’s not proof that the format is working I don’t know what is.

Yet for some reason the casting of Diana Vickers has attracted more scorn and debate than Ray Quinn’s casting in Grease the musical, Rachel Tucker’s casting in We Will Rock You or Daniel Boys’ in Avenue Q.

Perhaps it’s because she’s from the X Factor? During the X Factor, Vickers faced a lot of criticism and was called everything from a “yodelling Barbie” to “the one to beat” (by Simon Cowell), came under scrutiny for missing a show due to illness and shortly after being photographed out having a gay old time with some pals. Add to that her relationship with Eoghan Quigg (another X Factor contestant) and you have a name that draws quite a bit of attention.

Some (the theatre purists) recoil at the very mention of a reality TV personality appearing on the stage. In 2007 Susan McFadden and Danny Bayne, winners of Grease Is The Word were slammed by critics who said that their performances lacked “sincerity and sex appeal” while the supporting cast comprised of real actors received rather more favourable reviews. These opinions are often not reflected in the comments of audience members who are not regular theatre-goers. This makes me question whether the professionals are being less than fair and producing petty reviews, and as a result I’ve decided to take them with a pinch of salt.

The hilarious thing is that television has revived the theatre. These shows bring the theatre back to the hearts of the people and reminds them what it is all about. Stories like those of Diana, of a girl realising her dreams and becoming a star, are inspiring.

Unfortunately there will always be some who struggle to accept that reality TV fame is legitimate fame. Just look at Diana’s following on Facebook to see how she’s touched the hearts of a nation. People’s problem with these reality TV types seems to be more often about where they came from rather than their actual ability.

It makes you wonder if the problem is that theatre types object to a new form of competition, competition from people who ordinarily would never sing publicly. An argument regularly employed by theatre purists and critics is that there are lots of actors who are out of work who are being overlooked for parts because of these shows. A wonderful and cute excuse, but the truth is a lot of the people who take part in these reality shows are trained actors who have been given a chance to shine early on in their careers (examples include Ray Quinn and Diana).

This debate isn’t really about talent or about actors. It’s about keeping theatre traditions pure, it would appear that purists think that television is dirty or unworthy – they believe in separation: there is theatre and there is television and never the twain shall meet.

I say to hell with it, Diana Vickers is welcome in the West End, I’ll see her in Little Voice and I imagine I’ll probably like it.

We didn’t want to see you on our television screens any more, nor did we want to hear you, so why on Earth would we want to pay for tickets to see you at the theatre?

Yes, this rant is triggered by the fact that Diana Vickers is bringing her very particular vocal stylings to the West End, playing the part that Jane Horrocks made famous in The Rise And Fall Of Little Voice.

If you don’t know of Vickers’ work, that’s not surprising. She’s currently only well-known for a) having laryngitis during last year’s X-Factor, and b) singing barefoot with her hand misshapen into a claw, wandering around the stage caterwauling like a banshee crab.

For all Vickers’ many and varied vocal tics on show last year, which ranged from nasalness to flat high notes, she never had the kind of voice that suggested she might be able to fill a theatre. Ironically, during Big Band theme week on The X-Factor, she ventured the thought that she might be drowned out by the backing group because of her “little voice”. Her tuning was dodgy on many occasions – if she can’t correct minor pitching issues, does she really have a good enough ear to pull off the necessary imitation for Little Voice?

Amateurs and those at the start of their careers are likely to incur health problems when they’re thrown into a challenging role – Martine McCutcheon couldn’t hack eight shows a week as Eliza Doolittle; even the fully-trained Connie Fisher made herself ill when she first starred in The Sound of Music. Does Diana Vickers have the strength and the stamina to carry a whole production at the tender age of 18? More to the point, has she had tuition to improve her technique? If she uses that contrived fey voice when she’s acting as well as singing, her throat will be destroyed within a fortnight.

I’d be delighted if Vickers genuinely has the talent, the charisma, the personality, the presence and the likeability to pull off such a complex part so early in her career. However, I fear it’s more likely that the clawlike little hand has pincered off more than it can hold.

The Rise And Fall Of Little Voice opens at the Vaudeville on Thursday 8 October.