any dream will do

Now that the 'problem' of Maria has been satisfactorily solved, with Connie Fisher playing the lead in The Sound of Music to packed houses and plaudits aplenty, suddenly the idea of using a TV reality show to unearth a musical star doesn’t seem quite so loopy.

In fact, it's worked so well that composer Andrew Lloyd Webber has decided to close his eyes and pull back the curtain once more, and if that reference means nothing to you, then neither will the title of his talent show, Any Dream Will Do.

But if you're already humming the song of that name, you'll know that the role up for grabs this time is Joseph, in Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber's Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.

The winner will be following in the footsteps of Jason Donovan and Phillip Schofield in the early 1990s London Palladium revival, and Donny Osmond, who toured the USA and Canada as Joseph (and starred in the 1999 video). Donovan will even be popping in to offer advice. The search for his successor will follow a similar format to Maria - thousands of applicants have been whittled down to 12, who'll face the public and the judges: actor John Barrowman, presenter-turned-West End star Denise Van Outen, theatre producer Bill Kenwright and voice coach Zoe Tyler.

But if the formula is familiar, Joseph is a very different role: "The guy who plays Joseph has to make a heck of a journey in terms of acting," says Lloyd Webber. "At the beginning, he has to be this almost nauseatingly attractive man. Then, through various adversities, he rises to be Governor of Egypt. Therefore we need a Joseph with charisma. I'd like to see a Joseph of whom, in three years' time, we're saying, 'Gosh, we found a real superstar who's gone on to do something completely different'."

As that suggests, Lloyd Webber thinks that opening the stage door to unknowns produces not just great television, but great new performers. "The thrilling thing about the way Maria worked is that it got people coming forward whom I'd never get to see in normal auditions. I had lunch with a director today, and we were going over the same old names for the leads. In a way, it's a shame that the TV casting approach can't be more widely used, because people come forward that I just know we wouldn't see in any other circumstances."

Early auditions for Any Dream Will Do have already thrown up enough diverse talent to make Lloyd Webber believe the final rounds will be "very, very close". But he insists that whoever wins, many will benefit. "What we're not is The X Factor. We're not American Idol. This is a programme about finding talented young people, nurturing them and turning them into something they might not otherwise have been. My reputation's on the line, and I would never get involved in anything that hurts young artists."

"The mistake with some of these shows is that everybody's trying to be Simon Cowell. Simon is brilliant, but I don't want to be him. Hopefully, what people see when I do the programme is the me that my friends know."