I'd Do Anything
The panel
Andrew Lloyd Webber
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Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber is the composer of The Likes Of Us, Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Jesus Christ Superstar, By Jeeves, Evita, Variations and Tell Me On A Sunday – later combined as Song And Dance – Cats, Starlight Express, The Phantom Of The Opera, Aspects Of Love, Sunset Boulevard, Whistle Down The Wind, The Beautiful Game and The Woman In White.
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He composed the film scores of Gumshoe and The Odessa File, and a setting of the Latin Requiem Mass Requiem.
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He has also produced in the West End and on Broadway not only his own work but the Olivier award-winning plays La Bete and Daisy Pulls It Off. In summer 2002, in London he presented the groundbreaking A R Rahman musical Bombay Dreams.
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In 2004, he produced a film version of The Phantom Of The Opera directed by Joel Schumacher. In 2006, he oversaw a new production of Evita in London and a unique version of The Phantom Of The Opera in Las Vegas.
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He first teamed up with Graham Norton for the hit ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ series How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria?, through which he triumphantly discovered Connie Fisher to star as Maria in The Sound Of Music.
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The series won an International Emmy as well as Broadcast and RTS awards. He repeated its success with Any Dream Will Do with Lee Mead in the title role of Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.
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His awards include seven Tonys, three Grammys including Best Contemporary Classical Composition for Requiem, six Oliviers, a Golden Globe, an Oscar, an International Emmy, the Praemium Imperiale, the Richard Rodgers award for Excellence in Musical Theatre and the Kennedy Center Honor.
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He was knighted in 1992 and was created an honorary life peer in 1997.
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Alongside Andrew, an expert panel of critics will help the viewers choose their Nancy and mentor aspiring Olivers – John Barrowman, Denise Van Outen and Barry Humphries will each bring their vast range of expertise in theatre, music, acting and singing to offer their criticism and advice to our participants.
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John Barrowman
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Apart from Any Dream Will Do, John Barrowman is best-known to TV audiences for his role as Captain Jack Harkness in Doctor Who and subsequently its hugely successful spin-off, Torchwood.
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Born in Glasgow but raised in the US, John has been a stalwart leading man of musical theatre throughout his long and diverse career. His big break came starring opposite Elaine Paige in Anything Goes. Since then he has starred in almost every major musical of the last 30 years on both sides of the Atlantic.
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These include Miss Saigon, Chicago, Beauty And The Beast, Sunset Boulevard, Stephen Sondheim's Company, Evita, Hair and The Phantom Of The Opera. He made his straight play debut in the West End opposite Rob Lowe in A Few Good Men.
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His recording career has encompassed numerous solo albums as well as original cast recordings for Anything Goes, Grease and Godspell, among others. Film credits include The Producers and opposite Kevin Kline in De-Lovely.
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Denise Van Outen
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Denise Van Outen is one of Britain's foremost TV presenters and stage actresses.
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She began her stage career as Young Eponine in Les Miserables, landing the role after auditioning for Cameron Mackintosh at the age of 11.
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This led to other West End successes including Stop The World I Want To Get Off at the Lyric Theatre and A Midsummer Night's Dream for the RSC at The Barbican.
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In 1995, she joined Channel 4's flagship daily live show The Big Breakfast and two years later became its highly successful co-presenter with Johnny Vaughan – they have recently renewed their professional partnership at Capital Radio.
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After focusing on her television career, Denise returned to her first love, the theatre, for the first time in ten years playing Roxie Hart in Chicago in the West End. Her success in the role led her to playing Roxie on Broadway in 2002, garnering ecstatic reviews. She then returned to the West End later the same year to reprise the role.
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In 2003, Denise starred in Andrew Lloyd Webber's one-woman show Tell Me On A Sunday, in a role that was specially re-written for her; a nationwide tour followed in 2004.
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As well as Any Dream Will Do, numerous other TV credits include co-presenting ITV1's This Morning and hosting Channel 4's The Friday Night Project. Denise starred in Where The Heart Is. She also co-presented the hit show You're The One That I Want for US television on NBC.
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Last autumn, Denise returned to the stage to star in a revival of Rent and more recently appeared in The Empress's New Clothes, part of ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ One's Fairy Tales series. She is currently co-presenting Capital Radio's daily weekday breakfast show with Johnny Vaughan.
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Barry Humphries
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Artist, actor, comedian, satirist, writer and star of musical theatre, Barry Humphries CBE began his performing career in his native Australia. In 1955, he created Mrs Norm Everage, a Melbourne housewife who evolved into the internationally celebrated Dame Edna.
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In London he appeared in numerous West End productions, among them the original 1960 stage production of Oliver! in which he created the role of undertaker Mr Sowerberry. He went on to reprise the role on Broadway in 1963. In 1967, he starred as Fagin in the Piccadilly Theatre's revival and subsequently reprised the role in Cameron Mackintosh's award-winning staging at the London Palladium.
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In the Seventies, Barry brought to the cinema the character of Barry Mackenzie, originally invented in a cult comic strip written for Private Eye, and – as well as playing character roles across a wide range of films, plays and television shows – starred in his own one-man show in the West End.
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Housewife Superstar! was dominated by Dame Edna, Les Patterson and his favourite theatrical invention, suburban ghost Alexander (Sandy) Stone. He has been presenting his own shows in the West End ever since.
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Numerous accolades and awards for stage and television work include a Rose D'Or for A Night On Mount Edna, a Sir Peter Ustinov Endowment for his life work as an entertainer at the Banff Television Festival, a special 2000 Tony Award for his Broadway show and a Tony nomination for his last Broadway offering, Back With A Vengeance. He has published two volumes of autobiography, My Gorgeous Life and My Life As Me.
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In 2007 he was awarded a CBE for his contribution to the Arts.
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Cameron Mackintosh
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Sir Cameron Mackintosh began his theatre career in his late teens as a stage-hand at Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. Before long he began producing his own touring productions before becoming a London-based producer in the Seventies. Early London productions included Trelawny, The Card and Side By Side By Sondheim.
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His first collaboration with Andrew Lloyd Webber was Cats which opened in 1981 and in 1996 became the longest-running musical in the West End or on Broadway. His next milestone production was Les Miserables which opened in 1985 (now in its 23rd year, the longest-running musical in the world) – both shows spawning an ever-expanding number of international productions. In 1986 he joined Andrew again to produce The Phantom Of The Opera.
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Subsequent successes included Follies, Miss Saigon, Five Guys Named Moe and a revival of Oliver! at the Palladium (followed by a national tour). In 2001, Cameron presented My Fair Lady at the Royal National Theatre which transferred to the West End with a record box office advance and went on to win five Oliviers.
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In 2004, Cameron realised a long-standing ambition to produce the stage musical of Mary Poppins both in the West End and on Broadway, where it won a Tony Award. His most recent London production is the Tony Award-winning Avenue Q, and his forthcoming London production of Oliver! will be staged later this year.
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His awards include The Richard Rodgers Award for Excellence in Musical Theater, the Oscar Hammerstein Award. Cameron is President of the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow.
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He was knighted in 1996 for his services to the British Theatre.
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