Andrew Lloyd Webber, bringing the musical version of The Sound of Music to the West End, came up with his characteristic and unnervingly brilliant understanding of the public spirit when he decided to choose his leading lady through popular TV vote rather than traditional auditions. A.A. Gill commented rather witheringly in his review that ‘the vast majority of [the public] will never have set foot in a theatre — to pick your star in this way is not just risky, it’s delusional’. Yet the canny, if delusional, Lloyd Webber has nevertheless found his way through our hearts to our all-important purse strings, breaking records at the box office.