It has been reported that former Big Brother housemate Stuart Hosking has been in talks with Andrew Lloyd Webber about his plans to develop a West End musical based on the reality show, complete with live voting from the audience. Hardly a shining ambassador for the show, unpopular Hoskling was the second housemate evicted from 2001’s Big Brother 2 with an enormous 85% of the public vote. Talking to the Daily Star, Hosking said, “After all, they turned Jerry Springer into an opera, so why not Big Brother?”
It does appear that reality TV formats can make successful transitions from screen to stage, as Jerry Springer’s infamous talk show was made into a controversial yet hugely successful opera in 2003. Audience voting was incorporated into last year’s Eurobeat, the West End’s critically acclaimed pastiche of the Eurovision Song Contest.
Hosking has clearly done a little bit of research, taking into account current campaigns to attract younger audiences to the theatre, and he reckons his idea is “exactly the kind of thing that would get bums on seats.” However, it appears to have escaped him that a Big Brother musical has already been staged. Big Bruvva, starring Emmerdale’s Ben Freeman, was a huge hit at last year’s Edinburgh Fringe Festival. The show received great reviews for its witty script, hilarious songs and, predictably, live voting. However, like most Big Brother housemates, it failed to catch on elsewhere and has disappeared without a trace.
