ANDREW LLOYD WEBBER - LLOYD WEBBER BLAMES HIMSELF FOR FISHER'S ILLNESS

Mr. Webber is quite right that he is to blame for Ms Fisher's injuries. From my 20+ years of teaching and professional performing experience, I've learned that a person with Ms Fisher's lack of professional experience should neither perform 8 shows per week, nor she even be expected to or be PERMITTED to judge her own ability with respect to the number of shows per week that she does (i.e. whether she wishes to do one or six or eight shows per week). I do not fault Ms Fisher for her lack of experience. She was told by Mr Webber that she would need to perform SIX shows per week in order to take on the first cast leading role of Maria. It would be only natural for a young and eager, but inexperienced musical theatre singer to want to do more than she was asked to do (and, more than she was capable of doing) in order to prove to the world that she was, indeed, capable of taking on anything that might be thrown at her, and especially, to prove that there was no need to hire a second cast Maria to perform during the shows 7-8 of each week. Mr Webber, however, knows full well that no self-respecting professional singer would risk her long-term career by performing in MORE than six shows per week. But he ALSO knows full well that no responsible producer would ever thrust a young and inexperienced singer into a leading role in a West End musical, where they would, indeed, be both expected to AND capable of SAFELY performing six shows per week without harming their voice. Instead, what Mr Webber knows full well that he SHOULD have done was to cast Ms Fisher in a SECOND cast leading role, whereby she would have been required to perform in only TWO shows per week, which is the norm for less experienced but talented singers to be asked to do. The real problem here is the FALSE promises of instant stardom that have become prevalent in today's media marketplace, where a young/inexperienced singer ends up crashing and burning, often by virtue of being thrust into a professional situation for which they are ill-prepared. All of this done to gain ratings by playing into the social sickness that has overtaken our celebrity-at-all-costs culture. The question is why does EVERYONE need their 15 minutes of fame? What is wrong with our society that people feel the need to be recognized for what they're not (or, in the case of Ms Fisher, more accurately, not YET)? How do the current UK and US educational systems contribute to this unfortunate state of affairs? We REALLY need to stop for a moment, step back, and have a good think about what we are doing to our talented performers, and to our society as a whole. For if we do not, then I fear for the future of a media-driven world, where young people are driven to the point of self-injury just so that they can get their fleeting moment in the sunlight before withering like an early-blooming flower. Hopefully Ms Fisher will bounce back from this unfortunate and apparently rather serious vocal injury. But if she doesn't, Mr Webber and the producers of the so-called "reality" shows need to be held to FULL account. Ms Fisher should seek good legal advice from a tough-as-nails solicitor and from reliable and truly knowlegeable expert witnesses. So that if she does suffer from any long term effects of this injury (which I truly hope does not occur), she can at least extract a measure of justice by discouraging Mr Webber and other producers of musical theatre and television programming from EVER repeating such heinous and reprehensible acts against an innocent and talented young performer.