What would you consider merits the label 'obscene'? On this blog, I've recently used it to to refer to people marching with 'We are all Hezbollah' placards. You might think that the word also applies to such things as the West's failure properly to act to prevent genocide in Darfur or, before that, Rwanda.

It seems none of those really come close to the meaning of the word, which is Andrew Lloyd Webber's failure to cast a member of Equity as the lead in a musical, according to Equity member Gillian Royale.

In a letter in today's Times, Ms Royale writes:

Sir, Why does Andrew Lloyd Webber have to scrape the bottom of the barrel when searching for his Maria in the forthcoming production of The Sound of Music? We in the United Kindgom have a wealth of talented young professional artists fully trained in musical theatre.

I regard throwing open a role as important as this to untrained and mostly untalented performers as nothing short of obscene.

GILLIAN ROYALE
Equity member
London SW11

If anyone knows Ms Royale, perhaps they might care to show her a picture of dead bodies in Darfur or of a battered child's injuries. Then show her a poster for the new production of The Sound of Music. And ask her if she really thinks that the casting of a woman to sing and dance on the stage of the Palladium merits, in her considered opinion, the label 'obscene'.