From unknown to hot new talent - in just 14 years.

The Times has profiled six of the hottest new musical theatre talents. Who could begrudge Cynthia Erivo, Michael Xavier, Rosalie Craig, Hadley Fraser, Katherine Kingsley and Arthur Darvill a word of the praise showered on them? No-one. These six are, without doubt, six of the 'hot' stars of musical theatre. I applaud Sam Marlowe of The Times for choosing them, talking to them and profiling them.

But let's face it, if you add up the West End, Regional and #1 tours these six have notched up between them - an average of 11 each - well, they're hardly new are they? And that's just musicals. Heavens above, Xavier, Craig and Fraser's CV's show big credits dating back 14 years! So, while I'm delighted that the nationals have finally noticed our extraordinary musical theatre talents, let's not pretend that Marlowe went too far out of the way to find them. Hot, yes. New? Hardly. So, huge congratulations to those six, on having the recognition and acclaim in which they are held within our industry, finally being acknowledged out of it.

Although - seriously - why has it taken so long? The answer, perhaps, lies in a combination of how theatre criticism works and how we view our fringe theatre, not just in London, but all over the country. I could name off the top of my head, a dozen outstanding musical theatre performers who are unrecognised. If the current crop of graduates (more than 1100 from accredited schools alone) have to wait 14 years before their talents are recognised then we are in for a decade or so of disappointment, of seeing the same faces over again, or watching our best and brightest burning out.

Theatre critics are dying out. They have been replaced by a new breed whose word is often faster, occasionally wittier, and thanks to social networking, spreading like wildfire. Theatre PRs have in recent years jumped on this - a fringe press night is likely to have more bloggers than legitimate press. So why not capitalise on this? Instead of sending our brilliant national critics to review West End shows, why not leave these to the bloggers - who are sometimes better informed and more knowledgable about current theatre practice and trends? Sure we'd open our industry up to sycophancy (nothing new there) and to some truly terrible writing (ditto), but we are now almost at the point where we can categorically say that the caché of a good review from a national critic has been almost totally superseded by the bloggers. Thanks to Twitter, opinions are formed hours before the nationals even publish their reviews - are critics now only writing for an elite minority who read national papers? If I wasn't fortunate enough to do the job I do, I wouldn't be able to afford the theatre - so who are we writing our reviews for, if not for 'people like us'?

Why not revitalise theatre criticism and send the national critics to the fringe? Many do (Sam Marlowe is in fact one) and it's always a joy to run into them and hear their intelligent opinions. But they can't cover everything. Shouldn't those opinions be helping to inform the early careers of our actors, hopefully advising them and encouraging them at the start of their career, before stagey habits set in? In fact, wouldn't it just be great to have any paper, national or otherwise who reviewed the fringe? And with ticket prices far lower on the Fringe it would be a great nod to austerity for our critics to encourage theatre at grass roots level. That way we might be discovering Michael Xavier and Rosalie Craig when they first emerge, instead of writing about them as 'new' talent, fourteen years too late.

While we're on that, and while I was researching this, I couldn't help but notice that the Offies, the Off West End Awards, are currently listing 32 actors nominated for Best Actor/Actress or Best Supporting Actor/Actress on the fringe. Just two of those named were nominated for their work in a musical. In an industry dominated by musicals, from the fringe right up to the West End, how is this possible? Is it any wonder that it has taken the nationals fourteen years to notice our musical theatre talent, when it appears our industry barely notices it either.

Congratulations Michael, Cynthia, Rosalie, Hadley, Arthur, Katharine. You are indeed fine examples of the very best of our musical talent and I am awed and moved by your performances every time I see you. I wish you every success for the next fourteen dazzling years. Now let's find the next generation. Before they have to wait too long.

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