The tills are alive...

Never before have so many Marias shed so many tears. Tomorrow night, seven million viewers will witness the finale of Andrew Lloyd Webber's quest to solve his Maria problem. Over the course of seven emotional weeks, he has whittled thousands of hopefuls down to just three girls with real West End potential. Helena, Connie and Siobhan will battle it out in a last-ditch attempt to win the prize of starring in the stage version of his show.

It was only a few months ago that Lloyd Webber first put the idea of How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria? to producer David Ian. A risky idea really, casting a West End musical via a reality show. What made it more unexpected is that girls from middle-class theatre backgrounds and reality TV shows do not traditionally go together. Maria is not a freak show, although it does involve a fair amount of emotional struggle, but that is enough to set the luvvies off. They feel betrayed, perhaps because they are snobs, something Lloyd Webber is not.

"I did say to David: 'When we go into The Ivy there will be a hush and hissing ...'" says Lloyd Webber. "And then I thought: if there is, we've won."

"They're all furious - well, not everybody. Some people think it's really good news because it's a way of making musical theatre accessible and available. It's not dumbing it down. There's a whole new audience of young people. I'm getting hundreds of emails on the website and they're all saying: 'Suddenly I'm interested in musicals.'"

Lloyd Webber and I are sipping Pinot Grigio at High Road House in Chiswick after a day where he's been listening, coaching, nurturing what he now calls "my girls". He appears particularly highspirited, enjoying the fact that friendly theatre critics have turned foe, savouring Simon Cowell's rival pot-shots, and unfazed by Trevor Nunn allegedly saying that such shows as Maria were "relying on the viewing public being witness to distress".

He is convinced that Maria has already had a knock-on effect in re-engaging interest in the West End - not that this year has been doom and gloom. He says: "The West End is actually going through a buoyant period. Evita did £96,000 in advance sales this week, Spamalot did £60,000 and Phantom the same. The Sound of Music," he grins, "has taken over five-and-a-half million in advance sales. Phantom has had its best summer ever, about £250,000 per week, which is rather good for an old show. The Olivier Awards are back again being televised on Boxing Day. Even though Evita was a revival, it has done very well and that seems to create interest in getting people to see other shows."

"The new Stoppard play [Rock and Roll] is also a great talking point and a brilliant new work, so that, too, has encouraged people out. Wicked has worked everywhere else in the world and there's no reason why it won't work in the West End."

Compared with Broadway, the West End can appear quiet, but it only seems that way. "The West End did 12.4 million attendances last year and Broadway did only 11.8 million. Broadway is marketed in a completely different way. It's New York City itself that promotes Broadway. It promotes it as: the reason you go to New York is to go to Broadway. London doesn't promote the West End in that same way. It can't. It's governed by different councils and that's a very British thing, to fission everything off. Broadway is promoted as a destination place. The West End is not."

People go on weekends to New York and automatically think of including a show, yet going to see a show in London doesn't carry the same glamour, perhaps because it's so uncomfortable. Itchy, narrow seats and hideous heat in the summer.

"One encouraging thing is, I'm working with English Heritage on the difficulties of modernising listed buildings. It was Betjeman who said: 'The architecture of entertainment is by definition impermanent.' We should be able to change it.