“It used to be the case that you opened with a mega-star and then the casting got less starry as you went on. Nowadays that’s totally untrue – quite often you find the person taking over is just as prestigious as the person who created the role in the first place. Actors are no longer loath to take over from someone else. These days what happens is an actor often goes in and recreates the role in his own terms – he doesn’t offer a carbon-copy performance, but rethinks the role.”