Andrew Lloyd Webber Night: A Real “American Idol” Tragedy
It was kind of obvious from the get-go that Andrew Lloyd Webber night was going to bring the pain to American Idol, but it also brought lots of drama. Forgotten lyrics, false starts, and more indications that a grand conspiracy is afoot! More after the jump.
1. Carly Smithson. It helps that Jesus Christ Superstar is one of the few ALW musicals that I find tolerable, but she really brought it last night, showing the world that she needs to ditch the ballady Celine thing and go sorta-crazy like she did on that musical’s title track. She can even say that she made the stylistic shift in honor of her pal Michael Johns! That’ll elicit some “awwww”s (and maybe even some votes from the few 18-34 women still watching the show who are smitten with the ascotted Aussie). Her bringing out that T-shirt about Simon actually liking her performance would have knocked her down a peg on any other night, though.
2. Syesha Mercado. Like many of you, I was hoping that she’d do her song from Starlight Express on roller skates. But her performance of “One Rock N’ Roll Too Many” was fairly competent if a little tentative when she was trying to be “sexy” with Ricky Minor, a hesitance that I think she’s had in different guises during her performances all season.
3. Jason Castro. I get that the judges are so used to hearing songs like “Memory” belted in the American Idol vocal-cord-hemorrhage-inducing style that they were probably flummoxed by Jason’s super-whispery treatment (and let’s not even get into the “whoa, it was sung by a cat?” thing). But I kinda liked this performance, especially in the context of the awfulness surrounding it.
4. David Cook. Meanwhile, to close out last night’s show, America was given the chance to witness the birth of Sebastian Bach, Mach 2. Look for him in the traveling production of Jekyll & Hyde come 2012, and fronting Velvet Revolver in 2014.
5. David Archuleta. So, a question: Why is it that when other singers forget words, they get dinged, but the golden boy Archuleta makes up lyrics and mumbles–and then gets praised by all the judges (save Simon, sort of, since he still liked Archie’s performance but thought it was “forgettable”)? I know he’s tapped for winning this thing by Clive et al, but what with the news coming out that his dad is interpreting his lyrics for him in addition to picking his material, shouldn’t we give the crazy praise a rest? Repeat after me, everybody: David Archuleta is not a Jonas Brother, and he never will be.
6. Brooke White. Ah, Brooke. She visibly crumpled on the second lyric of “You Must Love Me,” asking the band to start over, and she looked so uncomfortable on stage that I just wanted to give her a hug, even if said hug would have been followed by a 90-minute crying jag.
WHO’S GOING HOME: It pretty much has to be Brooke–unless Syesha’s 1-2 punch of putting in a decent performance and being first on the bill leaves her in the dust as everyone panic-dials for the people who screwed up.
PAULA ABDUL OUT-OF-IT SCALE: 7/10. You could tell she was struggling against the thought of actually having to criticize some of the singers, which probably made her want to crawl back into bed. Also, am I the only person who thinks that her bangs have been making her look even more dazed than ever these past few weeks?
