I'm able to acknowledge that a great number of people in the viewing public (and Jason Castro) were looking forward to Andrew Lloyd Webber/Broadway night on "Idol" about as much as I anticipate "country week" (that is to say, not at all). Still, I happen to be a musical theatre-loving geek, so I thought last night would be thoroughly entertaining.And I was happy to be proven right, even if my enjoyment of last night's show wasn't always directly tied to singing.
Let's jump right to it: the aforementioned Jason Castro delivered two out of my three favorite lines of the night (and season) during his interview package. After selecting "Memory" from "Cats", and being told that it was an emotional sung performed by an old feline character in the show by Webber, Jason proclaimed "I didn't know a cat was singing it" in that spacey, endearing way we've all come to enjoy (also, toss in the hilarity of Jason not realizing the song from a show called "Cats" was sung by a, you know, cat).
Still, Jason plowed ahead (my other favorite comment: "I'm nervous — this is a pretty popular song) in a performance that Randy called a "train wreck" and Simon described as miserable. Here's the thing — I kinda liked it. I mean, I've never seen "Cats", nor heard the song before (though I DID deduce that it was sung by a cat), but I actually kinda dug Jason's Castro-fying ("Castrating?") the Broadway ballad to fit his style. Once you (and Andrew Lloyd Webber) get past a dreadlocked dude taking on one of his songs, you'll see that Jason's vocals conveyed the emotion and personality of the song.
It's a shame that I think he's going to be sent home Wednesday night.
Of course, you're probably thinking that with a bottom two appearance and an all-time unprecedented "American Idol" blunder (well, unprecedented if you don't count her more subtle mistake at the beginning of "Every Breath You Take") Brooke White (pictured, left) would be the one packing her bags.
The problem for me wasn't that she botched the lyrics at the beginning of "You Must Love Me" and asked for an awkward do-over (though that never looks good). What I didn't like is that her wobbly vocal performance was affected by her mistake in the beginning, resulting in a wildly uneven and uncomfortable performance to watch (as Simon noted). I don't remember the "Idol" stage ever being as quit as it was during Brooke's judging. Still, I think her spectacular mess-up will lead her fans to frantically vote for her and carry her into next week.
Was Brooke wrong for starting over and should she have powered through? I think there's something to be said for either method, but the most important thing is that the performer do what he/she needs to do to regain his/her composure (which Brooke didn't do).
The perfect example is that I didn't even notice that David Archuleta had flubbed the lyrics to "Think of Me", which happened to be my favorite performance of his since the finals started. His vocals weren't as spot on as before, but like the other David, he traded it a little vocal perfection for an inventive arrangement to a big ol' ballad and it worked. I could see myself listening to David's version of "Think of Me" (albeit with the right lyrics). It almost made me feel bad for whipping out my squinty-eyed David Archuleta impression for the second week in a row.
Speaking of which, David A's interview package provided my other non-Jason Castro related moment of the evening — Andrew Lloyd Webber telling David "I have to pieces of advice: first, 'open your eyes.'" To be perfectly honest, I laughed so hard when he said this, that I have no idea what the second piece of advice was. Maybe Webber can go on to coach Renee Zellweger.
If Archuleta traded in a bit of his vocal prowess for a funky arrangement, the king of this tactic, David Cook, did the exact opposite, and I think it worked. Constantly being the innovator of this "Idol" season could lose its, um, innovation if he gives everything he sings that "rocker" edge, so I was glad for his straightforward, if slightly sleepy take on "Music of the Night". He brought the best vocals I've heard from him this year.
Syesha and Carly have been bringing strong vocals all year without too much praise from the judges. Last night, they brought strong vocals AND had fun on stage — without garnering too much praise from the judges.
Syesha opened the show with a jazzy, sassy "One Rock N Roll Too Many" (a song THIS theatre geek had never even come close to hearing of) and displayed more personality than she had in her previous finals performances combined. I loved the way Syesha interacted with the band on stage (which had been smartly brought down from the rafters) and, while not her strongest vocal performance, it probably bought her another week on the "Idol" stage. I just wish Randy and Simon hadn't given her backhanded praise by saying she really belonged on Broadway (meaning not as this year's "American Idol")
Carly, on the other hand, delivered the performance of the night with "Superstar" from "Jesus Christ Superstar", and she should give Webber a big-time assist for discouraging her from singing "All I Ask of You" (which would've made THREE heavy "Phantom of the Opera" ballads out of six performances). Carly looked light-footed, charismatic and fierce on stage. Even her ugly dress of the week was actually appropriate for the groovy vibe of her performance. Unfortunately, the most the judges could give her was Randy saying "it wasn't your best performance" and Simon calling her out for shouting in the middle. Wake me up when the judges get the collective stick out of their ass when it comes to Carly and Syesha.
So what'd you think of this episode? Where do you fall on the Brooke White "start over/power through a mistake" debate? What WAS the second piece of advice Webber had for David Archuleta? Finally, who do YOU think is going home?
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