American Idols Take on Broadway Songs…But do they succeed? April 23, 2008

Well some, a definite yes…

But others…. Oh my.

This week on one of my favorite shows, “American Idol” , contestants were asked to sing from the Andrew Lloyd Webber songbook.

At first I was very excited to hear this news. I LOVE Andrew Lloyd Webber’s music. He’s written some  of the greatest musicals of all time, including “The Phantom of the Opera“, “Jesus Christ Superstar” and “Cats.” These musicals, going along with my theory, have been made into stage productions, feature films, and back to stage productions. “Phantom of the Opera” is currently the longest running show on Broadway, topping the previous longest running show “Cats.”

The one thing about the music Webber writes is that it is very difficult to conquer…You can either make or break these songs. A lot of them tend to be for a specific voice part, and if your voice isn’t in that range, you may not conquer the song.

So, the top 6 “Idol” hopefuls took on Webber’s songs. Lets see how they did, shall we?

First off, we have Syesha Mercado (pictured left) singing “One Rock and Roll Too Many” from “Starlight Express”:

Now I must be honest, I have never heard this song until today. I’ve never seen “Starlight Express“, so I do not know the original intentions of the musical. But I must say, Syesha pulls off this song VERY well! Her take on it reminded me of a song from “Dreamgirls.” Her outfit looked beautiful, and she very much reminded me of Beyonce (and hey, that’s a good thing!)… While there were a few times she sounded like she was scream-singing, I think she deserves a 4.5 out of 5 stars! =)

Next we have Jason Castro (pictured right) singing the classic song “Memory” from “Cats“:

I must say I was completely shocked by Jason’s song choice. I’ve known this song to be a very popular song for musical theatre auditions. It’s such a powerful, beautiful song, yet so very overplayed. This song is also meant for a woman singer with a large belting voice. Jason…well…doesn’t fit these qualities. He’s a man, and he’s certainly not a belter. I commend him for his efforts, however. He tried to play the part of the old, glamorous cat who’s reflecting on his life… Not entirely well, but he did try. For his performance, I will give him a 1 out of 5 stars.

Next we have Brooke White (pictured left), who took on the GORGEOUS song from the movie version of “Evita,” called “You Must Love Me:”

Oh my. I was actually quite disappointed with Brooke’s performance. As you will see in this clip, she first forgets the words and restarts the song…Which some may agree with, but I’m not sure if I do… I’m proud of her for recognizing she needed to start over, but I don’t believe she succeeded the second time around. She did succeed at being the vulnerable girl looking confronting her lover, but definitely did not succeed vocally… She did look beautiful though! I give her a 2 out of 5 stars.

Next, David Archuleta (pictured right)takes on the BEAUTIFUL song from “The Phantom of the Opera”, called “Think of Me”:

I was blown away by this performance, because I really wasn’t expecting David to take this song on. The original song is meant for a high soprano voice who’s singing to her lover. He actually makes the song into a pop ballad, and he really made it his own. His voice is smooth and beautiful, and always on pitch. He chose the right places to add riffs and hold certain notes. He definitely was the best out of everyone thus far, he gets a 5 out of 5 stars! =)

Carly Smithson (pictured left) then took on the LARGE powerhouse song of “Superstar” from “Jesus Christ Superstar”:

I’d say this was my second favorite performance of the night. Smithson shines as she uses her belting powers along with the AMAZING backup singers accompanying her and the band to back her up as well. She was on pitch, had a gorgeous retro dress on and while she did scream sing a little bit, she entertained the crowd, and that’s what matters. I give her a 4.5 out of 5 stars!

The final performance of the night was VERY surprising. David Cook (pictured right) took on the GORGEOUS, yet challenging song “Music of the Night” from “The Phantom of the Opera.”:

This song was very powerful…And I again find myself very surprised that he took on such a challenging song. The voice behind the song was on par, and was very much on pitch…However, he came off a little awkward in my eyes. He was confronting the woman he loved, and he came off as the shy, sweet guy…And then at the end of the song I was especially surprised when he hit the high noted and almost screamed in his his rocker-esque voice. I was impressed by his performance, yet dissapointed by the end of the song when he went for this, and i will say it, awful high note. However, I will give him a 4 out of 5 stars.

“American Idol”, as I said, is one of my all time favorite shows on TV…While i haven’t been able to watch it as much over the years due to being EXTREMELY busy, I was happy I got to catch it last night and experience the “Idol” hopefuls try out some Broadway music. Having them sing these songs on live television shows you how much these songs really are appreciated in the world today.

Bloggers: What did you think of the Idol performances last night? What did/didn’t you like?

Tonight will be the elimination….And honestly, in my opinion, it’s either going to be Brooke or Jason kicked off tonight, just based on their vocals. However, I do understand these two are very popular amongst Americans so you never know who will be kicked off next. Time will only tell!

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((Pictures courtesy of muzix.org, cache.eb.com, idol-mania.com, nancarrow-webdesk.com, nationalledger.com))