After this week’s mini-brouhaha on American Idol v. Broadway (touched off by New York Times theater critic, Ben Brantley, and stoked here by yours truly and by buzz throughout the far reaches of blogger-dom), it seemed liked serendipity itself to find the idols singing Broadway show tunes tonight.
Serendipity or those wily producers at Fox. Ah, perhaps I’ll develop that and related thoughts in the near future.
In the meantime, here’s an overview of what went right and wrong with the performances.
First, the good (not great) news: Scott, Constantine, Vonzell, Anwar and Nadia.
Scott did a surprisingly fetching rendition of “The Impossible Dream,” which, as he said, really was quite fitting lyrically. He had a little trouble with “thaa-aa-aaa-t star” at one point, but he also redeemed himself with some nice vibrato and some pleasing key changes. As par for the Broadway course, he ended the song with a bang, which was good enough for Paula. Simon was unimpressed, but he was mostly unimpressed tonight.
Constantine sang “My Funny Valentine” as an excuse to reach out and touch every single one of the women in the television audience. Which worked.
He was awarded the “best pouting ever on American Idol” medal by Simon, although it’s hard to pin down how to take that. After all, Simon vehemently and consistently denounced Clay Aiken’s pouting, even though it wasn‘t nearly as calculated as Constantine‘s.
But never mind. Once again Constantine turned in a performance that does one thing especially well: it consolidated, expanded and motivated his fan base. And finally the judges are catching on to what the rest of America sees in Constantine, beyond his hair. Randy took the opportunity to go on record saying that he "never really bought the rocker thing." Uh, right.
Vonzell’s opening notes were like a clarion call of heartfelt emotion. Anwar’s start, on a jazzy arrangement of “If Ever I Would Leave You,” also was promising, which is a real improvement for him. Both performances were strong, but Vonzell’s will help her a lot more than Anwar’s will help him.
Nadia’s performance was strong on every scale. Nevertheless, it’s not clear that she’ll be able to overcome the deficit she ran up over the past two weeks. She had to convert people tonight and I don’t think she pulled it off.
Article comments
1 - lavender
ITA! great review! cons is fantastic!
2 - Eric Olsen
nice S, thanks! Agree with all but didn't like Scott as much as you did. Constantine was the only one who really warmed to the theme, which was dull as dirt, and for once Simon was right when he said Carrie reminded him of a laundry detergent commercial from the '60s.
3 - Sticker
I think Scott benefitted from the fact that I had extremely low expectations for him pulling off a show tune.
Carrie reminded me of Mrs. Cleaver. All dressed up in nylons and a string of pearls---while vaccuuming up after Wally and The Beav.
4 - Steve
I've already said it once elsewhere, but I thought last night just blew, and blew bad - even the best performance, by Constantine, still murdered the music to some degree. They were all out of their element.
And if there's music that I can't stand to see get the R & B/Gospel treatment, complete with "bent" (intentionally flatted) notes, trills, you name it, it's old-skool broadway like Rodgers & Hammerstein. Constantine did the best, but that was the best of a bad lot last night. Someone keep the Idol folks out of the broadway fake book next year, already.
5 - Natalie Davis
Amen. The Idol broadcast and Broadway apparently do not mix, even if some of its contestants belong and/or end up on the Great White Way.
6 - Sticker
Steve:
I agree with you on how bad R&B re-do's of Broadway standards can be.
I find it fascinating that Nikko has never found himself in the bottom three, after not even making the cut for the top 6 guys.
But then it's obvious the public thinks the girls had the weakest singers.
7 - Jenna
I don't think we watched the same show. Scott was horrid; just terrible. I cannot believe people actually think he is the next AI. He is talented, but it ends there. Unfortunately, people like him. My guess is that either he or Anthony Fedorov will be voted off this week. If not, then we as a nation are in serious need of some music lessons.
8 - Sticker
Jenna:
I think one of the intriguing things about AI is that it is indeed like we are all watching different shows!
If you cruise around and check out the reviews, they always vary a lot.
Just makes it interesting, I think.
Also I think a lot depends on how much the listener likes or "gets" the song or style in the first place, regardless of how well (technically) it is sung.
Anyway, I certainly don't think Scott is the next AI! I'm with you on that one. I just thought he did a better job on that song than I expected; I didn't think it stunk.