American Idol Goes Broadway

So I got a little excited and a little scared when I heard that American Idol was going to do an Andrew Lloyd Webber theme this week. As you all know, I love anything Broadway (well...just about anything...my jury is still out on Sweeney Todd) and Sir Andrew is by far the best composer and most well known name in musical theatre. That being said however it is also very easy for someone to butcher some of the classic songs from some of the most loved musicals in the world. The prime example of that would be Jason Castro attempting to sing Memory. I believe I have said before that he needs to go. If he isn't gone after tonight's performance, then America has some serious issues and doesn't know what real talent is. Jason has only nailed one performance so far and that was the evening he performed the Is version of Somewhere Over the Rainbow. That song suited him well. Memory, however, did not. First off, he didn't even know what musical it was from or anything about the storyline. How can you not know that Memory is sung by a cat? Hello...it is from the musical CATS! Moving on to the Davids and Brooke...now these three people are typically my favorites. I must say that I was a tad disappointed tonight. They chose great songs but they really didn't knock it out of the park for me. Brooke chose You Must Love Me from Evita which is a beautiful moving song. However her voice sounded a bit strained throughout the whole thing which kind of put a negative spin on it for me. David A. took on Think of Me with a bit of an up tempo. I thought the idea was great in concept but it is very difficult to take a song that is so well recognized and make a major change to it and really have people like it. David C. went with Music of the Night. Also a well known song that is expected to be sung a certain way and, I am sorry, but David you are no Michael Crawford. There is only one for a reason. He sung it well but just not well enough and he really couldn't reach the high notes. The winners for the evening in my book were Carly and Syesha. Carly chose wisely when she (actually Sir Andrew) picked Jesus Christ Superstar. For one, it is an upbeat fun song to sing. For two, she has the voice to carry it off. Now Carly is not one of my favorites but I have to say well done. However it was Syesha who stole the show from the opening minutes this evening. She by far made the smartest choice by picking One Rock & Roll Too Many from Starlight Express. I have the Andrew Lloyd Webber box set (Hello, my name is Julie and I am addicted to musical theatre) and I had never heard this song before. In fact, I had to go online in order to see which musical it was from. The reason I say it was smart is that very few people probably know this song so there was no expectation for how it should be performed. Also Syesha was a knockout in her red dress standing on top of the piano. Not only do I give her an A for song choice but she gets an A+ for performance. So there you have it...my opinion. Take from it what you like.