Over The Rainbow: Week Six
Published on Tuesday 4th May, 3.41pm, Written by Mike Shaw
It was big band week on Over The Rainbow and it was easily the best week so far.
The show started with a group performance of Don’t Rain On My Parade with lyrics cleverly adapted to include the line: “Hey, Mr. Lloyd Webber, here I am.” Inspired.
As with all the group songs, the performance swung wildly between slightly enjoyable and massively irritating, depending on who was singing.
FANDABIDOZI!
Anyway, on to the solo songs, and first up were Steph and Jenny whose intro bits reminded of something I wanted to talk about last week but never got round to. While some of the girls have been made to look lovely and glamorous, others have got weird cheesy ones where they’re gurning at the camera (Jessica excluded, as that’s her default setting). Witness this screenshot from Jenny’s VT where they have told her to pretend to be Paul McCartney, but she winds up looking more like Wee Jimmy Krankie.
In the week leading up to the show it transpired Jenny had never seen a West End musical before, so they sent her to see Mamma Mia! London. Which is nice, although a slightly weird choice, considering the wealth of shows currently open in London that are actually, y’know, good.
So, post-VT, Steph was first and had been given Diamonds Are A Girl’s Best Friend which was as good as you’d expect it to be. I really think she’s a strong contender, and now she’s managed to stop grinning all the time, she just has to quit hunching her shoulders.
Jenny was given Feeling Good (alas, not the Muse version) and although it started a little shakily things picked up and by the end she was giving her best performance of the series.
The panel loved them both too and delivered the usual platitudes, although I can’t not mention Sheila Hancock’s bizarre and completely unnecessary remark to Steph about how it would be “wonderful to have a mixed race girl” as Dorothy. Would it now Grandma? Well how open-minded of you. I bet you don’t mind those Polish builders either do you?
Third up was Sophie, who had the distinctly un-big bandy What A Wonderful World. Nonetheless, she sang it well, without any major hiccups, but it did little to convince anyone that she should be Dorothy.
Next was Danielle, and she completely stole the show with Mambo Italiano. Although her vocals were affected a little during more vigorous parts of the dance routine, her spirited performance showed us a side of the 18-year-old so far hidden by dull songs.
Even Andrew liked it. This is his happy face.
And then there was Smuggy Smuggy Smug Smug, or Lauren as her mum calls her. As each week passes I like Lauren less. She is technically sound, but there is no passion to her performances and everything she says or does seems calculated. Witness this week’s Dorothy Mission where the girls had to find their way through a dark forest. While the others just got on with it (although with the expected squealing etc), Lauren intoned ‘There’s no place like home’ over and over, which came across as more than a just little bit creepy and manipulative.
Her rendition of The Man That Got Away was fine, but the negative vibes she radiates combined with her inability to stick to one accent (English or American, just PICK ONE) mean that I can’t take her seriously.
Stephanie has outshone most of the other contestants each week, but on Saturday she fell apart. Singing Mr Bojangles, it was obviously a new song to her, and the vocals, acting and choreography all smooshed together into one big mess. Moreover, Stephanie’s speech impediment was more apparent than ever and her confidence nosedived as the performance wore on.
The final Dorothy was Jessica who was given Cabaret – perhaps the perfect song for her. Diet Liza was able to mug and stomp away to her heart’s content without looking like a toddler after their first full-fat Coke.
Sometimes I think that the process of choosing songs is conducted by a blindfolded drunk, mashing the buttons on a broken jukebox in a run-down bar. There is huge disparity between how suitable some of the songs are, which was screamingly apparent this week. Danielle got the fun, flirty Mambo Italiano just when she needed it, while Sophie had a song that carries with it echoes of dippy Stacey from last year’s X Factor. Jessica is given a song that plays directly to her strengths, while Stephanie is lumbered with the leaden Mr Boooooooojangles.
On to the Sunday show which included a watershed moment for online campaigners the world over.
See The Wizard of Oz for yourself!
For weeks, the mash-up which isn’t, has been a bone of contention with viewers – clever ones like us, anyway. Someone on the show, with too much power, had seen Glee but not really understood that joining two songs together in the middle with the musical equivalent of blu-tack isn’t a mash-up, it’s just being a rubbish DJ. But finally, this week, Graham admitted that they aren’t mash-ups at all, just medleys. It’s a victory for semantics. It’s a victory for music. It’s a victory for us online whingers who got all indignant week after week.
What shall we bang on about now until the producers come clean? I suggest the fact that the Sunday show is filmed on a Saturday night.
As usual the medley was completely forgettable, but then it was Toto time! Hooray. For the three of you out there who actually care, here’s a recap: some folk love their animals way too much and a beagle nearly fell off the stage.
Another group performance next, and this one was actually really enjoyable! The Happening was a lot of fun, and for once the choreographers got it just right, giving the girls enough (but not too much) to do, meaning they were able to concentrate on their vocals.
In the public vote, Steph and Stephanie were in the bottom two, which was half right and their sing-off number was the DREADFUL Tell Me On A Sunday. Both were just as good/bad as each other (it’s hard to tell, the song is completely bereft of melody), but ALW gave the boot to Stephanie which is 100% the right choice.
Her departure from the show was the standard tear-stained affair, however she completely nailed her farewell performance and again it looked like Andrew Lloyd Webber was genuinely upset that he had to crush another teenage girl’s dreams. I like how decent ALW seems when he delivers the bad news – it would be easy to be cold and Cowell-esque, but the Lord retains some humanity.
Next week is apparently musical theatre week, just like it should have been all along and we’ll be live Tweeting again next Saturday at www.twitter.com/westendupdates from 6.45pm. Join us then, but only if you remember to vote on Thursday.
Best Dorothy of the week: Danielle
OTR fans might be interested to know that we are interviewing the the previous week’s loser every week on the Colourful Radio breakfast show. (on digital radio after Classic in greater London, on the net on http://www.colourfulradio.com everywhere else.) We hope to have Stephanie on between 9 and 10a.m on Thursday. We’re OTR addicts on the show and were all as ‘gutted’ as Stephanie to see her go out. You’d have to have a heart of Lauren not to have felt for her. Talk about breaking butterflies on wheels. Couldn’t agree more about the choice of songs being absurdly erratic. And, do you remember Jessie’s rendition of ‘The Man That Got Away’ on I’d Do Anything? So much more convincing than Lauren’s I thought.. But people keep voting for her, and I have the feeling that for ALW she is the banker choice who might just be able to do 8 nights a week and not be missing every 3rd show a la Connie Stevens. And as one who took his daughter to see the show, only to find La Stevens off sick, I could see his point.
Connie Stevens? I meant Connie Fisher off course. Apologies for getting my eras mixed up.
This is HILRIOUS!