Over The Rainbow: The Final
Published on Wednesday 26th May, 8.39am, Written by Mike Shaw
It started a little slowly, but by the end Over The Rainbow was as good as any of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s other TV talent hunts.
Danielle Hope *is* Dorothy
The best contestant won, and at least two other future stars were born.
A favourite of mine since her performance of Amy Studt’s Just a Little Girl in week three, 18-year-old Danielle Hope improved each week and by week six, the very idea of someone else as Dorothy was preposterous. Even ALW and the only panel member worth listening to (Sheila, if you were wondering) seemed to agree.
When Danielle was announced as winner on Saturday night, her reaction was one of shock, joy and horror at the enormity of what had just happened – and it was utterly adorable.
Using a process of elimination, audition and subterfuge, the MILLIONS of applicants were whittled down to the three girls left on Saturday night: Sophie, Lauren and lovely Danielle (who had me, like the majority of other viewers, firmly under her spell).
To illustrate this point, take a look at the results of a piece of very scientific research I undertook before the show. I asked Twitter users who they wanted to win, and who they thought would win:
Shocking, I’m sure you’ll agree.
Anyway, let’s backtrack and look at the show. It began with all 11 of the final Dorothys onstage to perform a Wizard of Oz medley, accompanied by a gang of children who were meant to be Munchkins but were far more convincing as over-confident stage brats wearing cheap face paint. Mercifully, they weren’t on for long because Graham had Toto-duties to perform, namely, getting people enthused about a contest to find a dog to appear in ONE PERFORMANCE.
ALW chose each girl’s first song this week, and first up was Sophie with Tomorrow from Annie. It wasn’t bad, and the wardrobe team thankfully resisting the temptation to dress her up in full orphan get-up (“You never go full-orphan,” as Robert Downey Jr might say). It was a good choice for displaying her clear, almost pure, tone, but she biffed the final note. Or at least, it sounded like she did. On second viewing, it may have been a choice to not belt out the final note, but either way it sounded all wrong.
Lauren was given My Fair Lady’s I Could Have Danced All Night, and for the last time we were treated to her quite remarkable method of acting out every lyric in the most literal way possible. Like Sophie, Lauren sang beautifully, but also like Sophie she undermined her performance by delivering a horrific final note.
Strangely, the panel commented on neither. Did it sound different in the studio, or were they just being nice because it was the final show and at this late stage what’s the point in humiliating a young girl on national TV? If it was the latter, Sheila Hancock didn’t get the memo, as she cemented her status as the best TV judge EVER by saying that Lauren was all “eyes, teeth and tits” and following up with “I don’t care, it’s the end of the show, they can’t sack me,” when the cowpeople in the audience booed. Absolutely brilliant.
Despite dodgy endings, Andrew Lloyd Webber had chosen well for Sophie and Lauren, so what surefire crowd-pleaser had he given Danielle, the contestant many felt he favoured?
Everyone’s favourite showtune, 76 Trombones from The Music Man.
Yes really. A completely mental choice, but Danielle did her thing and owned it. Her vocals weren’t as strong as Sophie and Lauren’s, but this was more of a performer’s song than a singer’s song, and she controlled the stage from the first note.
This was followed by the last bit of Toto-related nonsense, thank God. You’ll have realised by now that I really couldn’t care less about the dog stuff, so let’s just say Dangerous Dave won and leave it at that. After some time-filling VT of St Sheila backstage at Sister Act and some talky stuff with the girls, the former Dorothys come back onstage to sing Empire State of Mind which was horrible. Most horrible of all was Emilie (of course) who reminded us all of just why she shouldn’t be allowed near a stage ever, ever again.
Then it was time to find out who was in third place, and of course it was Lauren, which was absolutely the right decision, although had Sophie gone instead there may have been more tension in the final because it was obvious from this point on that Danielle would be named Dorothy.
Time for a little break before the second show of the evening and the final results. Before that though, there was the last Dorothy Mission (singing and acting: pretty balanced, but Danielle’s accent and natural style give her the edge) followed by solo performances of Over The Rainbow. Sophie went first, and delivered a soft, sweet version of the song that I could happily listen to every day, while Danielle’s was a little more gutsy. To be honest though, there wasn’t much between them.
It’s apparent that Danielle’s confidence has grown enormously since she first performed Mambo Italiano
So onto their last ever solo performances, and the girls picked what they think was their best performance of the series. Sophie picked Reflection from Mulan which she did just last week, and even though last week was brilliant, this version was even better. Unsurprisingly, Danielle plumped for Mambo Italiano – the song that marked her out as bookies’ favourite. Ramping up the playful flirtiness, it was apparent that Danielle’s confidence had grown enormously since she first performed the song, and it went down a storm with the audience, the panel and the folk on Twitter.
From here, there was nothing else the girls could do. Following more chat with family members and VT packages designed to take up time while the votes are counted, the moment of truth arrived and Graham announced that Danielle IS Dorothy.
Well of course she is. She gave a touching speech, swapped her shoes for the ruby slippers and then – surrounded by ex Dorothys – climbed into a hot air balloon to deliver a(nother) rendition of Over The Rainbow, filled with emotion.
See The Wizard of Oz for yourself!
And that’s it. The Wizard of Oz starring Danielle Hope as Dorothy will open at the London Palladium in March 2011, and I’m definitely going to be there.
The last ever Over the Rainbow live tweet is cause for upset. Yes, my last nine weekends have been spent in front of two screens, but it has been for the cause of musical theatre so was worth it. Thanks to everyone who took part in the live tweets and read these blogs.
At least we won’t have to sit through that bloody awful opening sequence ever again.
I just came across a Danielle fan forum, some people may want to join http://daniellehopeforum.lefora.com/
I love reading this guys stuff. Shame that Dorothy is over now. This guy really knows his stuff.
Glad Sophie will be playing Dorothy have tickets for her show!!