Song choices
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Why do they get them to sing pop songs when (from the judges comments) they want them to 'act out' the song. Some of them just ended up looking ridiculous imo. Why not give them songs from various stage shows? Or does that come later in the series?
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I also thought, in terms of lyrics, 'Run' is quite a good choice as, bizarrely, was 'Ego' in terms of allowing acting.
Something inane like 'Mama Do', less so.
I don't see how any pop song shows us how well suited someone is to the role of Dorothy. I've never watched a show like this before. Can't say I'm impressed with what I've seen so far. Only one Dorothy for me! Lol
I don't see why we need a pop section. Just because a girl can shout out a karaoke version of an Amy Winehouse song does not mean she can play a leading role in musical theatre. The pop choices are to dumb down the show to appeal to a wider audience.
While a song from 'Phantom' would tell you nothing about a girl's ability to play Dorothy, there are more than enough musical theatre songs that would. They could even compromise and take things from the poppier shows like Mamma Mia, We Will Rock You. Judy Garland has enough of a back catalogue from her youth to fill one show.
I'd like to see one week devoted to acting and one to dance as well rather than seeing ridiculous "down on the farm" tasks and any acting restricted to VT on the results shows once phone lines have closed.
1. Maybe it's hard to get hold of songs from musical theatre to use? Possibly? Especially if the show is currently in the West End. I don't know, it's a guess so please don't come back with a "are you thick?" comment.
2. Maybe if they use ALW tunes they could be done for too much publicity for him?
3. Maybe they have to use pop songs, sort of as Evilredzebra said, but rather than "dumbing down" it's to do with appealing to a wider cross section as the BBC is supposed to be a public service broadcasting unit. I'd guess that the general public know more about pop music than musical theatre and if all 11 girls sang a musical theatre song each week (I realise it would go down to 10, 9, 8 etc as the weeks go on) by about week 3, the general public would be going "erm... what is this?" which could lead them to switch off.
But I do agree more appropriate show numbers would add to the production.
From what I remember, the songs do become more musical theatre as the weeks progress and in the past I'm sure there has been a bit of outrage and a few conspiracy theories when girls have been given a musical theatre song in between all the pop dross.
It's very unfair on the pure musical singers as it's very hard to sing pop when you have been trained for musicals. But then I suppose if they are really good enough they should be able to fake it until the better stages of the competition!
Rehab!
It's all such high drama :rolleyes:
I'm going to go a-hunting for the list of songs which both the Marias and Nancys did - then we can play "match the song to the Dorothy who'll get it"
I watched with a friend last night who hasn't seen one of these shows before and she was quite surprised to see them come out and sing pop songs. We talked about why that may be and we felt the biggest reason was likely to be that there just isn't enough songs to go around.
What would you think of having a selection of musical songs and rotating them around between the girls each week?
Gulp. One of my favourite reference books, much thumbed, is called 'The Hollywood Musical'. It does what it says on the tin and there are 1,344 films referenced, from The Jazz Singer in 1927 to The Jazz Singer in 1980 (it's an old book). Each of these has a fair old collection of songs - the index goes on for pages. Oh, and it excludes British musical films like Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.
There may be a shortage of modern songs, but I do assure you there is no shortage of classic musical theatre numbers. The Man That Got Away, which Jessie sang during IDA, was written in 1954, but is as fresh today as it was then.
A song like Don't Stop Believing or Umbrella could lyrically allow a contestant to play Dorothy more than some musical numbers, which would bring to mind irrelevant characters or stories, would. Some songs from musicals would ber suitable though - that's why I think a range should be used.
A Mamma Mia theme week would be amazing! It's my favourite film, and I love the musical too! It'd really put the girls to the test!
Who's your one Dorothy then? Mine is Stephanie Davis!
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Abba songs are notoriously hard to sing. Pop Idol had an Abba week and it was without doubt the worst single week I've ever seen in a talent show!
I sang The Winner Takes It All in a college panto last year - tough, but it was my own choice, and it went down well!
Winner seems to be a particularly notorious ABBA song.....
Rosie (Pop Idol 1) My favourite, but had a bad night. Eliminated.
Ashley (XF 3) Terrible every week IMO, but that was the last straw, eliminated.
Arianna (AI8 Top 36) Became my favourite, but I was in the minority. Great voice, poor arrangement. Eliminated.
Ashley (IDA) Wasn't a fan of hers, or that performance - but amazingly, she survived it!
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Its not an audition at all, as another poster has said just a light entertainment show dressed up as an audition.
I don't know. Maybe they are trying a modern take on the story whereby Dorothy in trying to make the farm crops grow sprinkles them with mephedrone and then sniffs some herself, gets high and starts having a dream of being in a strange land surrounded by munchkins and having to travel along a yellow brick road
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I totally agree. At least if they have to use pop songs they should be well known ones or at least appropriate. Dorothy would not be singing about rehab although it was a great performance.
They are not that difficult if you are a pop sounding singer who is trained to west end standards. They can also be acted in a way that is equally effective so the singing isn't the main component of the performance - However, one has to be able to actually act