I totally agree there. I can't be doing with the 'pop' songs they've been giving the lads to sing. I want to hear songs that show off their voices to their best abilities. If they wanted to be 'pop' stars, they'd have entered X Factor or such like. But they don't, they want to lead the stage in a musical, and musical songs are so different to pop songs.

Actually you've got a very fair point there, he sang that beautifully. But then I'm biased towards Lee anyway. He could sing the alphabet and I'd still be enchanted by his voice.

I've never understood why so few MT songs are used in this type of prog (the same happened with Maria). OK maybe they think a whole series of MT songs wouldn't get as big an audience - but at the end of the day they are casting for Joseph not trying to find the next popstar.

On the whole, all 12 have done brilliantly to show anything of their MT talent with the poor song choices they have been given

And Daydream Believer, I must admit, is one of those totally charming joyous pieces of pop with a warm melody that Lee did do beautifully.

As for Daniel Boys, well, if you can resist that sweet songster and his voice you must be tone deaf and blind!

What does OH stand for.....or am I just being dense?!! Very possibly! But bring on Boys, I say again!

Agree, after all they are looking for a theatre star not a pop idol

I think OH stands for "other half" (although don't hold me to that, as I could very well be wrong) and I don't think you are being dense at all, as it took me ages to get to grips with all the internet abbreiviations, lol

I don't mind hearing them sing pop numbers week after week, but it would be nice to hear a bigger mix between MT and pop, perhaps. I would say I am more familiar with alot of the songs they do sing than I would be if they sang MT songs. Having said that I do love Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat as a musical (always have done) and a couple of other musicals too, so it's not like I'm completely unaware of anything MT.

Having them sing pop songs does have it's upsides though. It's introduced me to alot of songs I probably wouldn't have heard - or wanted to hear - or liked before, probably because of my age, like Pinball Wizard and Piano Man for example.

Edit: Also, forgot to say that Lewis was almost faultless in his performance with Lee last night IMO. I'd never seen Evitz or heard "O what a circus" the whole way through before last night, and I can't stop watching their performance of it now! Everyone expected Lee to be spectacular because of his talent and MT background, but Lewis blew a few unsuspecting people away too, IMO.
Last edited by Innocent_fairy : 03-06-2007 at 16:09

Pinball Wizard is from a Musical - ok a film rock musical, but a musical nonetheless. Its a brilliant song and I take your point about it. It was released into the pop charts so it probably qualifies as a pop song and crosses over into both.

Does anyone know if Tommy has ever been done on stage? Also, can someone remind me which of the ADWD boys sang Pinball? Considering its one of my favourites you'd think I'd remember. Was it Seamus? Sorry, this must be early senility setting in!

Yes not sure when or when, but Lee has understudy on Tommy on his resume

Yes, it has, many times, but not in the West End for ages. I think Lee said he'd been in a touring production of it!

They sang it as a group number earlier on.

Me too!!! I was so hoping that we'd get MT songs every week and was also disappointed with Maria for that very reason. Hoped ADWD would be different, but suspected it wouldn't be.

What I think is a shame is that they often get a MT song in the sing off - when it's too late really. And they always sound far superior. If Daniel had sung "Bring Him Home" as his solo, he prob. wouldn't have been in the bottom two that week. And Lewis is a different person when singing MT - as was Craig. We haven't seen nearly enough of them doing that, and surely that is what matters.

The song choices for solos were so ridiculous this week, I decided to ignore them and judge purely on the duets! Sweet Caroline! I ask you....?!

And another thing, they should ban the audience from clapping along, that ruined Livin on a prayer (even more).

THANK YOU!

In Week two to be exact (I am complete Joseph pinballing wizard nerd, as I think it was their best group performance to date!)

How very well put! I stand by my original point which concurs with what you say here. The programme and the performances take on a new strength when the MT songs are performed. I mean surely when they wanted Craig to show us betrayal there are any number of MT songs that could have been used. Suspicsous Minds, honestly. As Bill Kenwright said, its not the most thought provoking lyric (or words to that effect). Also, the Roy Orbison song "Crying" belongs to my parents' generation and I'm no spring chicken! Ok its a good song, but hardly current and again, there are any number of MT songs that portray vulnerability. Please ALW, lets have some good stuff for the final.

He did for me! Except for that little "outside the Caso Rosado crying Eva Peron" line (mostly because he said "Eva Peron" instead of singing it, and it jarred with me a bit). But overall he was very good.

I agree with all the points here about how much better all the boys were singing musical theatre. I can sort of understand it in earlier rounds when you're trying to draw in an audience, but there's no excuse for getting them to sing "Living on a Prayer" or "Sweet Caroline" now. It's not fair on them, and it's patronising to the audience. Plus, it's casting for a SHOW. How can anyone get a bearing on how you'd play Joseph if you're singing "All Right Now"? (ouch, Lee's had some bad songs, hasn't he?)

I feel we've lost at least three very good theatre performers (I'm thinking Chris C, Antony and Daniel) because of this stupid pop music thing.

Further to this, I have no problem with old songs, and would love to have hear some Rodgers and Hammerstein or Lerner and Lowe for example. My point about "Crying" not being current was to wonder where the target audience actually is with a song like that? Not the young pop audience of today I would have thought or the older musical theatre lovers like myself. Where exactly are they pitching it? Ok, I suppose "Let me entertain you" is fairly recent, but there have been a lot of old pop songs and again, no disrespect meant here to the generation that knew them, but are they actually the ones who are watching? I'd love to know what the audience is. The people I know who watch are all different ages, but are all MT lovers.

If we want to get people back into the theatres, have they gone about it the right way with the song choices?

Firstly, that's the line that really stood out for me too. I thought "That's it Lewis, you've changed some people's minds tonight". I don't think his solo performance was enough to back that performance with Lee up though - which leads us back to the MT/pop songs argument. Although I do think working with another person rather than just some dancers (I know there were none with Lewis last night, but in other performances) or by himself. And as ALW said "that's what actings all about". Although (I seem to say 'although' alot, I've just noticed ) you do have to be act by yourself, or at least you have to do a bit in Joseph - I for one think Lewis could do that though.

As for us losing Chris C, Antony and Daniel because of the pop thing, I agree with you. Chris C got a stupid song that wasn't memorable and that proved to be his downfall. If Daniel had had more MT songs, he'd probably still be there now, as they were his forte (although having said that the sing off that night was from Les Mis - he did it brilliantly and the lord still sent him packing). Antony - I've said this before and I'll say it again - Gary Barlow's an extremely talented individual and some of the songs he sings cannot be bettered by anyone else because of the switches between falsetto and his normal singing voice. The way Antony sang Patience on the night makes me wonder why his song wasn't switched earlier in the week - if he'd had that much trouble all the way through the week before - and he must have done I'm pretty sure the way he sang that night were not just nerves, although (< ) they could have been a contributing factor - why didn't Zoe or ALW change his song?

After all, in a standard west end audition, you wouldn't dream of singing the kind of stuff they're doing week after week. It just makes sense to sing something in the right style - that way whoever's listening, be it audition panel or us at home, can see if they're right.

In his interview afterwards, he said he'd NEVER done falsetto before. Ever! So, whose bright idea was it to give him that song? And, like you say, why wasn't it changed during the week if he was having so much trouble? He never got it once during the whole performance, so surely Zoe must noticed in rehearsals? It was a shame, because he had such a strong voice for his age, good charisma, the poster boy appeal and (I thought) was shaping up as a genuine contender. Annoyed me a bit

I hate the clapping half way through the sing-off. What's that about????

Chris B was another major sufferer in this area, getting up-tempo Billy Joel and Lionel Ritchie number in succession. He himself said in his post-exit interview: "On the show I never actually got to be Joseph. We never performed songs from the stage show and instead had to sing pop songs - but I'm not a pop singer! I've never sung pop before. My love is musical theatre. "I think that's why my exit song (Close Every Door) was so much more powerful than my pop rendition of All Night Long, as I was doing what I do best. I've no regrets though, I've loved every minute."
Last edited by Pasta : 03-06-2007 at 23:03

My point was really that if Daniel had sung that as his solo, he wouldn't have been in the bottom two and ALW wouldn't have had a chance to send him packing! The public don't get to vote at all on the sing off, and I think ALW has made up his mind anyway by that point in the show, and will save his favourite regardless of their performance. It is such a waste when they finally get a decent MT number, and do it really well.

What? Someone more OTT than the Lee thread? We must be losing our touch - have to ramp it up a bit

Fingers crossed for some MT songs on Saturday. Also agree with the comments about the audience clapping - I would like to be able to hear the performances clearly.

Yeh, me too, it's as if they are made to get up and clap as soon as duos step forward or change key, it's really annoying, and ALW said he couldn't always hear how they were singing because of all the noise.

All

Just wanted to say - really good posts! Only caught up with Saturday's show late last night. Of all the shows so far, this one showed the benefits of giving the lads relevant MT songs the most. I don't think there could have been a bigger contrast between the solo songs chosen (all of which were either dire or horribly inappropriate choices and didn't get great performances) and the duets - both of which I loved. Keith sparkled like I haven't seen before, Ben gave a wonderful vocal in a difficult role, Lee hit the standards that we have come to expect of an incredibly talented allrounder and Lewis rose to the occasion fantastically too.

It's not that the songs are 'pop' that I have a problem with, it's that many are unsuitable and more importantly, can't convey the particular emotion that ALW says he is looking for.

If the choice of pop songs were done to create a better television programme I would understand it - although disagree with it. But it doesn't create a better programme because the performances in many cases aren't as good.

It makes you wonder doesn't it - what the vocal coaches were thinking that week. I'd love to see any VTs they have of Ant rehearsing that song, and see what advice he was given about his falsetto, if any.

Also, I owe you a little apology! In one of your previous posts, you said that the line "outside the Caso Rosado crying 'Eva Peron'" was the line that was an exception to Lewis' good performance, not the one that stood out for you - me, in my Lewis obsessed ways took it as a compliment and started wittering on about it in my next post! Sorry!


That's a fantastic point. Like the week Craig went home, some of the songs were very easy to convey the set emotion, others were not. If we'd had MT songs that week (from various musicals, of course) would that not have been a problem?
Last edited by Innocent_fairy : 04-06-2007 at 18:16