Good point and one I hadn't thought of.

having already watched two series of these shows the one thing we all now know is that ALW doesn't take chances, he even said in last nights sing off that it was between the professional and the girl with the voice. IMO the professional will always win in his eyes. I just hope the voting public get behind one of the not so professional girls, but as you have said they know who they want to win and he will kick out any competition

I used to think that people who made comments like this were totally paranoid, but having sat through the whole of ADWD, I sadly have to agree!
Anyone who could really be a threat to his chosen one will be got rid of, or shown in a poor light in heavily edited comments.

It's really obvious to me now that Andrew didn't want Daniel (which was very stupid and short sighted of him IMO) But I really don't think it had anything to do with Lee. Lee wasn't his chosen one, Lee was his insurance policy Joseph, the professional he was happy with as a compromise. ALW wanted Lewis (and very early on in the series, possibly Chris B). The editing was very obviously manipulated in Lewis's favour. Nana Jean was heavily featured, just like Connie's Nana Dot (or whatever) and when Lewis was in the bottom two for the first time, Andrew decided that the public were being put off by his pushy stage mother and hastily removed her from the limelight.

When it came down to Daniel and Lewis that night, it was a very straightforward choice for the Lord, his favourite versus his least favourite, at least of the ones left at that stage. Andrew's love for Lewis and his blindness to Daniel's talents, combined with his lack of appreciation for Abi and Aoife last year really make me question his abilities as a casting director.

Great post ... I completely agree.

What makes me slightly is that you now have Lee (obviously) as Joseph, plus Lewis as Lee's cover, Craig, Chris B, Keith and now Anthony also starring in the tour. So half the finalists ... !!

Good for Ben, Daniel, Chris C and now Seamus for getting work that isn't in Joseph

In relation to Aoife ALW subsequently admitted that he made a mistake ... and in fact it was her who he mentioned on Saturday night out of all the girls.

Your opinion I think. I didn't have either Connie or Lee down as winners from the start and know very few people who did but it became obvious after a couple of weeks, and particularly in the case of Lee, that along with one or two fall-backs, they were the chosen ones.

Connie quickly made the show hers to lose.

I've seen them both in their shows and didn't think either of them were great. Connie was very good, Lee was acceptable.


I agree in part. I have no difficulty remembering Rachel because she was so bad, visually and vocally. One of the worst along with Amy and Tara. Sadly I think she is the chosen one this year.

I have to agree completely with your assessment of ADWD. ALW took the first possible opportunity to eliminate any serious competition for Lee and Lewis - consistently saving Lewis or the weaker contestant in the sing-off, which was more often than not Lewis. Maybe he should take a leaf out of Simon Cowell's book and relaise that when a contestant consistently ends up in the bottom two, they do not have the public support and no amount of performances is going to change that. On the contrary, people just get more and more bored with them. It was no shock that ticket sales slumped while Lewis was playing the role.

Have you noticed that this time ALW is having a say right down to the two finalists? Maybe it came too close to being Keith playing Joseph for ALW's liking and they want to make sure that they get the chosen one and the compromise in the final with no possibility of an unexpected winner.


He isn't a casting director. He's a composer. He hires casting directors to cast his musicals. ALW's choice of Lewis over Daniel even beat Louis Walsh's choice of the Conway Sisters over Maria for ridiculous absurdity. Maybe he should stick to the day job.

Good point. I also get the impression that ALW gets emotional about casting and would be quite capable of having a hissy fit to get his own way. Bet he's a handful to deal with. He strikes me as a sweetie, but a very spoilt sweetie - as many very successful theatre luvvies can be!

But if she was the chosen one, there was no need to highlight her illness. Everyone is entitled to be ill but if you've done enough to merit a place before falling ill then why shouldn't you get it?

I don't think Francesca is the chosen one. I think Rachel is though Francesca and several others wipe the floor with her.

I agree with this. By emphasising Francesca's professional status and illness the producers have put her at a disadvantage IMO.

It does seem to be a fairly open field this year although I think that ALW has an initial partiality to Samantha and has Rachel as his "professional" safe bet although I readily admit admit that there is very little other than gut feeling to back this up!

All the girls in the final twelve seem quite talented so I'm simply hoping that the show is entertaining, unpredictable and fun in equal measure.

Hmmm.........interesting comments about Lewis, which I hadn't thought of, I must admit.
Maybe Samantha is the chosen one this time, with Rachel as his insurance policy??

Who was Daniel? I don't remember him.

There was only ever one Joseph for me from Day One and that was Lee. I do like Daniel as a performer, and am glad that he has got good work out of the show, but he wasn't Joseph.

Lewis makes me cringe. But he was still more of a Joseph than Daniel was, although I appreciate that Daniel is much more talented.

Someone put it in another thread on youtube and it may answer a lot of questions. The camera is on Jessie being emotional (if my eyesight is right) but its Samantha singing . Its not clear whether we are being told Samantha is so moving she moves the others to tears or Jessie is so good an actress she needs minutes to recover from her own acting its so good. Its also answers the question can Samantha act Nancy and the answer is a very definite yes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXFLg1-UYCA

Bizarrely the person who looked most to me like Samantha acting as Nancy and/or singing that song was Nancy Nancy with Jessie and Amy doing a more manic version........

Yes, that's my point, he's playing at being a casting director on these shows. I'm not sure he's very good at it.

:

Well, Connie was pretty obvious and I have very strong positive memories of Lee and Lewis from their first audition but other than the dear departed Nancy Nancy (who has probably got a better deal in Eponine- go girl) I can't really say that that this time. So there isn't a stand out winner for me yet at least.

Remind me?

www.avenueqthemusical.co.uk

Ah, yes, I think I remember him now. Thank you.

My pleasure

Good to see you still promoting your boy

Of course, Twingle!
Come on, admit you like him too!!

He didn't need to. All you had to do was to observe carefully.

Lee walked it from day one.
He got a bad review off the voice coach one week where his odds went out to about 3/1 but apart from that a walk away favourite everywhere from the auditions stage

This is an interesting discussion, from the point of view of somebody who has only discovered the joy of discussion forums this year! I watched both HDYSAPLM and ADWD in total ignorance of what other people thought (they don't discuss it in the Guardian, either).

I loved Connie from the start and wanted her to win straightaway. In ADWD, I remember voting for Daniel in the first show because he did a stand-out performance, but I'm a fickle soul and switched to Lee from show 2. Even when he had a weak week, he was still my favourite.

This time round, now that I've joined the forum, I'm told that I'm being manipulated, so thanks for the warning and I'll try hard not to be (LOL). My early favourite is Jodie. I haven't yet put my money where my mouth is, because I think that it's too early not only to predict a winner but even to have a favourite, particularly based on just one live show and heavily edited audition highlights.

Basically, I'm waiting for one of the others to knock Jodie off the plinth she is currently occupying (or for her to jump off it herself, of course). I just hope that the conspiracy theorists on the forum are wrong and that the BBC doesn't engineer her downfall.