150 miles from London can take you anywhere.Brummie,Welsh,Black Country etc

I have no problem with his accent but He was unable to pronounce several words


It would take you well past the Black Country, not that you would want to, of course

WOOP WOOP !!!!

Week one and somebody has brought up racism !!! Phew, I knew there was something missing.

Saying that Oliver should not have a Welsh accent is not racist. The majority of the girls have got to adopt a different accent to their natural one as well.

That's one thing that always strikes me with The Sound of Music - surely the accents in that should be German ?!!!!!!!

and whats wrong with the
Black Country?

Austrian

tried to add a smily to previous post but tech virgin!

I felt very sorry for Amy - horrible to be the first one out.

Little Gwion is a cutie . He sang beautifully and he could be my Oliver anyday - the welsh accent is beautiful - and IMHO it's what helps make so many welsh people have lovely singing voices - the lilt of the language adds something to the singing voice.

If I was watching the show on the West End I wouldnt care what accent Oliver had - so long as he could sing and act. Little Gwion was perfect. Hopefully he will be one of the final three boys.

the first out is the hardest,but Gwilam (sp)being picked is good.

Not even sure the girls need to change. There was massive movement of people and immigration from Ireland at the time so an Irish Nancy or a Manchester Nancy wouldn't sound at all odd. A yokel Nancy might make the point too starkly but it would reflect history as the rush was from country to town.

I got the impresion she was not impressed and made the point in the closing song that he was indeed the loser. Lets see who does the farewell song better before finals night.

It would be interesting to know who picked such a dire song, who choreograhed it so she looked strange and kept on putting her back to the camera and why she got the most awful distracting dress of a bad bunch There's also the question of who advised her to change her look from really striking and a bit roughed up which fitted the part to something that made her look at best ordinary and at worst manic. Did she decide to look less like Jessie or did someone suggest it to her?

Shame as her audition tape is one of the best most convincing ones, there I thought (allowing for looking at the words)

Interestingly Tara seems to have got the same treatment. Her performance was nothing like the role or her audition video, her song was inappropriate, she ended up strutting around the stage and in a dress only Baby Spice could pull off.

Do they make these bad choices themselves or is there someone paid to make people look bad?

apparently Dickens based the workhouse on the workhouse at towcester - so he should have a northants accent- but I bet he'll end up posh or cockney which are both wrong

It will be quite interesting to see how they write it in if the black kid gets picked. Mr Brownlow recognises Oliver because he looks so much like his (blonde, blue eyed) daughter. I've nowt against the black kid doing it, but, I wonder if they will do a slight re-write around this bit? Saying that, in the book they hang Fagin...in the musical he dances up the street with Dodger.

Actually, the book is very clear about this. Oliver speaks in a pure, 'posh' (for want of a better word) accent, in contrast to the boys in Fagin's gang who speak cockney. Actually, the Dodger speaks in a wild and wonderful variation of Cockney which is practically another language, involving lots of now incomprehensible slang.

The point of Oliver speaking in a posh accent is to emphasis the fact that he is of gentle birth. Despite his clothes and his awful situation, his essential gentility shines through.

(Obviously this doesn't make any sense from a realistic point of view, but from a literary point of view, this is what the book is trying to do)

In contrast to others, I quite liked Amy and I thought her rendition of 'As long as' was effective, given the circumstances. She wasn't my favourite by any means, I ranked the girls on another thread already, but she was not the worst and she had a lot of personality, just not right for Nancy. As someone who attends the West End theatre all the time I have heard - actually usually hear - much worse performers than these two who came bottom. There's a lot of routine performers in the West End crucifying every song in the very long running shows, but then I don't suppose they are singing for their careers, almost the opposite!

No, they should be Austrian!

But what language do they speak in Austria?

It's predominantly German!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

DURRRRRR!!!

Duncann - I quite liked Amy as well, I thought she showed character. My choices for the bottom 2 were Sarah and Tara, but what do I know?

As for the Olivers, I truly can't see as a black kid - that isn't intend as racist, I just see Oliver as blond and blue-eyed 'cherub'-looking, but who knows? Also there are lots of boys in Fagin's den, and I can see no reason why all 12 of the boys couldn't be cast in the show.... Maybe one could be the Artful Dodger?

German, but they speak English in Ireland and yet if you were to say that it was with an 'English' accent you'd be totally off the mark. No doubt an Austrian speaking German sounds totally different to a german speaking german.

It probably didn't help, but only a minority of people who vote follow the show enough to know things like that, IMHO.

And I think the reason she was in the bottom two this week was because she was really crap in her performance on Saturday - terribly off key. Her singoff tonight was very good and if she sings like that next week, I think she'll be safe.

I don't agree. I don't think she deserved to be in the bottom two. Not when there were performances like Tara's and Rachel's who were ghastly and easily as bad as Amy's ridiculous take on RESPECT.

Obviously its set up for a Rachel/Samantha final 2 based on Webber's poor acting. He couldnt hide it if his life depended on it.

I'd love Sarah to win but without Webber's backing she's stuffed.

There are regional and national accents everywhere. I've been to both Germany and Austria but I'm not sure if and how different the pronounciation of Austrian German is. Any Austrians out there? HELP!!!

Mine too.

I can't believe that there is an appreciation thread for Sarah. She really is doing my head in. I nearly posted on there that she was my 12th Favourite.

And Tara was just wrong. I really don't know how she thought that was a "Nancy" performance.

What ever accent he plays the role with (assuming he is one of the three chosen), it will not be broad Welsh.

West End theatres are packed with people of all nationalities, any accent needs to be clear and understandable to people from anywhere, and his natural one is too strong for example maybe someone from India to understand properly.

That is not to say he could not play the role with 'dumbed down' Welsh.

Nothing. That's why you wouldn't want to go past