Saw the show last night And Fran was amazing as ever will post a full review tomorrow on the blog.
And yep she so should especially as they had no idea they were being reviewed and Monday was also there dress rehersal as things had been so hectic that was the first chance they had had to get into costume so a def stick it to the judges.

Go Fran!

Saw Francesca in Dreamboats and Petticoats in Dartford last month. Don't think those judges need humble pie - just new eyes and ears. In the flesh she's very vivacious, very sexy and a great dancer and she sounds great as Sue. She's well up on my list of talent that they under-estimated. . I could see her in lots of roles - Fantine came to mind if she can sing I dreamed.......

Assume she's staying in the show for the rest of the dreamboats tour which goes into late November . If anyone wants to see her -
http://www.dreamboatsandpetticoats.c...atre-listings/

Also found these two of Francesca in a Little Night Music in Paris. She sings in Part 3 (about half way in) but appears throughout and in part 2 she's there a lot and its her singing over lots more as Petra. And she looks stunning.......

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHqKj99R3mQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Hpf3...eature=related

In fairness, the judges (and ALW) could only judge on what Francesca did in IDA - and she honestly didn't do very well performance-wise. If I hadn't known she was a professional performer, I wouldn't have guessed from her IDA performances. I don't think it was a case of the judges under-estimating her talent. It was a case of Francesca delivering underwhelming performances.

True but there's a long list of performers on the shows who don't before or after have problems that they seemed to have have or are claimed to have on the show. There's a list within that of people who had been professionally trained to a high level and who had problems that have been invisible functioning in a musical theatre environment . Some you would actually describe in the opposite terms to how they were described or looked on the show. Others have talents that were hidden or only appeared in fleeting moments. There seems to be an issue somewhere when you have people underperforming or we are being told they are. Song choices may be part of it - direction, vocal coaching,staging, camera work, arrangements or the lack of them, workload and choregraphy may be others. Its as if no one ever actually says before or afterwards " that song choice limits you - ask to change it" or " you can't sing "pretending" like that" or "you need to change your presentation style for TV" or "the answer to the problem you are having with hearing studio sound is to...." Some problems go on for entire series and vanish by the time the person takes to the stage weeks later.

The judges can only talk about what they see - but someone who knows what they are talking about ought to be able to spot someone that has major potential but is having a specific problem and they ought to be able to identify the problem and they ought to be allowed to criticise whoever else was responsible. As it is, I keep on seeing people who look very different to what they did on the shows and who can do well precisely what some judge told me they couldn't - and I don't think its to do with post show experience.

Just like to say that I might not agree with what you say. But I love what you have to say! Ta for your effort and input.

The judges were only able to judge contestants based on their performances on the show, not their performances prior to the show, or their performances in the years afterward. Francesca was poor, therefore, I have no issue with the judges pulling her up on that.

It's all very well saying that the judges should have spotted her potential, but the judges didn't have the benefit of hindsight - and knowing that she'd given good performances prior to the show would have been no help, because she didn't give good performances in the studio when it mattered.

Which just leaves the question why performers don't perform on the shows as well as they can and sometimes why we see, or are told things, that don't actually reflect reality anywhere else. Its not a one off question as there are people on all the shows who come out of the shows with some weaknesses, apparent or claimed, who have had no problem since (arguably half the Nancys) Over all the series there is a long list of judges comments that seem to be totally contradicted by evidence soon after and since. In many cases, people from the shows have been picked for roles that require precisely the strengths they were not said to have on the show because someone else looked at the same people and performances and saw something very different.

You could argue that thats all just what happens at auditions, but if its an auditioning one off you would hope that the shows would iron issues out and get past the problems. If what you see or hear on the show tells you zilch about what could happen weeks or months later though, what are you judging thats worth judging?

Hindsight is a wonderful thing. Sadly, the judges and the public only had the performances on the shows to go on. And someone like Fran wasn't helping the situation by being so inconsistant, especially when others did seem much more consistant in their performances.

I suspect that some people were just better able to handle being in a TV talent show. So that even with sound issues and other things going on, they were able to give strong and memorable performances. Of course it wasn't an ideal situation, but remember, the winners of the first two series had to open in the WE within a few weeks of the series ending. They had to be able to cope with the pressure.

There seems to have been many problems for many people and a recurring theme from many of the best Musical Theatre trained people was that they had been taught how to act for a theatre not a TV camera. It does still raise the question though why no one sorted the problems out - as it was some were, some were not and other people got songs and arrangements that just perpetuated a problem or a vote losing image.

I agree with your post till the last bit I just don't think that the shows tell you enough reliably to be able to conclude anything about who can cope with what afterwards. Thats before you get into who got favoured treatment or terrible styling or song choices and before you get to the issue of whats a significant issue when everyone will have some time to work on issues. ALW now claims that 5 people could have played Maria ( I might go with 4-5 now and three then) wheras the impression given on the show, by raising questions over everyone else, was that there was one. There's also a long list of people who played similar big roles in the same time scale as their winners whose TV problems vanished and there's another list of people used by other producers for roles that someone on the show said they couldn't do. When I see what I couldn't see on the show soon after and when I see people doing what I have been told they can't, I really do wonder what I have been watching. As it is, the people who I thought were very good I still think are very good, some who didn't impress still don't, but an awful lot look much more impressive in real life than they looked or were claimed ,or allowed, or made, to be on the shows.

As I said before, a lot can be put down to some people not being able to handle the pressure of being on a TV Talent Show. Hence inconsistancy while on the show and being able to perform well outside the show. It's easy to put the blame on 'outside forces', but the truth is that some people coped better. Because, let's face it, if it was purely down to bad production values, every single performance by every single contestant would have been bad.

Re: the acting side of things - again, some were just better able to adapt to acting on TV than others.

Re: the Marias - if it was part of ALW's evil plot to make us believe that there was only one person capable of playing Maria, then he failed dismally with me, because I always thought that 4 or 5 could do it!

Incidentally, I think Francesca didn't win the public round, in part, due to not living up to the hype. The pros in ADWD and HDYSAPLM really did perform to a standard that made viewers think "Yes, he/she is of pro standard!" but Francesca was a let-down after the skill and polish of Lee, Daniel, Connie and the other pros. She also suffered when compared to the pros in her own competition - Rachel and Sarah in particular.

Don't think its as simple as some people coping less well even if thats a factor too. Even bad doctors don't kill all of their patients so some doing better doesn't mean there wasn't a problem. In this case though there were an awful lot of sick patients.

You may be right that they successfully set up a competition between the professionals with the youngsters and Jodie as the two other competing groups, but the professionals competition was a strange one. All the professionally trained people in IDA had significant problems stated or actual - albeit some more so than others and with some shared and some individual issues . In there somewhere there's an ongoing difficulty adapting Musical Theatre training to a small screen and non-MT songs - a problem which they have had since series one and still had with Lauren in OTR. In IDA, there's also some hideously unsuitable presentation (Tara as anything but Nancy) some totally wrongheaded comments (Sarah as unsuited for a role she aftterwards played really well) death by Bojangles, and some unfairly negative comments (Ashley) They even managed to only get glimpses of Rachel's ability and couldn't get her to the votes. It actually looked at times as if they were going for what they said they wanted - a younger winner - and and acted accordingly - although, in the event, the younger contestants suffered from unresolved problems too.

Even if you don't think there were premature Nancy deaths by design or neglect or sing off decision, it still seems to me that there was an immense amount of talent in IDA and more often than not it looked much better within weeks of the show ending than it did on the show. Its just seems odd to me that a show, with whats now possibly their most successful group of singers, didn't look that good when they were shown on air. If what we saw didn't reflect what was there soon after, it raises real problems drawing any conclusions from the show about who could do what or cope with what and why they were presenting themselves as they were . When the class under performs and then proves to be brilliant the next year, it may be time to wonder why?

Compared to Sarah and Rachel, Francesca looked like a rank amateur. They may have had issues, but they were streets ahead of her.

I think it's easy to blame outside forces (it's like the old adage, 'a bad workman always blames his tools'), but a lot of the issues were down to the performers. As with any kind of audition or interview situation, some coped better than others. But they can't lay all the blame on the TV production. Especially those contestants who are pros and who should know how to give a professional performance.

You're right, it shows the problems with auditions or interviews which test something other than whats required in the job. Its possible too that the pros didn't get the support they needed as the wrong assumption was made that they wouldn't need it.

The alternative view is that when most of the class underperforms and then does brilliantly with someone else, some or all, of the teaching , the workload, the exam question setting or the marking needs looking at and the result is questionable . When you don't know who got what support, whose problems were worked on, who was told to do what, or why some choices were made so disasterously, I don't think you can comment much at all on ability or apportion blame. In this case we don't even know if people were doing exactly what they were told to and we do have strong reason to believe that some people were intended not to win.

Francesca next appears in The Million Dollar Quartet as Dyanne at the Noel Coward Theatre previewing from Feb 8.
http://www.milliondollarquartet.co.u..._creatives.asp

Dyanne is the main female role and as Elvis's girlfriend gets two numbers to sing on her own.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Million...artet_(musical)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2011...ew?INTCMP=SRCH

Million Dollar quartet is now running and past its preview stage. It has no interval as I understand it, if anyone is going......

Million Dollar Quartet rehearsals with a bit of Francesca
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zN2yf...eature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3-w8RZyarc
Interview about and excerpts from Million Dollar Quartet - again mostly the males

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qdn5Erf-kIA
Million Dollar Quartet with some singing by Francesca

A Weekend in the Country" A Little Night Music - with Francesca as Petra
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M71MjUMFNhc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOo1Pwl7kkI

Francesca Westendlive 2011

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...VeaM7Io#at=729

Francesca Westendlive From 9-30 . from closer in.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQcF5...eature=related

Francesca, I hear you knocking - close up - West End Live 2011

The less good news - Million Dollar Quartet is ending in London on 14 jan 2012.

The better news - its going on tour of UK/Ireland. No news of cast and if Francesca will go on tour.
http://www.milliondollarquartet.co.u...s.asp?id=11mdq

The good news - there's a cast recording out with Francesca on it.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/London-Recor...7308407&sr=1-4
details
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Original-Cas...7308407&sr=1-4

That's great news; I hope Francesca will be in the touring production.

No sign of a touring production of Million Dollar Quartet and can't find any Francesca news.

However, Francesca seems to have been doing some short films and there is a recent Francesca show reel and a short film trailer on youtube

show reel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Of9PosBuQec

Hiding in the shadows.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JiiCZBMcLig

Found some of what Francesca has been doing...if anyone spots whats next.......

There's an interesting interview from 2012 about her post Million Dollar Quartet role in Mods and Rox in Ipswich, and her career
http://www.eadt.co.uk/entertainment/...gain_1_1512454

Francesca then returned to Paris (where she previously played in A Little Night Music) for some more Sondheim and played Celeste 2 and Billy in Sunday In The Park with George, at the Chatelet theatre, in April this year..
http://www.broadwayworld.com/article...EORGE-20130417
http://www.mezzo.tv/en/our-programs/...dheim-chatelet
There's some download links in some of the other online links, if any Sondheim fans want to risk it.