Whither the Musical: American Idol Musicals Night

This is a bit of a belated rant on last week's competition episode of American Idol. It was "Musicals" night, a theme that I wish they had done back in Season 2, where singers like Clay, Kim Locke and Trenyce would have succeeded brilliantly.

I really looked forward to last week's show when the Internet grapevine buzzed that at long last, AI would have a musicals theme. I am unashamedly a musical theatre nut; I have watched the movie versions of Sound of Music, My Fair Lady, Oklahoma! and West Side Story more times than anyone would care to count. I still know by heart the words to all the songs. I wore out my tape of the 10th Anniversary Les Miserable concert (and then replaced it with the VCD version) and I own OCRs of Sondheim and (gasp!) ALW (I think Aspects of Love is his finest work since his salad days of Joseph and the ATCD and Evita. I saw a great production of it in Melbourne, all impressionist colours and muted tones of nostalgia, dreamy fleeting scenes and emotive outbursts.)

Based on what we saw last week, I grieve for American musical theatre. Here were the top 9 remaining competitors in America's largest and most popular singing competition and between them, they could not muster up 2 performances that would pass as serviceable on a musical theatre stage. Many people would have little acquaintance with musical theatre, beyond the occasional high school production. This was an opportunity to introduce the glories of Broadway and the West End to the masses. It was an opportunity greatly wasted. If I knew nothing before about musical theatre, this would not have made me more interested to explore it.

I suppose what was even more galling than the subpar performances was the lack of knowledge about the genre. Contestant after contestant interviewed about how they were basically clueless about musicals. I know they are not to everyone's taste, but musicals were so essential in the development of popular music in the early to mid 20th-century, especially in America, when Broadway became the stage capital of the world. They are an essential part of American music history. It is sad that this year's contestants seemed largely ignorant of this heritage.

Scott sang "The Impossible Dream" for "Man from La Mancha". Vocally, this was one of his weaker performances. The Impossible Dream needs to be sung like a resounding clarion call, not like a gospel attempt at a preppy camp song. The point of the song is that it is about Don Quixote and his ridiculous, foolhardy adventures. We are supposed to knowingly laugh and sympathise (if we are of a kinder ilk) that the singer's dreams are inherently pointless, and the stirring cadences are both a tribute to his indomitable spirit and a mocking of his stupidity. A good performance of this song is one where the singer is superbly tongue in cheek or bombastically self-delusional, inviting us to laugh with and at him. In choosing to be so earnest about it, Scott made the entire performance dull and uninspiring.

Constantine did "My Funny Valentine" from "Babes in Arms". I think of all the songs sung last night, this was the one that worked best out of its theatrical context. Constantine has trained as a musical theatre performer and has experience in stage musicals. I think it told in his singing which was enunciated and projected like a musical number should be. He does have a voice that is suited to musical theatre, in that it has a glass-like clarity in his middle register. However, his interpretation of the song struck a sour note for me. "My Funny Valentine" is wistful, but he made if almost aggressively seductive. And the last note was noticeably off towards the end. I don't much like Constantine because of his mugging and the over-the-top smouldering looks he keeps giving directly into the camera. However, vocally, this was one of the better performances of the night.

Carrie sang "Hello, Young Lovers" from "The King and I". Sigh, what a beautiful, beautiful song. This was sung with such purity and charm by Marni Nixon (dubbing for Deborah Kerr) in the movie version. Carrie sung well enough and in tune, as always, and completely without emotion, also as always. The problem with this was that I could not really recognise the song at all. It was arranged and sung in a way that was rather far removed from the musical's version. The phrasing seemed really off and the song sped up and slowed down in weird places. I just found the entire thing really puzzling, and this was even without going into Carrie's inexplicably bad outfit. I think her voice wasn't really suited to a classic showtune like this. You need to have a clear soprano like Marni Nixon, or Shirley Jones, to sing "Hello, Young Lovers". Carrie's tone, while pleasant enough, is not quite right for these types of songs.

Vonzell sang the much oversung "People" from "Funny Girl". I loved this musical as a kid, but People has been so done to death that I was prepared to be bored, much as I usually like Vonzell. She hit the notes, and I think her voice is suited to the genre, especially in her middle register and the lower end of her higher register (her highest notes tend to be a bit "spread" and "shouty"). However, she chose to do the R&B diva version of People, instead of the Streisand-musical version. I think this is fair enough; it's a song that has been used in TV commercials, so it cannot have too many pretensions to "authenticity" anymore. Vonzell's singing was fine enough for the most part (except there was strain in several of the jumps to high notes) and there was an emotional connection between the performance and the song. I just wished she chose a different song. All in, this was commendable enough, but not much better than a performance by the promising star of a semi-professional theatre group. She's close, but not quite there yet.

Anthony chose, of all songs, "Climb Every Mountain" from "The Sound of Music". I already said upfront that I have watched this countless times, and I love the musical. I could sing Climb Every Mountain in my sleep. The thing is, I think it's the kind of song that is better sung in one's sleep, if you're not dressed as a nun in an actual staging of the musical. It just does not work out of context, unless you have an ingenious arrangement. Anthony's version was really unbelievably cheesy; there were back up vocals of a "doo-wop" variety and an incessant pop beat. I think that showtunes can be reinterpreted using other musical languages, but a boy-band "revisioning" of any song is a bad idea. Vocally, Anthony has had a few rough patches lately, and the trend continued here. His first verse was slighly flat and there was a persistent breathiness in his tone. He also flubbed the lyrics slightly. His voice usually has a pleasant, open quality that should make it suitable for musical theatre, but he was completely out of his depth this week.

Nikko performed "One Hand, One Heart" from "West Side Story". Another favourite musical that I know by heart. This song is originally a duet between Maria and Tony and is sung in a mock wedding scene. I have always thought of this duet as being hymn-like, composed by Bernstein in a way that called to mind a church procession; stately, solemn and sacred but never stuffy or stifling. Nikko's version was musically the most interesting of all the arrangements last week. This was a contemporary R&B reading of One Hand, One Heart. I felt that this in fact brought out the hymnal flavour of the original and maintained the integrity of Bernstein's intentions. Nikko's voice is the most traditionally suited to R&B, and he chose wisely to play to his strengths. There were a few off-key moments at the start when he was going into subtle improvisational runs, but he pulled it together really well at the end. The riffing was appropriate and the melodic line never disintegrated, as it could have in a sea of melisma. On another note, I really liked how Nikko was practically the only one who said he chose this song because he knew the musical and loved the song. (So, naturally, he was the one who received the lowest number of votes and left the next night. Sigh.)

Anwar sang "If Ever I would Leave You" from "Camelot". I saw the movie version of this when I was young, but cannot remember it much now. I know some of the well-known tunes from this, including "If Ever I would Leave You", which is sung by Lancelot in the show. It is a lovely song, but written without "oomph" highlight moments, so it is entirely dependent on a sterling performance if it is not to come across as somewhat dull. It's rather like a delicate Debussy piece, in that a poor performance can make the work seem less than what it is. I think Anwar's vocal performance was just decent enough to make the song seem pleasant, but not terribly interesting. He sang it consistently this week, unlike his tendency in the past to build to a great climax that tried to disguise his weak lower register. On this song, his voice was suitably clear and his phrasing was appropriate to the arrangement. However, his voice was unpleasantly reedy in the high notes and his interpretation lacked emotion, which is criminal when singing songs from musicals.

Bo chose, almost at random, "Corner in the Sky" from "Pippin". I am not familiar with this musical and it was the first time I had heard this song. I think Bo has a great baritone voice for his chosen genre - Southern rock. It could work well in the musical theatre context, if he chose the right song. I felt that he wasn't even trying this week. The intonation was lazy and unusually for Bo, he did not even finish off all phrases cleanly. This is especially jarring in a song from a musical, because you are supposed to be able to hear the words and to appreciate the rhythmic inventions of the song and lyric writers. In this performance, Bo did not choose to sing a musical theatre song in a musical theatre way. Worse, he did not bother to work out another way to do it, as Nikko and Vonzell had done. I think he should have tried to rock it out and really gone to town on the song. It would have been a marked improvement on what he did.

Nadia sings "As Long as he Needs Me" from "Oliver!". Here's another musical I love. We did one of the songs in my secondary school choir. Nadia has a great, rich tone to her voice, but very little range. This song also exposed her lack of breath support in sustained notes. She tended to cut off notes before she should, but she was astute enough to make these instances less jarring than they would have been in the hands of a less professional performer. What I liked about this performance is that she was the complete showman and turned this tragic number successfully into a torch-song. What I didn't like so much is that the singing noticeably compromised the soaring quality of the song. The last three notes are a plaintive cry, they are supposed to be held and sustained - "Heeee Neeeeds Meeeee". Nadia chose to do a big-band cop-out "He. (drum bang) Needs. (drum bang) Meee (cut short by lack of support)." When she wasn't doing this sort of thing, she sounded lovely. But singing of this level might not even get her a role in a regional theatre production, never mind the bright lights of Broadway.

All in, a really disappointing night. I suppose the "kids" were hampered by the lack of song choices as I am sure the cheapskates at AI were not able to secure rights to more recent musicals. I don't think that's much of an excuse though. I think this proves, if anything, that the Broadway thing is not as easy as some people have dismissed it to be. It takes talent to sing musical theatre, maybe more talent than they have in this year's bunch of AI finalists. The tragic thing is that I think this year's top 10 is possibly the most talented bunch all round in the history of the show. I will always have a preference for Season 2, which had a bunch of really good singers in Clay, Ruben, Kim Locke, Trenyce and Rickey (and Josh, who went downhill throughout the competition, but was really quite good early on and is now successful in country music). But that season also had Carmen and her uncontrolled vibrato, and Kim Caldwell who didn't so much sing as shout. This season, there is no Clay or Ruben or Kim Locke, but also no Carmen (S2) or Jasmine, Jon Stevens or JPL (S3) or Nikki McKibbins or Jim Verraros (S1). Just by the lack of completely bad people, this is a better group than they have ever had before. When they completely ruin Musicals Night, there really isn't much that is positive to be said.