Last week I wrote that I thought the judges on “American Idol” were making a big mistake by making Ashton Jones a wild card, and not sending Robbie Rosen through. Was my point made loud and clear? Yes. More on that in a minute.
Last night’s results show was thankfully only an hour, unlike last week’s two-hour marathon. They showed footage of the contestants living in their Hollywood mansion, and then showed their awful group number, a Michael Jackson medley. Blech.
I’ve never seen “Les Miserables,” so watching this celebration of the enormously long-running Anglo-French pop opera recorded at London’s enormous O2 arena was like being introduced to “Star Trek” at a convention full of rowdy Trekkies. In this semi-staged version, Alfred Boe sings and acts the role of Victor Hugo’s impossibly good ex-convict, Jean Valjean. Valjean, of course, stole a loaf of bread to save his infant nephew, only to break parole and be hunted by the fanatical and pitiless Inspector Javert (Norm Lewis, superbly intense). He does this while becoming a wealthy bourgeois and experiencing guilt over his treatment of the tragic Fantine (Lea Salonga of “Miss Saigon” and “Aladdin”).
Later, Valjean tries to help Fantine’s daughter, Cossette (Katie Hall), who in turn must endure the perils of pre-revolutionary France while finding love with the heroic young Marius (Nick Jonas, yes, that Nick Jonas). Along the way, we bump into a pair of nasty and putatively comical brothel owners, the Thénardiers (Matt Lucas and Jenny Galloway). Lucas, his teeth blacked out, performs the damnably annoying earworm and George Costanza favorite, “Master of the House,” as the audience goes bananas. The geek-out goes into overdrive as the show proper ends and several casts are brought on stage. Encore highlights includes “the Four Valjeans.” Fans of “Les Miserables” will eat this stuff up. The rest of us should just either shell out for an ordinary production or wait for the movie. It might not be all that great, but it’ll beat being an outsider at a fanfest.
Okay, so last week we were fired up that “Top Chef All-Stars” would have a final five instead of a final four, but that would change last night. When they got to the Bahamas for the finale, I wondered if this was it, if this was the episode they would name the Top Chef. But it didn’t feel like a finale. So what it wound up being is a competition that would bring them down to four.
It started last night at Fort Charlotte, where the chef-testants would compete against the chefs that won their season–Stephanie, Hosea, Michael, and Kevin. The quick fire challenge would be to compete against the chef that won their respective season, using a secret ingredient chosen for them ahead of time. Mike was up against Michael Voltaggio, maybe the best chef in the history of the show, and they had duck; Antonia and Richard would square off against Stephanie using veal; Carla was up against Hosea using lamb; and Tiffany squared off vs. Kevin using pork. The winners would each take home $10K.
Well, almost. Randy Jackson made reference to the fact that, “Hey, these 13 are here because we picked them.” And he would be correct. I think this is one of the best jobs of judging to get us a field of great singers to choose from ever on “American Idol.” And I credit the exit of Simon Cowell for that. I loved the guy, but he always had that “who can be a star?” question in his head rather than judging who the best vocalists were. This batch of judges is looking for that best singer first and foremost. Which brings us to last night’s performances. The Top 13 chose songs by their own idols, and had the help of Jimmy Iovine and producers such as Don Was to help them with arrangements. Some of them were beyond good, even beyond great. A few were just okay, and just okay in this field will get you sent home fast. Let’s go to the videotape, as it were…..
THE REALLY, REALLY GOOD
Casey Abrams sang Joe Cocker’s version of “A Little Help From My Friends,” and this guy is tailor made to take on Cocker’s music. But he took it up a notch, and showed why he is already a strong contender to win this thing. J-Lo said at one point, she grabbed Randy and said “Wow,” Randy said he’s always excited to watch Casey sing and that it was unbelievable, and Steven said Casey is a “rainbow of talent.” Indeed.
Last night on NBC’s “The Biggest Loser,” host Alison Sweeney told both the red and black teams that they would have to each choose a captain for the week. The red team chose Justin and the black team chose Marci. The captains then met with Alison and she informed them that they would choose one person who would be allowed in the kitchen for the week (and cook for everyone else) and they had to choose two people to work out with the trainers, while everyone else had to find alternate ways to exercise.
The black team chose Olivia to cook and the red team chose Ken; and for the gym, the black team had Hannah and Sarah and the red team Kaylee and Ken. So Ken was doing both? Okay.
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