American Idol: The Top 3 Men Take on Andrew Lloyd Webber

Aside from "Memory" from Cats "Music of the Night" has to be one of Andrew Lloyd Webber most well known songs. Webber, the prolific Broadway wunderkind, who has been composing since the age of nine, took time out to mentor the Top 6 American Idol contestants this week. David Cook delivered another great vocal. I have to say that it wasn't my favorite by him. It was technically good but I didn't feel that he truly connected with the song. Save for Syesha, I felt that all of the contestants were trying to find the relevance of the music to them. Emotionally and contextually it was in a different league. I won't say it was out of their league but it was just totally unlike anything they'd done to date, on the show. Save for the big rock flourish at the end, David stayed pretty close to the original arrangement of the song. He sung with the eloquence and nuance, I believe Webber intended.

Taking a page out of David C's playbook, David Archuleta offered up a new arrangement of "Think of Me" also from Phantom. Andrew Lloyd Webber admonished David to keep his eyes open while performing. While Lord Webber's advice was well placed it caused David some consternation. The aspect of him trying desperately to keep his eyelids from slamming shut proved almost laughable. This is unfortunate since he was the only contestant to actually get out of the box with the subject matter. I think he did succeed in delivering a performance that could stand on it's own as a contemporary ballad.

I spent the whole of Jason's Castro's performance, of "Memory", repeating in my head. "I don't know, I just don't know." I didn't think that it was a "trainwreck" a la Randy, but I was so struck by the dichotomy of him singing the song that I honestly didn't know what to make of it. On the one hand, I applauded him for taking on "Memory", the biggest Webber song ever, but on the other, the visage of the wizened Grisabella, whiskers and all kept infringing on my thoughts. I can't help but feel that Jason was so far out of his depth that he was hoping at any minute, a life saver would come sailing from the audience for him to grab onto.

I'm not sure how successful introducing Andrew Lloyd Webber to the masses via American Idol was, but I can say that it was not with out its humorous moments. I believe that Andrew Lloyd Webber is relevant in the social lexicon but in watching the show last night, it all felt very dated. Perhaps it was the performers' lack of connection with the true nature of Webber's intention for the songs.

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