Arts Features
Grease: You're the One That I Want Live Episode #2 Recap
By Amy Somensky Feb 11, 2007, 23:50 GMT
Grease is the all-American musical, based on the sub-cultures of high school life in the 1950\'s. The show takes place in the hyperactive Rydell High School, where Danny Zuko fronts his gang - the raucous T-Birds - who romance their sassy female equivalents - the Pink Ladies. When "good girl" Sandy Dumbrowski arrives in town, the Pink Ladies take her under their collective wing. ...more
The search continued tonight for Broadway's newest stars - the leads in a new production of Grease. Continuing from where we we left off two weeks ago...something called the Superbowl happened last week...we were promised that one Sandy and one Danny would be eliminated from the competition, but that would have to wait until the end of the two hour broadcast.
The show started off with another group production number. This time "Summer Nights" was up. The group was then narrowed down from 14 to 10 (10 who were safe and 4 who got the least votes from America and who would compete in a sing off to be saved by the judges at the end of the show). The unlucky quartet was Matt Nolan and Ashley Anderson (last week's second chancers) and Jason Celaya and Allie Schulz.
Joining the judges, David Ian, Jim Jacobs, and Kathleen Marshall, (who along with Denise Van Outen looked lovely) as this week's guest judge was none other than Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber. Speaking of Sir Andrew, I must say he did offer the contestants some great criticism without sugar coating it.
Fitting the guest judge and the setting, the theme of the week was Broadway and each contestant would sing a Broadway tune. Maybe that is why I enjoyed this week's episode so much more than last week's.
Once again here is a run down of who sang what:
Max - Can You Feel the Love Tonight from The Lion King
Laura - Jesus Christ Superstar from Jesus Christ Superstar
Derek - Footloose from Footloose
Ashley A. - Take That Look Off Your Face from Tell Me on a Sunday
Kevin - Burning Love from All Shook Up
Juliana - Don't Cry For Me Argentina from Evita
Chad - My Eyes Adored You from Jersey Boys
Kate - Buenos Aires from Evita
Austin - Ease On Down the Road from The Wiz
Kathleen - Memory from Cats
Jason - That'll Be the Day from That'll Be the Day (The U.K Show - I assume)
Allie - I Don't Know How to Love Him from Jesus Christ Superstar
At the end of the night each judge, once again, gave their favorites. Laura was the overwhelming choice for her rendition of "Jesus Christ Superstar" with three of the judges giving her the thumbs up. Andrew Lloyd Webber commented that he was "staggered" by her performance. Ms. Marshall was the only judge differing, saying Kathleen and her version of "Memory" was her favorite Sandy. The favorite Dannys were a little more diverse with Kathleen Marshall and Lloyd Webber voting for Derek and his dance filled "Footloose" performance, while David Ian went with Austin and "Ease on Down the Road", and Jim Jacobs chose the newly clean cut Max and his performance of "Can You Feel the Love Tonight".
Cast your vote and tune in next week to see which Sandy and Danny will be eliminated.
