As I do every Thursday, yesterday I got to be a part of the American Idol eliminated contestant conference call.  There's never much in the way of super juicy news, but the conference calls are generally pretty enlightening.  One question that gets asked every week, and one that's a favorite of mine, is “What song were you preparing to sing next week?”  It's always a great mystery how the eliminated singer would have performed said song, but it's fun to speculate.  I bring this up because Kristy Lee Cook was asked this same question yesterday, and she gave her answer: she was going to perform “Don't Cry for Me, Argentina,” from the musical Evita.  You see, next week is Andrew Lloyd Webber week on American Idol.  Admittedly, I'm not the biggest Kristy Lee Cook apologist, but c'mon, there's no way Kristy Lee was going to perform that song well, right?  Her answer, in one quick moment, has made me incredibly fearful of what we're going to see come next Tuesday.

In theory, having an Andrew Lloyd Webber themed week is reasonable enough.  He's had an epic career, and has written a boat load of incredible songs.  However, does musical theater translate well to a pop music competition? Granted, I'm not familiar with much of his work – I'm not a musical kind of guy.  But, if that's the case for me, I presume it will be the case for much of the Idol audience.  There are a handful of unmistakably iconic Lloyd Webber songs, but will they work as live 90-second pieces?

Forgive me, but why would anyone ever want to see Jason Castro sing a song from a musical?  Ditto for Brooke White and David Cook.  Is Cook going to sing a rock version of “Phantom of the Opera.”  Maybe, but it begs the question once more: do we really need these strict theme nights, especially this deep into the American Idol season?  The Webber theme heavily favors the ballad singers: David Archuleta, Syesha Mercado and, to a lesser extent, Carly Smithson.  David Cook should be able to make something of whichever song he chooses.  That leaves Brooke White and Jason Castro, both of whom will be forced to perform something well outside of their comfort zones for the second week in a row.  Is this how we should be judging potential future pop stars, on their renditions of decades-old musical numbers?


-Oscar Dahl, BuddyTV Senior Writer
(Image Courtesy of FOX)