Oz Blog: An audience with the Lord

More familiar faces in the Over The Rainbow audience this weekend, but this time rather than Dorothys it was a couple of former Nancys we spotted – I’d Do Anything’s Samantha Barks, who came third in the 2008 competition to find a leading lady for Cameron Mackintosh’s West End revival of Oliver!; and Niamh Perry, enjoying a rare Saturday night away from the Adelphi Theatre, where she is starring as Fleck in Andrew’s new musical Love Never Dies. A perfect reminder for the Dorothys of what this competition is really about…

And, this being the glamorous world of TV, we also spotted some of the Dorothys getting ready for the show as we joined the long queue for the ladies’. Steph and Stephanie made their way backstage while Jessica ran back past us the other way, in shorts and with bare feet…

Luckily there was plenty of glamour to come, as Saturday was Big Band night. “We’ve got some extra brass in the band tonight,” host Graham Norton told us as we began the countdown to the start of the show. The girls burst out from under those staircases to start us off with ‘Don’t Rain On My Parade’ from Funny Girl, ending with a direct plea to Andrew: “Mr Lloyd Webber… here I am!”

With Nancys in the audience and Dorothys on set, Andrew also had some Joseph news for us, congratulating Any Dream Will Do winner Lee Mead and wife Denise Van Outen on the birth of their daughter Betsy. All together now – ahhhhhh.

Steph and Jenny were the first to perform this week, with Steph’s performance of ‘Diamonds Are A Girls Best Friend’ giving a sparkling start to proceedings, complete with men in top hats and a complicated dance routine. We spotted Stephanie singing along, and there were a few people in the audience mouthing the words too…

Good comments for Steph, as panellist John Partridge told her that she might soon be counting the Scarecrow and the Tin Man as her “BF’s”. Sheila Hancock could see Steph as Dorothy – “it would be wonderful to have a mixed-race girl as the orphan from Kansas” – while Charlotte called her a “diminutive diva.”

In video footage, we saw Jenny make her first ever trip to a West End show and go backstage at Mamma Mia! Her rendition of ‘Feelin’ Good,’ made famous by Nina Simone, was another crowd-pleaser as she and the band – led by Nigel Wright – gave it some Big Band welly. For John, it was proof she had “got [her] mojo back,” while Charlotte felt she really pulled it out of the bag. “When the pressure’s on, you really just perform… you owned it,” she said. Andrew pointed out that it was a difficult song to sing with such a big sound from the band, but thought she had done well.

Next up was Sophie, who was saved from the bottom two by Andrew last week, performing ‘What A Wonderful World.’ Charlotte praised Sophie’s “gorgeous vocal” but felt her performance was a bit serious. “You could have smiled more – it’s a wonderful world,” she said. Sheila felt it was a viable interpretation but wished Sophie had chosen to really love it. “I want to kick you!” she added, saying that she thought nerves sometimes help Sophie back. “I wish we’d seen the colours in the rainbow… I know that you’ve got more in you,” was John’s thought.

Danielle – who we saw celebrating her 18th birthday with a musical-theatre themed party – and Lauren were next. Danielle’s energetic performance of ‘Mambo Italiano’ had Sheila laughing, while Lauren sang ‘The Man that Got Away,’ a song originally made famous by Judy Garland, no less.

Sheila praised both for “two absolutely knockout performances… the great thing about you two girls is that you assume a character.” John thought Danielle’s performance was “fantastic,” although he felt her vocal suffered slightly with the complicated choreography. Of Lauren he said: “that was committed, it was measured… I love you.” For Charlotte, Danielle was “on fire” while Lauren’s was “one of the best performances [I’ve] ever seen.” High praise from the panel then – and Andrew agreed. “I’m really so proud of you,” he said.

Last to perform were Stephanie and Jessica, both back on form after a week of vocal problems. Stephanie sang ‘Mr Bojangles’ while Jessica recovered to give a rousing performance of ‘Cabaret’ from the musical of the same name.

Stephanie’s performance was not John’s favourite. “I didn’t know who Mr Bojangles was… or what you felt about him,” he said. Charlotte disagreed. “It was a really different interpretation… I thought you brought something new and fresh,” she said. Sheila felt Stephanie could have told the story “more simply,” though she and Charlotte both agreed it was a difficult song for a female voice to sing. As Andrew explained to us, Mr Bojangles is “about a guy who’s in prison… and actually he’s singing about his dog.”

John loved Jessica’s take on ‘Cabaret’. “That was the performance I’ve been waiting for you to give… it was passionate, it showed courage…” he told her. Charlotte felt it was Jessica’s best vocal performance, despite her problems in the preceding week – “you owned the stage,” she said. Sheila enjoyed it too – “you got the context of it,” she said, although she felt there could have been “a few more colours in it.”

As Jessica and Stephanie ran offstage to change for the final group performance – they go pretty fast, even in those heels – we got a bit more of an insight into what Andrew thinks of the girls after working with them one-on-one. “I do not believe we’re seeing girls of this quality taking on the biggest numbers in the history of musical theatre…” he said.

And to end the show it was time for the girls to take on another big musical theatre song – ‘The Trolley Song,’ from another famous Judy Garland film, Meet Me In St Louis – before Graham announced, once again, that voting lines were open…

Read our Oz Blog on Sunday’s show here.

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For more information on Over The Rainbow, visit www.bbc.co.uk/dorothy.

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Oz Blog: An audience with the Lord