Oz Blog: The Fantastic Four

The Beatles, Take That and our very own Dorothy’s – all good things come in four, but unfortunately all good things must come to an end. And come to an end they would – a sobering fact we were unnervingly aware of as we ‘eased on down the road’ to the Wembley Studios on Saturday night for the live semi-finals. With the FA Cup Final being played just a stones throw away from the studios we found ourselves battling through a raucous sea of football blue before we reached the reassuring glow of the Emerald City. There’s no place like home.

Wrist band on and in we go – but before we even make it into the studios proper we bump (quite literally) into Oscar winning lyricist Tim Rice! Our celebrity spotting senses had been aroused as we took our seats and settled in for a night of high drama, high notes and some high jinx from our celebrity judging panel. As Graham recorded a trail for next weeks live final and the Dorothy’s huddled their penultimate huddle we spot last weeks evictees Jess and Jenny surveying the audience from the balcony above.

After an energetic, crowd-pleasing and somewhat ironic rendition of Together Wherever We Go it was down to the main business of the evening. With the Lord urging the audience to look for something “real” in the girls’ performances it was our Welsh Dorothy who was to be first out of the blocks singing Reflection from the Disney classic Mulan. Hot on Sophie’s heels was London’s very own Steph – performing Take That’s Rule the World.

We were suitably impressed and so it would seem were the panel – with Charlotte proclaiming “two outstanding vocal performances.” West and East End star John Partridge lent forward, paused and announced Sophie’s “best performance to date” – and it seemed that even the Lord agreed Sophie had “turned the corner.” Team Sophie (who were sitting directly in front of us) were suitably pleased. But there was to be praise too for Steph, with John crowning her the competition’s only “triple threat.” It was clear from the first two performances that this was going to be a tense night. It was time to open the chocolate…

Next up was 22 year old Lauren and Manchester born Danielle who performed Bryan Adam’s Heaven and Whitney Houston’s When You Believe respectively.

Charlotte commented that Lauren was “incapable of giving a bad performance” but thought Danielle didn’t give her best performance, before finally concluding that her vocal was “spotless”. And after wishing her Nanna a happy 70th birthday (ahh bless) it was John’s turn – “unbeatable” was his verdict on Lauren and “even Diva’s have an off day” was his judgement on 18 year old Danielle. Sheila grappled with the interpretation of the songs while Andrew wondered whether Lauren could have brought more of a “sweetness” to her performance. There will still nothing to choose between them.

Next up – another handful of confectionary for us and a duet for our semi-finalists. Sophie and Steph comprised our first coalition of Dorothy’s – stepping out of a diamond encrusted (well sparkly at least!) bath to belt out the South Pacific anthem Wash that Man Right out of my Hair. Hot on their ruby slippers were Lauren and Danielle who performed Popular from the ever-popular musical Wicked. Several whoops, cheers and manic claps later the panel were ready to deliver their verdict on who they thought stood out from the Kansas coalitions. John went with Danielle but conceded that Sophie was continuing to “raise her game.” Of Danielle and Lauren, Charlotte urged our good Lord to “write a musical for them.” Sheila proclaimed Danielle’s “comedy gift” while the Lord fretted about the producers of Wicked snapping up Danielle and Steph! As the night went on it became clear that the competition was wide open.

And then to the Dorothy’s weekly task – another acting and dialect challenge. As we craned our necks upward to watch the VT on the large screen above the set we treated ourselves to yet more chocolate (by this time melted) and watched in awe as our final four performed the iconic scene where Dorothy asks The Good Witch how to get home to Kansas. To make things just that little bit more tense – our Dorothys were joined by the good Lord, who was moved to tears by Danielle’s vulnerable portrayal of the iconic character. The girls then clicked their heels together three times and magically appeared back in the studio to perform I Can’t Say No from Roger and Hammerstein’s Oklahoma. As they sung, danced and waved their Stetsons in front of the studio audience we sat wondering just who on earth would walk away with the Ruby Slippers next week. Lions and tigers and bears… it’s too close too call!

AndrewLloydWebber.com

Oz Blog: The Fantastic Four