Oz Blog: The second sing-off

Read our Oz Blog on Saturday’s show here.

Having already said goodbye to one Dorothy, Sunday’s Over The Rainbow audience were nervous. “Isn’t it tense?” said warm-up comedian Stu. Jenny was back though, sat in pride of place in the audience with some of her supporters. Stu tried to keep us entertained by throwing out chocolate – including lobbing some up at Jenny – as the crew prepared for the start of the show. “Hmm, I never offer chocolate to the panel,” he said, as Charlotte, John, Sheila and Andrew took their seats. “Do you want some?” he said, to which Charlotte responded with an instant, “yes.” She’s a caramel kind of girl, in case you wondered.

Another burst of ‘Defying Gravity’ to start the show and, after a quick recap on the previous night’s events, Graham caught up with the panel as in the studio we watched the crew transform the set by laying out yellow-brick road tiles. It was nearly time for the final five Totos to make their first studio appearance. “I’ve got Dangerous Dave!” we saw Jessica mouth excitedly at her family, and what she meant by this soon became clear as each of the five dogs were led onto the ‘doggy catwalk’ by one of the Dorothys. Joining Jessica and Dave were Danielle and Troy, Lauren and Eddie, Sophie and Missy, and Steph and Spider. As each of the girls tried to make the dogs sit, there was one funny moment as Graham introduced the video footage of the Toto challenge. Let’s just say the recorded bark at the beginning of the footage caused some excitement…

We watched as the girls, including Jenny, were asked to act out a scene with one of the Totos at Richmond Theatre. Not only were they being judged by the Toto panel – Jodie, Sarah and Gerry – but they were also performing in front of what looked like hundreds of school children. And before even getting onstage, they had to persuade one of the Totos to choose them. Lauren was forced to sit the challenge out after the each of the dogs picked one of her fellow Dorothys. “Maybe they can sense that I have cats at home,” she said.

The panel’s top dog was Spider, who performed with Jenny, while Dangerous Dave won the kids vote after playing the scene with Sophie. Back in the studio, the dogs had been led back off-stage. “They’ve had a long day,” Graham said to the panel. “So have we!” Sheila retorted.

And then it was mash-up time, as the Dorothys this week served up a combination of ‘Matchmaker’ from Fiddler on the Roof, ‘Rich Girl’ by Eve featuring Gwen Stefani, and the Black Eyed Peas – ‘I Gotta Feeling.’

With the second sing-off fast approaching, the panel gave us their thoughts on the girls. As we watched the video footage in the studio, someone in the audience took the opportunity to shout out, “John!” As the panel turned around, Stu read out the sign being held up – “John, we will be your Syed!” We think John was impressed with this reference to his recent Eastenders love-split, although yet again he wouldn’t give us any more gossip from the show…

After Graham’s quick catch-up with the girls, we saw the Dorothys make their first appearance at a West End opening night, attending Sweet Charity and heading backstage afterward to meet the show’s star Tamzin Outhwaite, who told the girls, “this will happen for all of you, in whatever job, you’ll have an opening night – remember that.”

Then we got a glimpse of what it’s all about as we saw Tamzin perform an iconic number from the show – ‘If My Friends Could See Me Now.’ Afterwards, Tamzin told the girls what they can expect from an opening night. “Lots of nerves, loads of adrenalin pumping through the body… make the most of your opening night because it’s never that exciting again.”

Then, time once again for the dreaded sing-off – and another surprise this week as Jessica, previously the only girl not to have been in the bottom two, was in the sing-off with Danielle. “A real dilemma for me, I think,” said Andrew, as the girls took to the floor to sing ‘Take That Look Off Your Face’.

Decision time again, and Andrew saved Danielle, telling Jessica: “I’m just a little bit unsure about [you for] Dorothy, but you are so wonderful and quirky… it’s Funny Girl, something like that. You are a real star in the making.”

And so the second goodbye of the weekend was to Jessica, who told us she was going on to train in September. “I’ve had the best experience of my life so far,” she said, before re-joining the Dorothys for one last performance.

Four Dorothys and two weeks to go. The race is on…

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

AndrewLloydWebber.com

Oz Blog: The second sing-off