http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2008/apr/22/superstar-mentor/
snip
Lloyd Webber isn’t an “Idol”-worshipper, he’ll have you know.
“I’m a new boy on this one — I saw it this week for the first time. I think that’s rather good, you know, because I’m not influenced by what’s happened. I think the ‘Idol’ people were quite taken aback, actually, by what I do, versus some of the other mentors. I hope I’ve managed to change a couple of their performances, because a couple of them were dire.”
It should be noted that the last word comes out an appalled and upper-crusty “diaaaahhhh.”
“One of them,” he says, “actually ended up being really excellent.”
He won’t be coaxed into telling exactly who that singer is.
“No, I won’t, but it should be pretty obvious.”
(We’re calling it here: He’s referring to this season’s apparent Chosen One, 17-year-old David Archuleta, who is solidly in his comfort zone when it comes to delivering a big-voiced, emotional show tune ballad.)
“My only feeling about ‘Idol’ when I saw it was that all the judges thought they were going for the presidential campaign,” Lloyd Webber says. “I wanted to make them all laugh a little bit. The first thing I did was ask them the meaning of ... ‘Las Vegas,’ and none of them was able to answer. Well, the meaning is ‘the meadows.’ So I asked them had they seen any sheep here. And that made them smile a bit. And I said, ‘Well, I’ve seen a few people fleeced.’ ”
Ba-dum-bum. He’s here all weekend, ladies and gentlemen.
“Carly — she’s the Irish one, isn’t she? — Carly was going to do ‘All I Ask of You’ (from “Phantom”), and I felt a bit of a turncoat in this theater of all places, saying, ‘This is wildly unsuited for you, darling. I said to her, ‘It’s crazy, you’ve got to do a rock-and-roll song. Better to do “Jesus Christ Superstar.” I think she’ll rock the place out with it,” he chuckles. “We’ll see how much they take of what I said — or not. I’ll probably be cut to shreds (in editing).”
end snip
Great. I can hardly stand the anticipation. :-|
LOL! The guy is honest, at least. Besides, as I said on a previous post, Andrew Lloyd Weber favors sopranos and tenors whose voices are very theatrical and tend toward the upper octaves. Think Sara Brightman.
I also have to laugh that Weber suggested Carly stay away from doing 'All I Ask of You.’ He suggested she do the rock song 'Jesus Christ, Superstar.' In my post #4,305 to you, I suggested nearly the identical thing -- that most of this group should stick with the more pop/pop-rock selections.