Do you occupy the mid section of a ven comprised of circles labeled ‘people pictured this week carrying their belongings out of a major investment bank in a cardboard box’ and ‘fans of talent show spin-off musicals by Andrew Lloyd Webber’?
Well stop weeping into your stolen stapler, take the Cats soundtrack off your incredibly expensive record player and listen. I know it’s hard being incredibly rich and successful, but look – your guardian angel is here! He’s not the best looking angel, but he is here for you, forsaken wealthy. He’s like a latterday Robin Hood, albeit a bit of a warped one, stealing from himself and giving to the rich. It’s Andrew Lloyd Webber, and honey – it’s your lucky day!
We’ve had three Webber hit shows so far, colloquially known as “the Marias”, “the Josephs” and the rather more tenuous “Nancys” – but there won’t be one this year. Seems Webber’s decided to quit while he’s ahead. Probably a smart move…
Remember I’d Do Anything? Seems so long ago now, doesn’t it? To refresh your memory – THIS IS THE ONE YOU VOTED IN. And in four months’ time she’s GOING TO BE ON THE WEST END, and posters EVERYWHERE FOREVER. I know how it is. You forgot you sponsored that donkey until you started getting letters through the post, but don’t you get it? We’re all paying the price of your reckless affections now. Just like that donkey you sponsored (I’m speculating here) it turns out Jodie needs help in the acting department, too. Cameron MacIntosh, who always preferred Rachel anyway, is sending Jodie off to drama school, to learn how to act. Now I do love Jodie, although possibly not in that way (although maybe – that ‘bring in the clowns’ performance was pretty affecting if you know what I mean) …but it doesn’t look good, does it?
It’s the most confusingly-named show since ‘Strictly Come Dancing’, but we got used to that, and I’m sure – eventually – we’ll be OK with the latest talent contest… Sky 1′s Hairspray The School Musical. I mean WHY? Why not just ‘Hairspray’ FULL STOP. And Hairspray, jeez. Of all the musicals. Anyway, Denise is halfway through filming the show for Sky One. Along with voice coach Zoe Tyler (where have you been Zoe?!) she’ll be transforming pupils at an inner London school into stage-school starlets for a production of Hairspray.
“We’ve picked the best school for this, they’re really good. We have got a long way to go but you really must watch the show because this is such a big challenge for me, it’s something that I’ve been wanting to do for a very long time,” she said, slightly implausibly.
Rachel was one of my favourites and why she didn’t make the final was anyone’s guess. Let’s cast our mind back to I’d Do Anything. It was my guilty pleasure and was jolly good fun on those long winter Saturday evenings. I really liked Jessie to begin with (then went well off her), and don’t even get me started on eventual winner Jodie. Sam was very good too. Rachel was also very good but really wasn’t liked by the panel who, whatever she did, didn’t seem to do the business in their eyes. However, Rachel Tucker has landed a role in the West End, in the Queen musical We Will Rock You. Not quite your Andrew Lloyd Webber job, but a West End gig nonetheless. Rachel said: “It is a dream part. We Will Rock You is one of my favourite shows. I first saw it when I was a student at the Royal Academy and loved it. I am beside myself with excitement. I just can’t believe it.” Over the jump is a short piece of Rachel in action. Let’s do it!
For all our I’d Do Anything reviews and news, go here.
If you read Our Anna’s excellent reviews of I’d Do Anything, the very entertaining musical talent show, you will read that Andrew Lloyd Webber and Cameron Macintosh – theatreland’s uber-Gods – did not agree with the public’s assumption that Jodie Prenger was the perfect Nancy. I tended to believe ALW and C-Mac, but that’s now by-the-by. I read yesterday that ALW is returning to the BBC for another musical talent show next year (which is good news in my book… there it is again, ‘my book’), but in the meantime it’s interesting to see the reaction to Jodie as Nancy. C-Mac has, apparently, remarked that she’s too fat, but that unfair. Over on our sister site, Dollymix, Katie has spent literally minutes researching what Nancys have looked like through the ages. You can go and read it by clicking the blue word here, but it’s interesting… it seems there have been loads of different Nancys over the years and it really doesn’t matter what you like.
Here’s a little verbatim vignette (two nice v-based words there, I’m sure you’ll agree!) from Saturday’s I’d Do Anything results show: Graham Norton – “Cameron, are you happy?” Cameron Mackintosh – “I’m thrilled for Jodie, congratulations.” But that’s not what he asked, now, is it?
The video above shows Andrew Lloyd Webber choosing 17 year old Samantha over experienced Rachel for a place in tomorrow’s final of I’d Do Anything. As with the last series of Strictly Come Dancing, the results show will be broadcast live on Saturday night, rather than recorded for broadcast on Sunday as usual – so no waiting around, or stumbling over the result on the net, thank goodness. Sam joined Jodie and Jessie in the final, and over the cut you can see my favourite performance from each, and my predictions for how the votes will pan out…
Our excellent sister site Available For Panto alerted me to the fact that the three I’d Do Anything finalists have dressed up in Madonna gear for a Daily Mail shoot. Available For Panto brings you all the top reality TV news every single bloomin’ day, but we’re quite into IDA here, so I thought I’d nick it. You can read Leila’s embittered incredulous musings by clicking on this blue word, but in the meantime I’ve posted up a taster image of Jodie, my least favourite of the three. Weirdly, she’s the one that most looks like Madonna out of all of them in the shoot. Unfortunately, IDA isn’t a competition about looking like Madonna, and if I had my way this is the only thing Jodie would be winning.
Over the past few weeks I’ve heard the phrase ‘squeaky bum’ time spoken in various contexts, and for the four remaining Nancys you could almost hear the squeaks coming from underneath their pinnies. It was semi-final time in I’d Do Anything and only three Nancys would be standing at the end of it all. The four that remained – Jessie, Jodie, Sam and Rachel – were all impressive young women and we had been told that they all had the right stuff to become very good Nancys. But push was slowly coming to shove, and it was time to eliminate the final person before the final itself next week. Let’s hope the viewing/voting public were up to making the right decision.
Normally, I start my I’d Do Anything reviews with a YouTube video of my favourite solo performance from the main show, but I have a feeling that this may come from Samantha every week from now on… To try and avoid that, then, I thought I’d change it up a bit this week and post the girls’ performance with the ex-Josephs. Not brilliant or anything, but lots of fun.
Over the last year we have heard about many instances of the TV networks fleecing us mere viewers. Some of these lapses in truthfulness have been more amusing than shocking (Cookiegate, for example), but others have been genuinely fraudulent. Take the Comedy Awards. The second part of the show – which included the presentation of the People’s Award – was recorded while we were watching the news, and yet we were still invited to vote. That’s just plain awful. It was on the back of these revelations that Graham Norton uttered my favourite line of the weekend on I’d Do Anything (well, apart from the Doctor shouting I NEVER WOULD, naturally): “Please don’t vote before the phone lines are open because your vote won’t count, and you may still be charged, and we’ll never hear the end of it.” Brilliant.
We’re down to just six potential Nancys now, and things are getting serious. The Lord’s having hissy fits, and Barry Humphries has gone from sycophant to one of the most critical judges. But there was one performance no-one could find fault with on Saturday night – Samantha singing Destiny’s Child’s Survivor. Enjoy.
Last week on I’d Do Anything, The Lord threw a strop and stormed off the set because he didn’t agree with Niamh and Keisha’s inclusion in the bottom two. This week The Lord felt so bad about that sing-off, he decided to spend a one-on-one session with each of the girls to whip them into shape. The results were, on the whole, pretty good, as the girls seemed to rise to this week’s singing theme – big band numbers.
As I have now decided is the norm, I’m starting today’s I’d Do Anything review with a video of what I consider to be the performance of Saturday night. Once again, Sarah was in the running, but I’ve decided to go for Jodie’s performance of the Whitney Houston belter I Have Nothing.
A new feature for you all! Seeing as though the BBC so generously posts every single Nancy and Oliver performance on their YouTube channel, I thought I’d start to head up my reviews with what I believe to be the performance of the week. It was a tough choice between Sarah and Rachel this time, but I eventually plumped for the latter, and her excellent rendition of The Way We Were.
MONDAY BEST: Britain and Ireland’s Next Model, Living TV, 9pm According to Ambassador of England, and definitely Australian person Elle McPherson, the new direction of the latest series of Britain & Ireland’s Next Top Model will be “Uniquely British, the sense of humour and the styling is very British… more hybrid backgrounds… and I think [...]
Do you occupy the mid section of a ven comprised of circles labeled ‘people pictured this week carrying their belongings out of a major investment bank in a cardboard box’ and ‘fans of talent show spin-off musicals by Andrew Lloyd Webber’?
Remember I’d Do Anything? Seems so long ago now, doesn’t it? To refresh your memory – THIS IS THE ONE YOU VOTED IN. And in four months’ time she’s GOING TO BE ON THE WEST END, and posters EVERYWHERE FOREVER. I know how it is. You forgot you sponsored that donkey until you started getting letters through the post, but don’t you get it? We’re all paying the price of your reckless affections now. Just like that donkey you sponsored (I’m speculating here) it turns out Jodie needs help in the acting department, too. Cameron MacIntosh, who always preferred Rachel anyway, 
From: Would you pay for ITV?