It was announced this week that Sophie Evans, runner up in BBC’s Over the Rainbow, will be the alternate Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz at the London Palladium. She will play the role on Tuesday evenings and during Danielle Hope’s scheduled holidays.

I suppose this doesn’t come as a big surprise; when Jodie Prenger won the role of Nancy in Oliver! at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane, the understudy part was offered runner up Jessie Buckley (who turned it down and went on to get a part in A Little Night Music.)

It’s a smart move for Sophie to take this part as she will gain invaluable stage experience. And looking at How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria? finalist Aoife Mullholland (who was understudy in The Sound Of Music) she has gone on to roles in Chicago and Legally Blonde. It could prove to be a great stepping stone for Sophie.

I suppose the question is: do the public feel cheated that the other finalists are still being cast (in some respect) in the show? The public obviously wanted Danielle. As we’ve seen before with The Sound Of Music star Connie Fisher, it’s irresponsible to demand 8 performances a week. Some performances will have to use an alternate or risk exhausting the lead performer. But those who did not vote for Sophie and paid to vote for Danielle will still be getting Sophie at least once a week.

Personally I would like to see both and compare. What do you think?

Buy Wizard of Oz tickets here.

 

The bookies favourite came out on top. 18 year old Danielle Hope from Manchester won the role of Dorothy in the upcoming West End production of The Wizard Of Oz.

Danielle was one of the panel’s favourites from early on in the competition, but she seemed to seal the deal with her acting abilities and performing range.

On Saturday night, the first installment of Over The Rainbow saw the final three perform a song from a musical that Lord Lloyd Webber had chosen especially for each. Sophie sang an excellent version of Tomorrow from Annie which really suited her. As much as the girl struggled throughout the competition, she seemed to find herself with these big songs that showed off her voice.

Lauren sang I Could Have Danced All Night from My Fair Lady which was absolutely perfect for her voice. She had the best vocal performance of the night, but unsurprisingly, she completely overacted the song.

Danielle had a very odd musical choice with Seventy-six Trombones from The Music Man which showed off her adaptability and stage presence, but was a bit shouty at times. In fact, it was a bit like watching a wannabe cartoon character strutting about. Not good.

I liked Danielle’s performance the least, but wanted Lauren to leave the competition first, which she promptly did. She flew away on the moon, leaving Sophie and Danielle to battle it out in the second half.

Both Danielle and Sophie sang their favourite songs from the series (Danielle’s notorious Mambo Italiano, and Sophie’s Reflection which finally made her a serious contender). They then simply had to come out and sing Over The Rainbow and generate the most votes. Last week, I backed Sophie to win, and after hearing both sing the infamous song, I still think Sophie should have won. But…. Danielle is the better all round choice to perform on stage and I can’t wait to see her at the Palladium. She didn’t seem to have the vocal power that Sophie demonstrated, but it’s not just about singing, right?

So what was your favourite moment of the series? Was it Lord Lloyd Webber’s strange mutterings? John Partridge and Charlotte Church’s spats? Or Sheila Hancock telling it like it is. Graham Norton’s horrible waist coats should be erased from memory, along with Emilie’s singing. It was a good competition with excellent talent, and will be missed by all of us at Discount Theatre towers……sniff.

Since announcing Sophie as my favourite in the last blog, I’ve had to listen to endless diatribes from my colleagues about how unsuitable she is. With the final three having such different qualities, the outcome is really going to come down to personal taste. Let’s recap:

Lauren: without a doubt she is the best singer of the finalists. She’s also been the most consistent vocal performer and could easily handle the rigorous nature of performing night after night. My problem is that her acting looks really forced and she does this really weird thing of flitting between accents when she sings. I started out really liking her, but got bored by mid series…that perceived arrogance hasn’t helped her cause. She should be the first to go on Saturday night.

Sophie: I’ve jumped on the Sophie bandwagon and as I said earlier, it’s down to her performances in the last two weeks. In the first couple of episodes, when the girls were performing in groups, Sophie stood out as a favourite, but she had some disasters, including a Shania Twain episode, which became a Welsh/Hillbilly car crash. As someone said to me, Sophie is the most striking of the final three and her voice is really quite good. If she can sort out her American accent (and there’s time to do that) I think she’s the one.

Danielle: She is the safe bet and the one that will probably win. A very good actress and has the voice as well. I just find her a bit boring and with the exception of her Mambo Italiano, I can’t really recall anything extraordinary about her performances. When the search for Dorothy began, the panellists and Lord Lloyd Webber said they wanted to redefine the role of Dorothy and make it a little edgier. Danielle is a sure bet, and I would go to see her in the show, but will she bring anything new and interesting to the role?

If you are on Twitter, watch out for Discount Theatre’s live tweet on Saturday night. The role of Dorothy is still up in the air and the result may be as unpredictable as the competition.

Sadly, we are all facing the ultimate question: What are we going to do on Saturday nights without Over The Rainbow?

The Wizard Of Oz is on sale now… if you want to see the show regardless of who wins, don’t wait until Saturday night when the masses will descend onto the internet, resulting in a mad grab for tickets. Buy your Wizard Of Oz tickets here.

After Emilie’s exit last week I really didn’t know who was going to be in the bottom two this week, The competition so far has been a free for all; there’s some great talent and even greater variety between the contestants.

My bottom two bet was on Sophie and after I heard her sing It’s a Wonderful World, I thought that she might be out. It wasn’t bad, but it just didn’t grab me and I didn’t think the song fit in with the big band theme of the week. Jenny didn’t impress me either. Poor Stephanie got stuck with Mr. Bojangles, which is a song that was used in “I’d Do Anything”. It didn’t work then and didn’t work for poor Stephanie, which is too bad because I really like her voice.

The night belonged to Danielle with her version of Mambo Italiano which was absolutely brilliant and even seemed to catch Lord Lloyd Webber’s attention. Lauren was good singing The Man That Got Away and Jessica’s performance of Cabaret was not too bad at all.

So Mr. Bojangles and Stephanie were voted to be in the bottom two along with Steph which didn’t make sense at all especially since her performance of Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend was a great show opener. Lord Lloyd Webber did the right thing and saved Steph (who is good performer, rather than just being a good singer) and sent Stephanie to the moon.

But next week should be interesting as we head towards the nitty gritty; there will be a double expulsion, one contestant will leave on Saturday and one on Sunday, leaving us with the final four. I’m going to go out on a limb and say that Sophie and Jenny should leave at this point as they don’t compare to the other four girls in the competition. Next week should be good!

Another week, and yet another completely different pair of girls in the bottom two on Over The Rainbow. With no clear front runner yet, it’s been rather hard to predict who might go next.

Dani and Danielle faced off to sing ‘Maybe This Time’ from Cabaret. I think from the moment they both started singing, we all knew Danielle would be saved, but fair play to Dani as she certainly went out with gusto. Once again, I don’t think either girl deserved to be in the bottom two.

Dani was much better than last week, but I don’t think she was ever going to win the show. Danielle was good, but didn’t really stand out with her performance of ‘Could It Be Magic’

My pick of the week was Sophie who finally seemed to find her comfort zone and thankfully wasn’t wearing a pair of hotpants this week.

My question is: What on earth is Emilie still doing there? She sang ‘Moon River’, which was a little better than last week’s shaking and dancing disaster, but she just does not have the voice. And Jessica’s over the top facial expressions started to get on my nerves. I still like her but she needs to tone it down because it’s starting to look ridiculous.

I’m not even going to predict which way this is going to go next week, but if Emilie’s public support wavers, she may find herself taking a trip to the moon.

Over The Rainbow is back next Saturday night on BBC One at 7.15pm

Make that Bronte.

It wasn’t a good weekend for the aspiring Dorothy from Cheshire. After receiving generally positive feedback from the panel for her performance of ‘Suddenly I See’ Bronte found herself in the bottom two with Lauren. Lord Lloyd Webber was forced to give one the chop.

Not only was Bronte banished from the Over The Rainbow crowd, she was rather humiliatingly and inadvertently called ‘Barbie’ by the Lord himself. I don’t think anyone could figure out at first if the Lord was attempting to make a joke or if he was just a little confused about where he was. Thankfully Graham Norton jumped in and corrected the situation, nervously laughing at the Lord’s gaff.

Neither Bronte or Lauren deserved to be in the bottom two. However, I couldn’t see Bronte as Dorothy either. There never seemed to be any depth in her performances.

But with the likes of Emilie struggling to sing and dance her way through her song again this week, and Dani looking petrified as she performed, Bronte certainly didn’t deserve to take a trip to the moon.

So a surprise victim last week; not quite sure what the public are thinking. Stay tuned.

And I’ve got Dorothy right behind me….make that Dorothys.

I finally got to see Lover Never Dies last night, and I have to say that Andrew Lloyd Webber can still pull off a good show. As I pointed out last week, the show is producing a love it or hate it effect, but I am firmly in the love camp. It’s been a while since I have seen such a slick staging of a musical, and it helps that I love the dramatic epic.

As I waiting for the show to start, I was aware of movement behind me, and as I glanced up I realised that it was the some of the Dorothys from last weekend’s Over The Rainbow. As I tried to inconspicuously see who I recognised, it became apparent to me that the 10 that weren’t chosen for the live shows were Andrew Lloyd Webber’s guests at the Adelphi Theatre as consolation. Of course, one of them will still make it into the wild card slot by way public vote and we will be seeing 11 perform on Saturday night.

I think I may need to go back to Love Never Dies soon though…I can’t get the Coney Island Waltz out of my head!

The search for Dorothy has commenced! BBC One premiered Over The Rainbow this weekend and as of Saturday night, 10 finalists were chosen and the public are currently voting for a wildcard slot to make it a total of 11 contestants in next week’s sing off.

The Lord has a new throne (he’s ditched that horrible red velvet wannabe Elizabethan thing) and seems to be a little more integrated with the judging panel. Shelia Hancock came out as the most abrasive, questioning the contestants’ motivations in a Mother Superior kind of way, which was superb. Performing in Sister Act has obviously rubbed off.

As for Charlotte Church and John Partridge, they had their modest but non committal opinions, probably because they know it’s still quite early in the game.

The contestants sang two songs (in groups of 4), and a nice surprise was that each sang a number from a current West End show . Chicago, Sweet Charity, We Will Rock You, Legally Blonde and Blood Brothers featured in Saturday night’s broadcast (Blood Brothers was a nice surprise, it is one of the best West End shows and often largely ignored). It was definitely a good way for some current shows to obtain some prime advertising space!

If watching Andrew Lloyd Webber on Friday and Saturday night wasn’t enough, there was also a South Bank program on ITV last night, featuring interviews past and present with Lloyd Webber.  It showed fantastic clips from his new work Love Never Dies, but also incorporated old footage of The Phantom Of The Opera as well as Evita, Cats and Jesus Christ Superstar. It served as a reminder that his shows really revolutionised musical theatre.

Anyways, we’ve been informed that The Wizard of Oz will start booking in about 4 weeks, so there is the opportunity to buy tickets before the winner is announced. As we’ve seen with The Sound Of Music, Joseph and Oliver! the mad dash begins when the winner is crowned and the show sells out within hours. If you know that you want to see this show, regardless of who wins, buy tickets as soon as possible.

In the meantime, I’m looking forward to following more of the rainbow next Saturday.

BBC One’s Over the Rainbow broadcasts on Saturday nights. Discount Theatre has tickets from £40.50 for Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Love Never Dies, currently booking until the 23rd October.