Or How A Goofy Show Kinda’ Saved My Life
I think I can finally make an embarrassing confession…
Last year, after going through a particularly rough period that nearly sapped my will to live, I stumbled onto something on YouTube and became completely obsessed with just about the last thing in the world I ever thought I would watch, let alone become a huge fan of – a British talent show for teenage girls.
For a straight middle-aged American man, it was a little weird.
But what can I say? It did what good entertainment should do. It made me forget my problems. It gave me an escape into a glossy world where cute talented girls sang and danced…and, hey, there are worse things than that. I found myself watching the YouTube clips over and over, to the point of crazy repetition. Think chimpanzee, a red button and crack cocaine. Like that. I would collapse into bed every night, tired from work, and play them on my iPad until I couldn’t keep my eyes open any longer. And I would sort of passingly think to myself, “Wow, this is weird”. But something in the show was a direct hit on the pleasure center in my brain.
It wasn’t just crass lechery, and it wasn’t really ironic either, it was sincere enjoyment of the best platform of young talent I had ever seen in a competition. And great fun.
The show in question was Over The Rainbow, a 2010 BBC series to discover an unknown girl to play the role of Dorothy in a new Andrew Lloyd-Webber stage version of “The Wizard Of Oz”. Over 9,000 girls from all over the UK auditioned. They were culled down to 50, then 20, and then 11 finalists who got the chance to perform in a weekly live show where the British public voted them off one by one. The last girl standing would win the lead in her very first West End production and work with Lord Webber himself.
Being a regular watcher of BBC America, I had seen earlier Webber casting shows where they searched for a “Nancy” for Oliver or a “Maria” for The Sound Of Music, and found them fitfully entertaining, but just as often cringe-worthy. A few actress-singers stood out (who have subsequently become very successful), but it felt pretty clunky. Over The Rainbow really raised the standard of talent and with a much slicker production overall.
(They also did two seasons casting “Joseph” in Joseph And The Technicolor Dreamcoat and “Jesus” in Jesus Christ Superstar – but seriously…who wants to watch a bunch of dudes in a talent show?)
Strangely though, OTR has never been shown on BBC America. My guess is Webber wanted to sell a US version of the show if OZ ended up transferring to Broadway and did not want to “dilute the brand” by broadcasting the original in the States. Broadway doesn’t look to be happening, but this column was prompted by the news that a Canadian version of OTR is starting up in September, in just a couple weeks.
But really, who needs TV networks anymore?
Arguably, OTR is as alive two years after it ended BECAUSE it exists in near entirety on YouTube and new people all over the world stumble onto it every day, just like I did.
This was the clip that first hooked me, my gateway drug into the rest of the series. One beautiful redheaded Welsh girl and a very simple song:
See what I mean?
Her name is Sophie Evans and I admit it, I fell a little in love with her. Who wouldn’t?
I should mention here that I have never watched American Idol or any of it’s many imitators. I hate the type of singing that gets celebrated on those shows. That sort of hysterical Mariah Carey riffing up and down the musical scale makes me want to shoot myself in the head.
So, I followed Sophie to this clip where she and her initial audition group perform two songs on the first live show, one pop, one musical-theatre:
Not bad, right? These girls, amateurs up till this moment, are performing in front of millions of people here for the first time and being judged by a panel. Three of them advanced into the final 11.
How about this group?
Two of those girls advanced.
But you see the level of the talent. This is their first show! On national TV!
Not only did they then have to perform solo every week, they also had to do big group numbers:
And what they called a “mash-up” number like this – with an old and modern song combined:
Have I got you hooked yet?
I’m a sucker for synchronized girls. I could watch this stuff all day long.
Coming from a background in theatre, I think I’m predisposed to liking actual song-and-dance numbers like these, not people just trying to be an “idol”. Give me the uncool theatre kids any day of the week.
Yes, it’s gloriously cheesy, but another factor of why it works so well for me I think is it’s very British flavor, its quaintness and goodhearted innocence. To a girl, these contestants handle this brutal baptism-by-fire with unbelievable grace and class and never seem to have any bad feelings about what happens. If it was American, I’m afraid the girls would be a little too graspingly ambitious to truly enjoy the experience and be grateful for getting as far as they do. And while it’s all wonderfully shot and edited, professional in every way, it never gets Vegas-ized and bombastic, as our shows often can.
Here’s what I mean by brutal. At the end of every Results Show, after the UK voted for their favorites, this is what they had to endure:
The big blonde girl who stands out like a sore thumb here is the first one to go home. The short biracial girl proves herself to be a dynamo week after week and makes it quite far.
And yes, that’s Graham Norton, the irreverent talk show host, doing Master Of Ceremony duties. Besides the forever-wincing Lord Webber, the panel of judges included ex-child singing star, Charlotte Church (below, left) and two people you and I have never heard of but who are evidently West End theatre stars. These folks were very tough on the girls, did not spare them any criticism.
After they get down to the two girls with the lowest votes, they pour salt in the wound by pointing out which of them is officially the “least popular” with the public. Nice, right? And then they have to perform a sing-off, after which Webber chooses the girl he will save, eliminating the other one.
Check out this example from the second week:
What I found incredible was that the girls performed expertly in every single sing-off. Despite the pressure they were under and despite what must have been a crushing sense of dread.
Well, at least the torture is over, right?
Nope. Not yet. She has to sing AGAIN.
These shows are famous for their ritualistic goodbyes and OTR is no different. Each dump-ee is forced to sing “Over The Rainbow” while riding a glittery cardboard moon over the stage. And yes, by all scientific measurements, this is THE gayest part of the show. Which is saying something because it’s a show about finding a DOROTHY. But as corny as it is, somehow it works. And as you can see here, at least in the first few eliminations, the girls are genuinely gutted at seeing their friends get kicked off.
Okay, I think I lost a couple of you with that clip. The cynical people. The ones who can’t handle emotion – or a flying moon with a subway hand-strap.
But you felt a little something there, right? Come on. It got to you a teeny bit, admit it. Honestly, though, what really amazed me was how, after being put through the ringer every week (“You ditched her so completely”, really??) these girls always managed to be so poised and gracious about it. American girls, I think, would just be pissed-off and bitter.
Anyway, that’s the structure – simple and effective.
So, other than the aforementioned and absolutely sumptuous SOPHIE – an undeniable star who surprisingly has a pretty bad time of it with the judges – who are the “best” girls? Well, there’s…
STEPHANIE, an extroverted brassy Liverpudlian with a voice described as “melting chocolate”:
LAUREN, who is, without a doubt, the single purely most talented girl in the competition. Unfortunately, she gets labeled “arrogant” early in the proceedings and since evidently that’s just about the worst thing you can call someone in the UK…she was a little abused by the voters.
She never gave a bad performance, so it’s hard to pick just one…but this is my favorite:
STEPH, an all-around pro, comes storming back after the first week’s sing-off with this baby:
And JENNY, an incredibly sweet Scottish girl, consistently outperforms the judge’s expectations and always prompts a smile:
Appropriately enough, JESSICA, who has a very strong Liza Minnelli vibe, does her best when singing “Cabaret”:
Two others, DANI and DANIELLE – the youngest and front-runner respectively – have an intense sing-off that is one of the highlights of the series:
All together, they’re amazing:
And I saved the best for last:
Of course, the show wasn’t perfect…
– There are technical glitches you can always expect with a live show.
– I could have done without the search for a dog to play Toto.
– One girl, EMILIE, through no fault of her own, was in way over her head, and it became painful watching both her performances and the judges eviscerate her every week. She should have been eliminated at the start, and instead, BRONTE, the one on the moon in the above clips, should have stayed in her place.
– Some of the song choices made by the producers were baffling at best and outright sabotage at worst. One poor girl is forced to sing “Mr. Bojangles” (!?). She is promptly kicked off the following night.
– The very end of the show is strangely anti-climactic. They make the last two girls re-sing songs they sang before to diminishing returns. And, in my opinion, the wrong girl wins.
– Ironically, all the big-name guest stars brought on to show how professionals do it suffered in comparison with the so-called “amateur” performances. Including judge Charlotte Church, who ends up getting blown off the stage by the novices when she performs (inexplicably) the old Barbra Streisand disco song “Enough Is Enough” with them. They do wonders with the nothing song, while she just looks nervous and more than a little rusty.
Obviously, millions of people know how the series ended and all you have to do to find out who won is go to the Wikipedia page or Google “BBC Over The Rainbow winner”. But if you want the full experience, I’d suggest watching the YouTube clips in chronological order – as much as possible anyway – as there’s a lot of pleasure to be had in letting the competition unfold clip by clip.
Or, best of all, find someone online who sells the complete series (I recommend ioffer.com), so you can watch it properly on a big-screen television. It’s well worth the price.
So, finally, the $64,000 question (in pounds?) – why DID I become so obsessed with this series?
Well, the easy answer is: The girls, the girls, the girls.
You could search far and wide – in ANY country – and not find a group of young women this talented and strong enough, to compete in such a rigorous weekly challenge. They were a special group. As far-fetched as it sounds, I’m surprised the BBC didn’t hire all the Dorothys for a regular series…an old-fashioned variety show or something like it. I think it would have been a huge hit.
And it was just a blast. Great eye and ear candy, completely addictive, and with tremendous heart. What more could you ask for?
I’d call it a guilty pleasure…but despite my joking, I don’t really feel that guilty.
Now the Canadians are about to broadcast their own, no doubt cheaper blander version. I’ll write a column once I’ve seen it, but I’m skeptical…
I doubt the girls will be nearly as synchronized.
Or as wildly, wickedly talented.
–RR