Well, all the auditions are over. The bad has been weeded out and hopefully only the good is left and now it’s the audience’s turn to judge. In case you’re not familiar with this show - they are looking for a guy and a girl to play Sandy and Danny in a Broadway revival of Grease. The “panel” tonight consisted of the producer, the director, the dude who wrote Grease and Olivia “Sandy” Newton-John herself.

To be honest? I thought they judges were way too easy on them. Not a Simon Cowell comment to be found - which is much nicer, but maybe not quite as entertaining. The thing to remember here is not that they’re necessarily looking for the “best”, but who best fits the roles they are casting. It’s a little (a lot?) different than American Idol in that aspect. They have to be able to sing (Broadway style of course), dance, and act, too. There’s a lot more to look at here, and that’s why they were so brutal in their cuts - they cut some good singers who just weren’t right for the part. Not necessarily bad, but not “right”. Now it’s up to the audience and they better hope they gave them good enough choices or the show will bomb on Broadway. So here we go…

Derek: Crazy Little Thing Called Love
Great voice, great look, some good moves - great way to start the show!

Austin: Mony Mony
Blonde Danny? Not sure about that - but he does have a good look and great moves. Not so sure about the song, though. I like his voice, but not so much on this song.

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The judges are incredibly nice to them. Maybe they need to take lessons from some of the other reality show judges? Or maybe it’s nice to not have to listen to judges rip the contestants to shreds.
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Allie: I Love Rock N Roll
This song is sooo not working for me. This song needs to be gritty and it’s not even close. Thanks for ruining a good song chicky. It’s not that she doesn’t have a good voice - it’s just not the right voice for this song. Next!

Kate: All By Myself
Kate has an absolutely beautiful amazing voice. I really can picture her on Broadway as the next Kristin Chenoweth.

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And again the judges are nice. They even like Allie’s take on I Love Rock N Roll. I can only think that they’ve never heard the original. :P As for Kate, they say she is the best singer in the competition. That I will not disagree with.
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And now a surprise! They brought back one of the guys and one of the girls that they cut. The “very very green” ones. So we’ll see if that was a mistake or not.

Matt: Pretty Woman
He starts out okay, but the nerves seem to get to him and the pitch goes all over the place, which is too bad because I love to cheer for the underdog.

Ashley A.: Still the One
I really like Ashley, but unfortunately her pitch was also all over the place and she sounded like an amateur compared to the rest of the contestants. Probably nerves, but if she’s going to stick around, she better bring those vocals to the next level.

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And surprise, surprise, the judges actually CRITICIZE the contestants. I was beginning to wonder if they had it in them.
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Jason: Faith
Kind of arrogant, but he backs it up with great vocal chops and not bad moves. But still arrogant and he looks closer to 30 than a high school student. Vocally one of my favs of the night.

Max: Summer of ‘69
Max has a good voice, yes, but he seems kind of scrawny for my picture of Danny.

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And we’re back to the don’t know how to say anything critical judges. Moving on.
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Laura: Why Do Fools Fall in Love
I can’t tell you if her performance was any good because I spent the whole song being distracted first by the excessive amount of cleavage she had showing and then by the fact that she wore white stiletto ankle boots with yellow shorts. WRONG WRONG WRONG.

Kathleen: Suddenly I See
Not so sure about her outfit either, but I love the song and I loved her performance. It did seem weird, though, that a little church singer girl, was singing the word “hell” over and over. By the way, I think this song would sound great in a Broadway show.

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Nice judges. Nice judges. Blah blah blah. Yawn.
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Kevin: Walking in Memphis
He has a gorgeous voice, but I have a hard time picturing him in a gang. He looks like a choir boy. Or something.

Chad: Signed, Sealed Delivered, I’m Yours
I think I love his look more than anyone else’s. I’d totally be crushing on him were I about 20 years younger and single…lol! And he has a really wonderful rich voice which can also soar on the high notes. My absolute favorite of the night.

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Glowing comments from the judges. Blah blah. Okay, I liked the glowing comments for Chad who is now my favorite. And oh guess what? One of them said that Kevin needed to make them believe he could be the leader of the gang. Yeah. Exactly. I think they judges are even getting tired of being boringly nice.
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Juliana: The First Cut Is the Deepest
A dark-haired, dark-eyed Sandy? Hmm, not so sure about that. She has a very pretty voice, but her performance of this song is almost robotic for me. Sell it to me, don’t just sing the words.

Ashley S.: It’s In His Kiss
I give her props just for the fact that she walked down stairs in high heels singing. I really enjoyed her performance - she’s cute and I could see her as Sandy.

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One of the judges calls them Betty and Veronica. Possibly the funniest comment of the night which proves that not only do some of the contestants need to work on their vocals, the judges need to work on their one-liners. Ahem. And one of the judges says that they think Ashley S. may be the one America wants. That’s something I can agree with.
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So who should go? Well, based on performance, it should be Matt and Ashley A., but I bet they’ll get the sympathy vote. My favs? Chad and Ashley S. with Kate a very close second.