A bit under the weather today (sidenote: when exactly are we over the weather?!). While not having contact with the outside world may seem like one of drawbacks of working from home, one of the good things is that you tend to get sick less often. But every so often, it does happen. On Saturday, I had that little nasal tickle/itch... by the nasal passages got a bit more angry with stuffiness and face "hurt"... and this morning, getting out of bed, was the head "glug, glug, glug." Now at mid-morning, gravity is kicking in... so things are a tad better (though certainly not prettier).
However, before entering the fog of Expectorant Land last night, it was time for the first Danny and Sandy elimination on Grease: You're The One That I Want. Even without any drugs in my system, I was pretty hysterical for the last few minutes of the show.
First, I should back up just a bit. For lack of a better word last week's first live performance show was, for lack of a better word, bad. The height being the assigning of silly nicknames to each finalist... dubbed such things as "Emotional Sandy" or "Bellhop Danny" or "Spiritual Sandy." Without even a hint of tongue in cheek, the hosts refer to them finalists by these names. To the left, host Billy Bush (did he really call guest judge Sir Andrew Lloyd... World Wide Webber?) is pictured with two of the front-running Dannys... "Hot Danny" (Austin, red shirt) and "Wholesome Danny" (Derek, my personal favorite).
There's tons of other stuff (i.e. overall production value) that make this show pale in comparison to the king of this genre, American Idol (some of which I discussed in a past entry), but last night there was an "upgrade" of sorts, I found the show so bad, it was good... a theater-reality show geekfest train-wreck of a show!
As with many of these reality talent shows, the public make the eliminations. This show heavily publicized this "You pick the leads for the Broadway revival of Grease!" Well, not exactly. In a "surprise twist," we learned the judges would make the elimination amongst the the bottom 2 vote-getting Dannys and Sandys and have to compete in ... drumroll please... a sing-off! To make a long story short, the two lowest vote getters were "saved"... which was actually okay, since sympathy votes would have kept in the couple that really did deserve to go.
The fun started with the sing off. Th four eliminees stood in a line and took turns singing the appropriately worded "Tears On My Pillow." Based on this performance, the judges made the decision (though the pretty much 'fessed up to being more influenced by personal favorites and past performances).
Humiliating fun, but little did I know what lied ahead. The two "saved" contestants had to perform their song for this week's voting... which seemed pretty mean given that they were just told that America hated, or worse were indifferent about them.... but then, then the pièce de résistance!
Taking a cue from Idol, the two eliminated contestants had to sing for us "one last time." But unlike Idol, they don't reprise the song and performance that America voted them out judges hated.
The eliminated Danny, huddled by the surviving Dannys, had to sing the Grease song "Oh Sandy." With his puppy-dog eyes, he told the viewers that "we hurt him real bad" and finally our outgoing 'lil Zuko wondered "why, oh, why"... cut to Ed, convulsive laughter.
But we ain't done yet... off to stage right, where the remaining Sandys similarly circle "Sad Sandy"... who must now eke out the plaintive version of "Look At Me I'm Sandra Dee" (you know, in the movie, right before "Sweet Sandy" turns to "Slutty Sandy").... "there's something more than what you see" she warbles ... and then dissolves into tears as her fellow Sandys serenade that "you must start anew" ... by this time, I am nearly in tears myself (granted my tears are 180 degrees from Sad Sandy)... and I wave to the TV screen as they reach the song's last line... "Goodbye to Sandra Dee."
Oh boy, I just hope they do this every week!
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