As you probably all know the latest TV musical talent show to grace our screens has been Superstar; the ITV show that saw Andrew Lloyd Webber (ALW) search for a leading man to play the role of Jesus Christ Superstar in an arena tour of the UK. This has, probably, been the most controversial of ALW searches for a star and has seen many ups and downs.
Firstly I am going to explore the pros and cons of the show's format.
Pros
- The format to begin with left you with all day to vote - I, personally, liked this as it made me feel more relaxed about voting and it didn't matter if I'd missed the show and was having to catch up on ITV player.
- People's background was included - I know that many of the Jesus' backgrounds were not mentioned but we, as viewers, were told about Roger starring in The Lion King. I liked this openess as in previous searches I often felt conned when you find out that who you thought was an everyday person is really a star anyway.
- It was definately ALW's search - on previous programmes it has felt like ALW was just a name and that he was put there to get ratings, this compares to Superstar when it felt like ALW was acutally in control (even if some of his decisions were questionable).
Cons
- The format was still as trashy as any reality TV show ever broadcast, however we can't really complain as we knew this already.
- There was no super critical judge, which made the competition rather dull as all the judges said every Jesus wannabe was good for the majority of the time.
- There was a ridiculous amount of advert breaks - I know that's because it's an ITV show but it did seem like we were watching more adverts than singing.
- The sudden change in format which led to voting before seeing the Jesus' perform - not only was this strange from a viewer persepctive but it led to us having to vote for our favourite Jesus (something ALW continuously mentioned that we should not be doing) and meaning that the Jesus to go last was disadvantaged.
- The judges having favourites - this wouldn't have been a "major" as the judges (other than ALW) don't vote however the amount of times ALW mentioned not voting for favourites means that this is a point to go in the cons list. What made me really mad was when ALW saved Roger in the double elimination even though he gave the worst performance; if that wasn't choosing his favourite, I don't know what is!
- ALW's comments - more on this below!
Firstly, we'll tackle the comment of no leading men in the West End. This made me seriously consider what planet ALW is living on as there are many leading men in the West End. I, also, thought it undermined the world of musical theatre to those people who don't follow it. For a list of some of the West End's leading men click the following link: http://blogs.thestage.co.uk/shenton/2012/05/a-few-of-my-favourite-leading-musical-me/index.html
Finally, ALW comment to Nathan about Twitter needs addressing. Let me confess that I am a big Nathan supporter and thought that he should win. Nevertheless, let's not get into how amazing Nathan was and, instead, deal with what ALW said. For ALW to actually address his criticism to Nathan on live TV and embarrass his in such a way was appaling. It would have been a lot more professional if ALW had had a quiet word during rehearsals where they could have sorted out the problem like grown-ups. Secondly, I think there is a bit of hypocracy when the show itself tweets thoughtout the show but one of Jesus' is told off for tweeting too much!!!
What are your views on Superstar? What do you think about ALW and the comments he said?
I'm off to see Top Hat and Matilda next week so keep tuned in for my comments on them!!!
Love Kat
xxx
