GREASE was very irritating to me tonight because the judges are doing what they're doing to make it a contest.
In my mind, the only worthy contender out of these four is Austin Miller. He can sing very well, he can dance like a dervish and not be winded, and he has oodles of stage presence. (They really haven't let us see any of the acting scenes, but I'm assuming he can act.) He's also the closest of the four to Travolta if he's your idea of the ideal Danny.
Kathleen Marshall pegged what he did tonight to "Fun, Fun, Fun" perfectly. He had fun, and used his triple threat abilities to make the number really entertaining. (He also showed off his very strong and on-the-money falsetto that puts all of the falsettos used by this season's AMERICAN IDOL men to shame.)
But David and Jim complained that the sense of fun they were looking for looked artificial on Austin during the number. Good god! That's what acting is!
And Austin's number was BY FAR the most complex in terms of movement, choreography (as all of his numbers have been; they always give him the most to do while people like Derek and the evicted Jason always just stand and sing ballads), and interaction with the girls.
Max, who was all three judges' pick tonight, had the second best routine ("Hard to Handle"), but I didn't think his singing was anywhere near the class of Austin's, and he just looks too young to me (and too much like Huntz Hall).
Chad's "Don't Stop Me Now" did have wobbly vocals, but his routine was more interesting to me than Max's. David's infatuation with Chad's looks insures that if he and Derek are in the bottom two (as I suspect they will be next week), they'll pick Chad strictly on looks.
Derek's crack in his vocals ("Heaven") makes two weak vocal performances in a row, and as he was doing literally nothing of interest during the vocal, the judges who liked him from the start have really turned on him. I have to agree. He's got a great body, but his voice just isn't up to the demands of those high notes that Danny's going to have to deliver eight times a week.
I sure agree with DR Jose about this vocal material, however. I hate every one of the songs they used tonight. They must have gotten the rights for peanuts to save money. The girls got much better songs last week.
As for the girl who was ejected, I was surprised. They had saved her twice before, and she wasn't the lowest vote getter this week, so I thought they'd save her. I thought in the sing off, she did the better job of the two. But I honestly don't think either of those two girls in the bottom two have the right stuff for Sandy.
