It's a shame these kids, for the most part, went into this theme completely blind as to the possibilites it had for them. So many lost opportunities.
The Sound of Music - Anthony sang Climb Every Mountain - messed up lyric once and missed many notes - interesting arrangement, though.
West Side Story - Nikko sang One Hand, One Heart - Too many notes - this was a complete distortion of an extraordinarily simple and beautiful melody in an effort to hide the fact he couldn't find any of the correct notes. From the if you can't find a song you want to sing, then sing the song you do pick any darn way you want school.
Babes in Arms - Constantin sang My Funny Valentine - one of the best of the night. Obviously he was the one person who had a clue as to the range of material available.
Man of La Mancha - Scott (and I like him, I really do like him) sang The Impossible Dream, turning it into The Impossible Note. Just unfortunate.
Pippin - Bo rocked on Corner of the Sky - missed a lyric, but rocked none-the-less.
The King & I - Carrie sang Hello Young Lovers in a kind of 50's Teresa Brewer Hit Parade arrangement - my favorite of the night. This could have sold a lot of records in 1957.
Funny Girl - Vonzell sang People - Despite Paula's bizarre comments about Streisand's inability to hit notes Vonzell did, I've seen, honestly, dozens of beauty pageant contestants sing it as well or better. Why must everyone skip the verse and go directly to the chorus?
Oliver - Nadia kicked it up a notch with As Long As He Needs Me. Elegant and simple, honoring the beauty of the songwriting. She wins last night's Diva trophy.
Camelot - Anwar sang If Ever I Would Leave You with major diction problems and great distortion of the melody, ending up sounding pretty much like everything else he's done.
My 2 cents.
"Love Life. Live." Michael Bennett