Thanks, Calvin; you nailed it. This "influx" of non-legit types ain't new news, folks. Do any of you recall the outcry when Debbie Boone came in with SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS? She was practically tarred and feathered. And Raquel Welch in WOMAN OF THE YEAR? She sold tickets, some reviewers liked her better than the strained efforts of La Bacall. I remember Mark Hamill in AMADEUS (people gasped, Mr. Schaeffer's play survived). Broadway has always made room for people who ... gasp, gasp ... sell tickets. It ain't the Moscow Art Theater, though if they played here, they'd sell tickets, too. It always reminds me of all the outrage over CATS. As if Flo Ziegfeld would've jumped through fire to produce a show that lasted so long at the Winter Garden. Broadway is a commercial venue. You get a little of this, a dab of that. Sometimes a Redgrave, sometimes an Idol. Always has been, always will be.
I just don't know why Hicks would take a one song role. He might've been drop dead terrific in something like SMOKY JOE'S CAFE, remember that? And isn't Rubeun Studdard touring in AIN'T MISBEHAVIN'?
Face it, Idol will always provide musical theater with replacements. This year's Syesha, just gone, might've slipped into AIDA.
"I'm a comedian, but in my spare time, things bother me." Garry Shandling