Last night, Idol's Top 6 sang songs by Andrew Lloyd Webber (ALW). I must admit that I'm not a fan of his musicals. I like a handful of his songs, but that's it. If I were to put a percentage to it, I would say I like 5% of his music. I prefer musicals by Lerner & Loewe, Rogers & Hammerstein, and Mencken & Ashman/Schwartz. With those composers, I look forward to almost every song in the production. With ALW, I'm usually suffering through the entire show to hear one song.

Because the Sharks won last night (hockey, not West Side Story), I'm in a good mood, so I'm going to try to be kind and compliment every contestant. Of course, to avoid jinxing the team in the next round, I'm going to say something negative, too, to balance it out. Finally, I'm going to suggest songs from non-ALW musicals I would have preferred to have heard last night.

Enough with the blabbering, let's get to the recap!

Syesha - Before Syesha even took the stage, I knew she was going to do something dumb like totally surpass my expectations, and she did with "One Rock 'n' Roll Too Many", the only ALW song of the night I didn't recognize. Let that be a lesson to all you future Idol hopefuls. Set the bar low in the beginning, not so low as to get eliminated, but low enough that everybody expects you to fail miserably every week. Then, when you deliver a competent performance, everybody will be so surprised you didn't fall on your face, they won't notice your mediocrity.
Compliment: She looked amazing in that red dress.

Peeves: The way she writhed around on the piano and the way Rickey Minor danced was disconcerting

Alt. Song: Knowing Syesha's proclivity to tackle songs by untouchable divas, I wished she had sung "Listen" from the film version of Dreamgirls, just to see how she compared with Beyonce Knowles.

Jason - ALW didn't seem keen on the idea of Jason singing "Memory" (from Cats). Why Jason would choose a "girl song" confused him. Despite the criticism from the judges, I liked his performance. I think it was because it sounded, in parts, like "Hallelujah". Randy said the song had "too much melody" for Jason, a comment I found comical. It wasn't as bad as Randy or Simon made it out to be.
Compliment: He has the whole sit-on-a-stool-and-sing thing down.

Peeves: Song choice. The image of Barbra Streisand in dreadlocks persisted throughout the performance. I wished he had picked a different song.

Alt. Song: "That's How You Know" from Enchanted. That would have been the perfect "girl song" for him. He could have played steel drums and had a full reggae band backing him up.

Brooke - She makes me want to cry. It's the result of liking her and wanting her to do well and then watching her completely flop... week after week. My hopes were high when she said she would be singing "You Must Love Me" from the film version of Evita. Brooke exudes vulnerability and so does the song. They're a perfect match, in theory. Then she started singing and everything fell apart. It was the most excruciating two minutes of the show. I watched in constant fear she would forget the lyrics (again) or suddenly breakdown during the song. I could tell it was bad when Paula couldn't think of single thing to say and then started giving the speech she usually saves for people going home.
Compliment: She managed to stand in silence during the judges' remarks -- a first for her.

Peeves: Again, song choice. Having her stare at the camera and tell us we must love her made me sad. If she had to sing ALW, I wished she had sung "I Don't Know How To Love Him".

Alt. Songs: She should have gone with something cheery and out of character, perhaps something along the lines of Julie Andrews, like "Sound of Music" or "I Could Have Danced All Night".

David A. - When the group of tweenyboppers stormed the stage to give him a hug, I fell out of my chair in laughter. The boy look petrified and mystified. It was an uncomfortable moment. Archuleta befuddled ALW with his song choice. He chose "Think of Me" from Phantom of the Opera, another "girl song". ALW seemed disappointed with David's choice and after I heard his rendition, I was, too. He took a pleasant ballad, hollowed it out, and sang it the way I imagine All-4-One would sing it if they were still relevant (to use Simon's word-of-the-season).
Compliment: David succeeded in keeping his eyes open throughout the song.

Peeves: I don't think he blinked once. He was all squinty and staring. Creepy.

Alt. Songs: For my own amusement, I wished he had sung "Greased Lightning" from Grease or "Get Me To The Church On Time" from My Fair Lady.

Carly - Like Syesha, Carly did that annoying thing where she completely rocked the song. While I wish she had stayed with her initial choice of "All I Ask Of You", thus showing the judges her consistent inability to choose the right song, I'm glad ALW set her straight with "Jesus Christ Superstar". It matched her style perfectly. It was part rock song, part church revival, and called for nearly continuous shouting, something Carly has taken to in her desperate attempt to please the judges, especially Simon. She can sing. Her main problem is that she only seems to be able to sing loudly.
Compliment: This was her genre and she delivered.

Peeves: She cheated and left the high notes up to her backup singers.

Alt. Songs: I wished she had sung something down tempo, like "On My Own" or "Colors of the Wind".

David C. - Somewhere in the middle of the exchange between David and ALW, my brain shut down. I think it was around the time Webber told David to sing sensually to him, like he was a 17-year-old girl. When I came to, Cook was singing "Music of the Night" and singing it well. The quality of his voice really came through, but I wished he had done something more with the song. Like Simon, I prefer Cook's grittier sound.
Compliment: This was a truly brave performance. He didn't rely on instrumental gimmicks or little known arrangements to boost him. He relied on his vocals alone and it worked.

Peeves: Randy's volcanic compliments. In this case, Cook's performance was a "molten hot lava bomb". I'm waiting for Randy to say something like, "That was Haleakala hot!" Or "That was smoking like Mount St. Helens!"

Alt. Song: I think he could have rocked Bye Bye Birdie's "Honestly Sincere". It's a tongue-in-cheek tune, but if any rock song from a musical needed grit, this would be it.

Predictions: This week's Bottom 3 will be Syesha, Jason, and Brooke. If Brooke doesn't go home, I'll be very surprised.