I'd do Anything - Semi-final for the Nancys and the three winning Olivers are revealed

Semi-final night for the four remaining Nancys tonight and the pressure is really building. The opening number tonight was Food Glorious Food with the eight Oliver finalists and the four girls all performing well.

Rachel was the first Nancy to perform tonight, singing the theme song from “Cabaret.” For once Rachel really showed her true colours and the panel told her she was phenomenal and brilliant, a star performance - could the other Nancys match her? “Of course they can,” said Andrew Lloyd Webber – but it was probably Rachel’s finest moment so far. It may just be enough to keep her in the competition until next week.

Next was County Kerry’s Jessie Buckley. Jessie sang “What I Did For Love,” from A Chorus Line. It was vocally very good but she showed little movement throughout the song – John Barrowman told Jessie he was actually slightly bored throughout the performance, whilst Denise said Jessie was a bit aggressive in manner for the number. Cameron Mackintosh, sitting on the panel for the first time tonight, felt that Jessie is very talented but has not quite hit the roof yet. Once again Jessie tried to interrupt the judges during their comments – I really do wish she wouldn’t do that, it’s not the first time and I don’t think it does her any favours.

Next, Samantha and Jodie performed a duet of “Jesus Christ Superstar.” They certainly showed that the Nancys can rock!

The three winning Olivers were then revealed to be Gwion, Laurence and Harry – I still feel that a lot of the potential Olivers were too old in the first place and so I suppose these three were chosen partly because they are three of the youngest. All the boys showed that they could sing prior to this, however, when Andrew took them to a West End theatre where they sang solos of “Where Is Love?” Two of these three wouldn’t have been my choice for the role, but Andrew and Cameron are happy and that’s what matters!

Back to the Nancys and Samantha was next to perform. Singing, “When You Believe” from The Prince of Egypt she was required to show vulnerability and to break the panel’s hearts. It was a hard song with which to achieve this however. John Barrowman, rather unnecessarily drew the comparison between Sam and Jessie – Sam was like a shark, snaking and swimming towards her goal whilst Jessie was a fish out of water. Denise commented that Sam has the likeability factor which is very important.

The final Nancy to perform was Jodie who reduced Denise to tears with her rendition of “Out Here On My Own,” from Fame. Denise said that Jodie shows in her performance that she has life experience. John told her she took direction well and that it was an emotional and simple performance. Barry felt Jodie was in danger of being a little restrained and Cameron felt the performance was slightly matronly.

The final duet was between Jessie and Rachel, performing “Buenos Aires” from Evita. To me Rachel really shone in this number – certainly with regard to movement and acting, although Jessie’s vocal was strong.

Andrew Lloyd Webber has already said he’s going away tomorrow to avoid having to decide who to send home – the competition is still wide open and it could really be any of them in the bottom two. Still he will have to decide and no doubt it will be “the hardest decision he’s ever had to make” (again!)

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