Manhattan Chowder, Back in the Big Apple

Last night I had the pleasure of watching American Idol from start to finish with Cara, one of my oldest friends in the world. We met doing a production of The King and I together when we were both 10 years old. We went to high school and college together, moved to New York at the same time and I even did the flowers for her wedding. We both have musical and theatrical backgrounds so we had a lot to say about Idol and each one of its contestants last night. Her husband quite wisely let us have the TV to ourselves excusing himself to his office likening our passion for Idol to that of his for hockey. "So this is like the equivalent of watching a hockey game for you two, right?" Yep. That's pretty much it. So on with the idol chat for this week.

The Best Girls: Melinda Doolittle, once again. Proving she can sing anything she chose another standard showtune "As Long As He Needs Me" from Oliver! Not exactly a British Invasion song but obviously no one cared. She sold the song both emotionally and vocally but a word of caution to Melinda: start picking more youthful pop songs. While the adults in the audience appreciate her sophisticated, polished performance, the demographic of 13 year old girls out there might grow weary of standard after standard each week. Lakisha also had a strong showing vocally. The girl could sing the phone book which is a good thing since her song choice "Diamonds Are Forever" is only one step above that. She should have listened to Lulu and sang "You Are My World." She might have taken top honors with that song. Honorable Mention: Jordin Sparks gave the two aforementioned divas a run for their money with her guts-on-the-floor version of "I Who Have Nothing." Also, she has that youthful pop star quality the other two are missing.

The Best Boys: Blake, Blake, Blake. His song "Time of the Season" was a brilliant choice to show off his beat-box skills. He manages to work that in every week without it being overkill. Plus, he has originality, musicianship and good vocal chops. Besides that, he's a born pop star. He looks like one and has the stage presence and sex appeal required for the job. He could go all the way. Chris Richardson, just because I think he's adorable. His vocals are just okay but who cares when you're that cute! Seriously though, that combination is enough to go quite far in the recording industry. Phil Stacey, once again delivers vocally and his alien-like looks didn't bother me that much this week. Maybe I'm just getting used to him. He has to stop holding his mic with his pinkie up, though. Girl, your slip is showing!

The Worst: It pains me to say it but Stephanie was a disappointment this week. "You Don't Have to Say You Love Me" is a song which should have been a vocal and emotional showpiece but fell short in both areas. She backed off it emotionally and her pitch was off in a lot of places. Gina Glockstein: Great personality as always but a really poor song choice. It was too rangy for her and she was sharp on the bottom notes. Also, I think it's very hard for a woman to pull off a Mick Jagger song. And speaking of women singing Mick Jagger songs, Sanjaya was once again the bottom of the barrel for me. (Meow! I know.) Every one is saying how much improved he is this week, but that's because he chose to shout a lot of the lyrics (which you can get away with in that song) cleverly concealing the fact that he can't sing on pitch.