So this is a bit late given it happened on Saturday, but I (once again) had the pleasure of watching Over the Rainbow live from the studio. This time I had the fortune of just turning up at the studio and hoping to find a kind soul with a spare ticket. I turned up at about 3.15pm and luckily found Lionel who (it later turned out) had a spare priority ticket, and so was in about the first 10 people to be allowed in to the studio! Thanks Lionel!

The gods must have been looking down upon me favourably that day, because I then got selected to be one of 8 people who got to sit in the stage right front row seats, when they weren’t being occupied by the munchkin kids who performed at various points. This gave me a prime opportunity to catch myself on screen, which I have duly uploaded here.

For what actually happened during the final (and the rest of the series) I can recommend Monkseal, Over the Rainbitch and (the extraordinarily named) Millie Moo and Chewbagga blogs. All 3 of these have me in fits of giggles at some of their insights during the series. Anyway, back to (me) the screenshots.

Here I am in the first show during the former Dorothy’s performance of Empire State of Mind:

Ex-Dorothys perform. See me in the bottom left!

This was pre-recorded just before the first show, I guess so they didn’t have to all change into their ‘dorothy dresses’ live at the same time – would have been a wardrobe nightmare! I was sitting right next to the Dorothy benches as well, which meant I got to overhear their chat and watch them mess about before they performed. Highlights included the muchkin boys mocking Steph because with their hair all gelled up they were nearly as tall as her and them pulling faces at each other across the stage from the wing spaces. I’m glad that people who work in theatre’TV in “real-life” have the same fun/serious balance as I do in student theatre! Also overheard were most of the ex-Dorothys (particularly Jenny and Stephanie) complaining about the fit of their new colour coordinated shoes – now that the sequined slippers are on the shoedelier behind the Lord – and being desperate to take them off at the first oppotunity.

I was also on telly a few more times at about that size, but sitting so close to the benches meant I was in a prime spot for the eliminations! Here is a screengrab from the second show when Sophie went to meet her family:

As Sophie greets her parents, there I am, lurking in the background!

Just before Sophie’s elimination, as her and Danielle walked down the stairs, I’d also like to claim responsibility for this smile to the crowd as I wished her good luck:

Nervous smile to the audience

At least, I’m 80-90% sure it was at that: it was at the same time as I called out, but equally there were a lot of well-wishers!

Another notable moment that didn’t show on screen was as Lauren was eliminate; during the farewell, Danielle carried the shoes to the Lord and stopped singing (or seemed to), which obviously worried Sophie as she was carrying the song so she gestured with a wave to all the ex-Dorothys to join in and help her out. It is funny some of the things you can see in the studio and not on screen!

It is a shame for me that Sophie didn’t win; on Saturday she finally gave the brilliant performances that I’d kinda hoped she would all series, especially her version of ‘Tomorrow’ against Danielle’s ‘76 Trombones‘. In fairness to Danielle, it was more of a rubbish song choice than anything else (as Sheila pointed out), but it did demonstrate Sophie did finally have the voice/talent required which I think was a revelation to many. I’d love to know what the exact votes were for Danielle and Sophie – it must have been very close I think.

In fairness, I’m not too worried; I’d pay to see almost any of the top 10 perform that role and have already booked to see The Wizard of Oz twice! And as for Sophie, given past precedent with these shows, I’m sure we’ll see her in the West End in the next year or two; and I’ll go and see that too!

On Saturday I had the pleasure of watching Over the Rainbow not from my sofa, but live from the studio at Wembley. As luck would have it, it was a particularly good week to pick, being ‘musical theatre’ week and a double eviction. We also got to see Charlotte Church perform, but to be honest, it was a little bit ‘meh’ in my opinion.

I’m not going to commentate on the show, as there are plenty of other blogs that do that perfectly (such as Over the Rainbitch, who I only found today, and whose comments seem spot-on), but instead address a few things that you’d have to have been in the studio to notice.

Applause

As when I have been to a TV recording before, the audience don’t decide when to applaud – we are told when the applaud and when to keep quiet by a couple of people standing between the audience and the stage. This means when everyone claps whenever the girls reach a high/loud point, it isn’t because they are all idiots, but because they are told to. In fairness, it does look quite good on the telly like that, it is just really annoying.

The same went for being forced to clap all the way through Tamsin Outhwaite’s number. And she wasn’t even there: it was a pre-record, as evident by the fact that the audience in her segment aren’t clapping and yet applause is heard.

Pick-ups/do-overs

Obviously the live show is live, so any pick-ups wouldn’t be possible anyway, not that it really needed them, but even the second show Graham Norton only made a single mistake that had to be re-shot – that cannot be an easy task, being faultless for a good few hours. I was impressed. We did have a few pauses for costume changes, but I think that is fair enough – why rush around live like mad things if you don’t have to.

Charlotte Church

Her song warrants its own section because she had to do it 3 times to get it right, and do the interview with Graham twice as she forgot to plug the single the first time round (duh!). Not particularly forgiveable given she is supposedly the experienced singer to mentor the Dorothys, who manage to (more or less) get 3 or 4 songs right each week in a single take. It was especially torturous as the song is pretty crappy anyway.

The Dorothys

Our first taste of the girls was when we realised we were sitting close to where they sit the guests/VIPs, so we congratulated/commiserated Stephanie on last week’s departure. The live show was relatively uneventful – I think it came across on telly the same way as it was in the studio. I definitely

think that Jenny and Sophie’s songs were chosen to try and unseat them; unpopular songs were never going to get as many votes as the well known numbers the other 4 produced. Combined with Jenny’s dog fiasco (again, I call fix…), it was predictable to see her go I think.

Sitting where we were, she then came up to join Stephanie which meant we got to have a chat (and a photo) with both of them. They were both lovely and relatively unfazed by the number of people wanting a chat/hug/photo. This confirmed my suspicions that I think I’d like to marry Jenny… 😉

In the results show, the only point of note was Sophie in the mash-up, as she managed to get the dance wrong (twice, I think). Having watched it back last night, I think she escaped having it broadcast though, but we saw! I also thought that Jessica did a good job of keeping composed after her elimination, and seemed to be in good spirits as she left, thanking well-wishers including us. It was also notable that the first person to talk to her after she came down from the moon was the Lord himself, who greeted her with a big hug, so it looks like she is gong to be in his good books for a while to come.

I’m glad that I didn’t manage to make it on TV, as I think I would have felt very self-concious,and despite the 2 and 1/2 hour wait to get into the studios, I’d definitely do it again and I hope I get tickets for either (both?) of the next two shows. It also made me remember how much I love live musical theatre, so I think a few more West End trips are in the offing!

As background, this is about the BBC TV show Over the Rainbow, where they search for a girl to play the part of Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz. I’m not all about sciency/politics things you know!

Firstly, I know we’ve had more than half of the shows (no idea where the time has gone…), but with 6/11 girls still in and a double eviction next week, I think it counts! The questions for me are: how were my predictions from the audition stages and have I changed my mind!

My picks from the top 10 were listed in 3 groups like so. I’ve struck through those which have already been eliminated.

Jessica
Stephanie
Dani

Amy
Danielle
Jenny
Lauren

Sophie
Bronte
Steph

And then Emilie was the wild-card who has been and gone.

So apparently I can’t pick them! Although I still think Jessica stands a great chance.

Contrary to my original rankings, I’m quite glad that Stephanie went tonight as while I still think she would have been great technically, she just isn’t as interesting to watch as some of the other Dorothys. In some ways, now we’ve seen more of the girls on screen, in my mind I have mentally moved the goalposts so now they can’t just look and act like my mind’s eye thinks Dorothy should be but also have to win me over generally. I’ve fallen into a horrible trap of not judging them objectively at all, rather falling for the different personalities we are shown. Given I’m sure that is how most people vote, I’m actually surprised the programme-makers don’t have get the girls to engage more with the public and garner up more votes. Why don’t they publish diaries/twitter accounts/web-only video and the like? Certainly seems to be a demand for it if the way people lap up the official facebook page.

Embracing my change of heart, I’d like Jenny, Sophie or Lauren (I realise I’ve just named half the field…) to win as they are just very watchable, both in their performances and in flirting with the camera in the prerecorded segments. Otherwise, I stick by my shout of Jessica from way back!

I’ve also warmed a lot to Steph and her addresses to the camera, but I can’t see her as Dorothy: she just doesn’t seem vulnerable enough for me. I’d like to see her in something where she could use that confidence, Chicago maybe?

On a separate note, I’m going to see it LIVE next week at Fountain Studios in Wembley! I’m ridiculously excited, both by seeing it all live, but also in a geeky way by seeing how they work that mix of live theatre and live broadcasting. I’m sure it will be amazing, and I’ll try to write it up here. (Obviously without any spoilers, given the backlash in the Twitterverse last night over the leaking of potential spoilers!)