Can It Be? Legally Blonde is Better Than SYTYCD?
I’ve been very interested in learning some of the behind-the-scenes aspects of everybody’s favorite reality dance competition, So You Think You Can Dance. I think it was getting Arielle’s perspective that got me interested. But something is rotten in the state of etc…
So You Thought You Could Dance?
Like me, the TV Grapevine had a personal connection to someone who auditioned for the show. Like me, that person didn’t make it past the preliminary stages – but in their case, she was able to stay the extra day to see the “individual round.”
Yes, that’s right. That “individual round” is not the first time the judges see the dancers. Nigel Lythgoe, Mary Murphy, and whoever is with them saw all of them in a group cattle call audition the day before . They specifically invite back the dancers they want to see in the individual shows.
Think about that. All the dancers that you see that are so awful, that the judges berate for wasting their time – they were specifically invited back. Why? Not because, as they thought, they had a chance. No, it’s for entertainment value, for ratings, and that’s kind of a shabby way to treat people who want to dance.
Legally Blonde: the Search for Elle
Tonight at 10 MTV debuts a reality show (produced by the same people that brought you The Biggest Loser) to find the new lead for Legally Blonde: The Musical. This did not fill me with much anticipation, after the way they did Grease: You’re the One. However, Loser was pretty well thought out, and there seems to be a couple of other glimmers of hope.
The judges have some serious cred: musical auteur Heather Hach, casting director Bernard Telsey, Paul Canaan (veteran of the Broadway Musical and choreographer Jerry Mitchell. Of course, Grease also seemed to have good judges and…well, you saw how that went.
But there are apparently a lot of musical numbers with members of the actual Broadway cast, a “boot camp” to whip the contestants into shape, Haylie Duff provides some mentorship and guidance, and besides, it’s already been done – all eight episodes have been shot and the new Elle will be joining the cast on Broadway in October.
So let’s see if MTV can do it better than NBC. I’ll give it a grudging chance.
image courtesy of Newscom
1 Comment
While I don’t disagree that the level of schadenfreude in the auditions is depressing and unnecessary, I’m surprised by how many people are surprised by the process. Of course that’s not the first time they’ve danced for producers. Thousands upon thousands of people audition for these kinds of shows and we’re really to believe that Nigel/Mary/Whoever sit through all of them? That’s willful ignorance. Idol works the same way. It would be impossible to do it otherwise. And while I would love it if they’d do away with the less than good dancers entirely, there’s an argument to be made that offering a cross section of the folks who showed up is in fact more real that pretending the shitty dancers never existed. But that’s just me playing devils advocate.