On the Scene: Idol Gives Back, Walt Disney Hall edition!
Apr 26, 2007, 05:04 PM | by Adam B. Vary
Categories: 'American Idol'
The sky was clear, the sun golden, the Walt Disney Concert Hall, er, undulating, as the audience line snaked along Grand Avenue in downtown Los Angeles waiting to pass through security (and Frank Gehry's bowed steel facades) to enter. Even the usual signs for Blake and Jordin were peppered for posters touting One.org, Product Red, and Save the Children. So you would probably be safe in saying this was definitely not your typical Idol results show, right?
Well, in some ways it wasn't —no Ryan, no judges, no finalists, and instead of a stage made of curving brushed metal and glass designed to avoid right angles, a stage made of curving polished wood designed to avoid right angles — and in some ways it was. For one, the moment I heard "Billie Jean" mashed with "Don't Stop Believin'" playing inside as people moved to their seats, I wondered: Dear heavens, Corey the WUC hasn't invaded the Disney Concert Hall, has he?
Yes, he had. Yes, he stuck to his exact same warm-up script. And, basically, if I didn't bring this up, I would have even less to discuss in this blog post. Because even though most of the musical performances took place at the Disney Concert Hall (outside of Jack Black, the Final Six, and Celine Dion and Elvis' ghost), there was very little off-camera action going down. At least, from what I could gather from my seat waaaaay in the back. No celebs caught my eye, Corey the WUC was refreshingly low-key (he even managed to one-on-one with the peeps in the highest balcony by the end of the show), and before performing, the musical artists all just stood on their marks in the dark waiting for Ellen to introduce them.
Ellen, of course, was the biggest star of the night, winning a welcoming ovation so deafening it gave me a mild headache for the rest of the night. Still, I was bummed that Ms. DeGeneres kept her time on stage to the barest minimum, appearing a scant minute before the cameras went live and then leaving just as quickly rather than staying to watch the show. So it was the audience itself that provided the most entertainment for the evening. Shirley's already explained that the CBS Television City audience was asked to keep things calm and subdued; not so much with the Disney Hall folks. Corey pretty much goaded us to be as loud and energetic as possible to show the CBS crowd who was the better audience. And I think we were…mostly. I'm just grateful the CBSers weren't handed glo-sticks and told to keep time with Il Divo by swaying said glo-sticks in the air, 'cause we sure weren't able to. (There was even a little laughter as the foursome started to sing and we attempted to sway — was it too much for Corey to stand out of camera range and give us a little direction?)
The Disney Hall crew did take full advantage, however, of the freedom to react to what went down at CBS as if we were still watching at home. Which meant: Some mild titters whenever Sanjaya appeared on screen; silent confusion when Celine and Elvis' ghost stepped on stage to duet; and total shock when Paula and her two best friends (you know which two) appeared next to Ryan to plug the Idol Aid hotline. Seriously, the entire Disney Hall pretty much erupted upon witnessing Paula's impressive décolletage, and the murmuring didn't stop for well over five minutes afterwards. A woman sitting a few seats from me even leaned over and said "You should definitely include that in your notes!" But the biggest reaction of the evening went to the most deserving: As instructed by Corey, we all stood to give the African Children's Choir a rousing salutation as they filed in during the all-star "Stayin' Alive" video. Maybe it was the kids, maybe it was the Disney Hall's acoustics, but I managed to sit through Josh Groban's 3,182nd rendition of "You Raise Me Up" without using my pen to puncture my eardrums (Groban fans, I await your flaming below), and I couldn't help but tear up as the children swarmed Groban at the end. Our Standing O for them was by far the longest of the night.
We would have applauded longer for Kelly Clarkson's fierce and deeply felt duet with legendary guitarist Jeff Beck, but quite literally the moment the show cut to commercial, the one-time Idol champeen skittered out of there as fast as her feet could take her. At least Annie Lennox lingered long enough to bask in our (to my ear, somewhat inexplicable) adulation as the mini-orchestra began filing away and the stage hands tearing down the lights behind her. We all stuck around to watch Ryan give the final results — and, yes, many were fooled into thinking Jordin was going home — but then the audience started to leave, skipping Bono's mentoring words and the final group performance lest we all get stuck in the line for checked cell phones and cars waiting to exit the lower depths of the Disney Hall's parking garage. Because Idol may be the biggest television phenomenon in the history of ever, but nothing can keep Angelenos from their BlackBerrys and the chance to beat traffic.
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