Stop the Presses: A Dressing Down on CBC's Maria

CBC's How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria? took a rather dramatic turn last night. It started with the video montage of the Marias. As the montage went on, I started to notice that I hadn't seen a clip of Donna yet. Either I had blinked and missed it, or they hadn't interviewed her. The montage was filled with at least two, if not more, clips of interviews of the other Marias and shots of their rehearsals. Finally, right at the end, they showed Donna. But gee, picking the clip that showed her naked ambition was a bit odd, especially since it wasn't balanced by an attractive clip of her and no one else had had unfavourable aspects of themselves shown publicly. But then perhaps the producers wanted to show the public that at least one contestant was ambitious, and that was a good thing. Uh, wrong.

After Donna and Kyla sang, Gavin Crawford asked the panel to pontificate. Everything was proceeding as usual when Elaine Overholt let out a bombshell. She chastised Donna, she dressed her down, in public (!) about her bad behaviour in rehearsals, her bad mouth, her treatment of others, her Diva-like crap when she wasn't even a Diva yet. John Barrowman came to her defence a bit by saying that he hasn't met a leading lady yet who wasn't a Diva, but it couldn't undo the effect of Elaine's words (plus Elaine, vocal coach to the stars, contradicted him).

Donna took the long chastisement well. She didn't get upset or show anger or hurt on her face. But if she doesn't get booted off, she pretty much knows -- or ought to anyway -- that if she doesn't clean up her act, the producers are probably going to show her worst side again, even if there isn't another dressing down by one of the panel, in order to influence the public to boot her off.

I have to say it was shocking hearing Elaine's words, even with the forecasting the montage provided, but it was also nice to discover that sometimes when a person behaves badly, they just won't get away with it.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Oh please. The problem is that Donna has the best voice, and is too popular with the voters. The jusges needed to take her down because they really don't want to cast her. They used to pull this stuff on the BBC show too, but not to this degree. Manipulating hte votyers. Wish this stuff didn't work, but it does.
Anon, I don't know I'd agree about her having the best voice or that we have any idea who is the most popular. But I can see the producers of the show wanting to influence who the public chooses as Maria, only because, unlike Idol, the chosen one is going to be responsible for the success of a very expensive show and for the livelihood of hundreds of people for a year. Whoever Maria is, she had better be good!
Anonymous said…
I agree with the manipulation theory. They have their Maria picked out and now they just have to get her to the top. Donna is absolutely the best singer, note I said singer not performer.

I like Janna, but she really is a Connie clone (for those of you who watched the BBC version.)
Anon, I didn't watch the BBC, so don't know if that's a good or bad comparison with Janna.

In good old Canadian fashion, in tonight's show, they addressed Elaine's comments, got Donna's thoughts on it, and the two "kissed and made up" with Elaine saying that regardless of the other stuff, she's a brilliant performer.

Gavin called out five names to "stay where they are" and Donna's names was one of them. Surprised? Well, she is through to the next round. Not eliminated. If the aim of Elaine's comments was solely to get Donna booted off, it failed. If, however, it was to give a brilliant performer a boot in the butt, it may work or may not. We probably won't ever know.

Back to the show.
Gavin said very few votes separated the bottom three, and Jayme doubled her votes. Simon saved Tamara for her light, clear soprano, and Kyla and Katie went home -- with ENORMOUS bouquets.

(I thought Katie gave the best performance of Jesus Christ Superstar title song -- love that song! -- but her vocals sadly were not up to snuff.)
Anonymous said…
I agree that Donna has by far the best voice for all types of songs. She has shown great versatility in her presentations each week. One can not diminish her talent because of some "bad" behaviour. She CAN sing and she CAN learn to be less of a Diva. Come on Elaine, are the other girls all perfect without attitude and just a little arrogance?
Anonymous said…
The three judges are just FULL of themselves - the three stooges. Overholt is so into her own ego, she is wrecking things by ignoring pitch and going for volume, which she calls her pet theory of "big volume". Its clear what she is doing - boosting herself. Last night she boasted about her relationship with richard gere - andrew hilariously dressed her down asking if next they were going to hear about gerbils...
chimney sweep, you beat me to it. I was going to mention Andrew's comment in my weekly post-vote-reveal post. :)

But I don't know, I think the judges are amusing, much fresher in their outrageous comments than the Idol judges who are looking stale in comparison, probably only because they're so familiar. Television needs drama after all!