Music To My Ears: The Adam Lambert Show

Welcome To The Adam Lambert Show, formerly known as American Idol Season Eight

First, to those of you PMing me (or feeling inclined to post here) about whether I've got a hate-on or a love-on for any particular contestant, please rest assured: I don't. Each of the Top 9 has the potential to give a performance that is as nuanced and interesting as any other. Yes, including Megan. And maybe (but I don't think so), Scott. I don't not like Scott. He's a lovely man who plays a mean piano. I just think he's now way over his head on this show.

Just as soon as someone other than Adam gives me something to grab hold of, chew away at and think about in terms of performance, you can bet they will get my attention and my time. In fact, let's hope someone does, because when this show becomes a foregone conclusion this early in the season, it gets a bit boring, doncha think?

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Adam pulled off a feat of fairly monumental proportions this week: he actually brought an entire audience segment onside with that one performance of ToMT. You've probably all seen what I've seen--there is no end to the commentary on these here boards that starts kind of like this: "well, I'm not an Adam fan, but..." and ends something like "this week, I really enjoyed his performance."

Adam The Actor

Adam made a very shrewd, very calculated, very smart set of performance choices this week. His musical theatre background lets him approach every performance as an actor would. Every song is a planned series of choices, not only vocally, but also with respect to gesture, expression, staging, costume, arrangement, etc. Then, he delivers. Live.

I'd like to know how much control a contestant has over those aspects of their performance (or even of song choice for that matter). Did Adam, for example, ask for (and receive) the three musicians accompanying him on stage? Or, do the producers see where a contestant is taking a song, and then stage/choreograph it? I suspect it's probably a combination: the stronger and more confident a contestant is musically, the more likely it is that their vision gets expressed. I assume the producers have final control over staging based on its viability for TV and the reality show format. There has been no end of speculation as to why Chris Daughtry always got the dry ice and light show, for example. But still ... I don't think it's as cut-and-dried as producers picking a fave and stacking the deck for them. Someone with experience and chutzpah (who clearly knows his or her value to the show) can likely make more demands than can a less confident contestant.

Toning It Down

Apart from staging, the second choice Adam made was about how to take this week's performance in a different musical direction. I imagine that he knew how polarizing Ring of Fire was, and figured he needed to go somewhere else this week.

He could have chosen a song that maintained his ability to show off his range--one of his key strengths--but scaled back his tendency to scream. Or, he could have chosen to do a song "straight"--i.e., forgo a unique arrangement, and focus instead on his vocal skills and the emotional interpretation.

Instead, he decided to do about five different things at once: take an emotional song, a song with tremendous nuance; arrange it so that he could sing it entirely in head voice and falsetto (thks for clarification on that, FTA); stage it so that the emotional element comes to the forefront (and his tendency to over-dramatize is minimized); costume and make-up himself so that it is a complete about-face to the Adam character that we have seen; and then deliver it with nary a false note (ok, one or two wobbles, which he masterfully finessed his way around). Plus, that long, head-voice, a capella note at the end? That's like a figure skater deciding to put a triple axel at the end of a long routine. The breath control was amazing. And he was SITTING.

So, he is literally saying: not only am I going to show you I don't have to scream all the time, but I'm going to show you an entirely different type of vocal style of which I'm capable. All you naysayers: I am going to blow your mind by being understated and classy in the same way I have been blowing others' (minds) by being dramatic and flamboyant. You wanna see another side to me, here's another side.

That's a pretty remarkable accomplishment.

Song Choice

Another thing: the song itself. Ok, so the edit they chose of Smokey telling Adam what the song was about? Watch Adam's reaction to Smokey's explanation. He remains respectful, even mouths the words "ooohhh" and I think what amounted to a partial "wow." But inside, I think he's sayin': Smokey, my man, I understand this song better than you think I do. This song is about a person in conflict, who feels so much inside but must "masquerade" to the outside world. THAT's what I'm goin' for....

Smokey tells Adam the literal meaning of the song. That's not what Adam asked, or what he wanted to know: Adam asked, "what inspired you to write it?" He was asking for the emotional context of the song, so that he could get into the character's head. That's an actor for ya'! Adam already knew what the song meant, but was seeking info about the emotional wellspring from whence the lyrics came.

What the title means, literally, is the LEAST interesting thing about that song. Much more interesting is the fact that this song is about someone showing a public face that is much different than the swirling chaos and sadness of their internal emotions:

Although I might be laughing loud and hearty, deep inside I'm blue ...

So take a good look at my face, you'll see my smile looks out of place ...

Outside I'm masquerading ... Inside my hope is fading

Incidentally, this song is a companion song to Smokey's other, Tears of a Clown. Same sentiment; in fact, the next lyric from above is "Just a clown oh yeah..." Now, don't tempt me to get into a psychoanalysis of Smokey Robinson...coz you know, I will. :-P

What a song choice! Here we are all critiquing Adam for not showing us "the real him." And he comes out and sings a song about the struggle that a person has when their internal emotional state contradicts the external face they present in public. You don't think that was intentional? That was intentional. And awesome.

Making It Work For TV

Last thing: Adam has clearly figured out how to scale back his stage mannerisms for a TV audience. As I've said elsewhere and at the start here, Adam is an actor first. In musical theatre, an actor (or director) doesn't have control - via editing, camera angles/shots, etc. - of the audience's attention. The actor must actively demand the audience's attention with every move he makes. As a result, gestures, expressions and vocals need to be BIG, over-dramatized to get the audience to focus in on them, when there is so much else to divert their attention. On TV, that can look very artifical, very staged. What Adam was being criticized for--smouldering looks and sneers into the camera, the hand gestures, even the over-the-top screaming--was, I think, an artefact of his musical theatre background. He has learned, as he confessed he needed to do way back in the Top 36, I believe it was, how to scale back his stage mannerisms to create a more intimate moment for the TV camera.

Next week, look for another layer, both in terms of vocals and performance, to be revealed. I'm no longer really concerned about seeing the real Adam. I'm more interested, now, in seeing the next Adam.