Any Dream Will Do - Craig's dream is over

Andrew Lloyd Webber's search for his dream Joseph continued this evening with the final five contestants demonstrating the differing emotions Joseph feels throughout his journey - from favoured son to captive and then eventually to ruler. Each contestant was given a different emotion to portray though their chosen song.

The show opened with Lee in very different mood to how we have seen him before – his emotion was “dreaming,” and showed the light-hearted Joseph in happy-go-lucky mode. Lee has always previously covered the “dark” songs and although he appeared to be wearing his pyjamas tonight, this kind of fitted in with the general “dream” theme! He sang Daydream Believer, a karaoke classic which he managed, in his inimitable style, to turn into an outstanding performance once again – the judges were all full of praise for him and they know he’s a safe bet.

Next up was Ben, portraying "vulnerability." Ben, who has risen from a real outsider to the second favourite in the competition, was given probably the hardest song of the competition so far, Roy Orbison’s “Crying,” a nightmare of a song unless you have a vocal range of several octaves. Ben did very well with this, albeit missing a few notes here and there, although his diction was almost too precise at times. The judges didn’t totally write him off, although they weren’t over-complimentary either and his future in the show looked to be on the line.

Craig had to show “betrayal.” His song was the classic Elvis Presley’s “Suspicious Minds,” which he sang very, very well – Denise Van Outen commenting that he had really blossomed over the last few weeks and had lost his cabaret style. However, Andrew Lloyd Webber was worried that even through this number, which essentially should show some anger and bitterness, Craig was STILL smiling.

Lewis, who had fallen apart emotionally following his sing-off with Daniel last week, was supposed to portray “courage.” His song was Enrico Iglesias’, “Hero,” a gift of a song which he could have done wonders with but it just seemed pretty bland and totally lacking in courage. Lewis has a good voice, not to mention the looks, to be a pop star but is not really West End material in my opinion. The judges rather harshly commented he had no star quality.

Finally Keith, portraying “arrogance” attempted Robbie Williams’ “Let Me Entertain You.” The energy seemed to be there and his voice was quite strong, but his acting ability seemed to be missing again and the panel commented that Keith tends to drift – he starts off really getting into character and into the song and then appears to lose his focus. The judges seem to feel that vocally Keith is great, but otherwise, who knows?

Tonight’s special guest star was Josh Groban who was (unbeknown to the Josephs) listening in to them while they were in the recording studio. He had to choose one Joseph with whom to duet and he chose Lee – this appeared to go down very badly with the other four who were enlisted as backing singers. Lee did a great job however – and for any cynics out there who thought this was favouritism, I tried to vote for Lee during this song and the lines had closed!

Tonight’s sing-off saw Craig and Ben singing Barry Manilow’s “I Made It Through The Rain,” a dirge of a song which did neither any favours. However, Andrew Lloyd Webber said he had to think of the role he was casting and chose to save Ben, to the relief of many of his supporters. It seemed very odd that he polled the lowest number of votes given his alleged popularity - were there problems with the phone lines again? Craig bowed out in style and will be sure to get some decent offers of work from this show.

Next week is the semi-final when four will become three – you can discuss the show in Any Dream Will Do forum.