Contestants belt out Webber tunes on Idol

This week on Idol was Andrew Lloyd Webber week, so the Idols chose songs from his extensive repertoire, though the judges predicted they would have trouble with the difficulty level of many of them. Webber coached the contestants on their arrangements, and he was so excited after seeing their finished performances that he could barely speak at the end of the show.

Syesha Mercado started off the night with “One Rock ‘n’ Roll Too Many.” She had fun with it, but her vocals weren’t great. Randy and Simon both said she seemed much more comfortable in Broadway-type performances.

Jason Castro sang “Memory,” and Randy called the vocals a train wreck, with a trademark “it’s just not your thing, dude.” Jason’s breathy, almost-whiny quality is getting boring, but those puppy-dog eyes seem to have won him plenty of fans.

Brooke White sang “You Must Love Me” and lost track of the lyrics a couple words in, then started over. Strangely enough, it was Paula who came down on her for it, not Simon. He actually said he would have done the same thing if he had forgotten the lyrics, and told her she did a very brave thing by starting over to make sure she got it right. Her voice did tense up as soon as she realized the slip-up, though, and the rest of the song seemed more forced.

David Archuleta restored his image as the boy wonder with “Think of Me.” Before his performance, a few schoolgirls actually came up on stage to hug him. Even though he’s getting more and more repetitive every week, he’s got the adoration of pretty much every 13-year-old girl in the country right now, so he should be fine for a while to come.

David Cooke and Carly Smithson gave their typical brilliant performances with “The Music of the Night” and “Jesus Christ Superstar,” respectively.

Predictions: As sweet as Brooke is and as hard as she tries, she’s been hovering in the bottom three for a few weeks now and a nervous performance today could end it for her. Jason Castro was the other low performer tonight, but he hasn’t been in danger recently, so he’ll probably be safe for another week.