Grease: You're the One that I Want!, Episode 5 – Broadway Baby!

After a short hiatus for the Super Bowl, our Sandys and Dannys are back to fight for their Broadway lives! Billy Bush and Denise Van Outen greet us and Billy promises that a Danny and a Sandy will be eliminated... and it's going to be brutal! With that cheerful reminder of misery, we're off to the first group number. The Sandys and Dannys perform to “Summer Nights.” They grab the microphone from each other and take turns doing solos while they dance. They seem to have a lot of fun performing it.

After the number, Denise tells us that in “an amazing twist,” the two least-favorite Dannys and Sandys will have to sing to avoid elimination. Apparently, one of the bottom two of each pair will be eliminated. Presumably, that means the judges will make the final call. Hmmm...

After this little surprise, Billy introduces us to the panel. David Ian, the show's producer; director Kathleen Marshall; and author Jim Jacobs. Our special guest panelist is Oscar and Tony award winner Andrew Lloyd Webber. The cast and audience look thrilled to see this Broadway legend in person. Hopefully, he'll be a more insightful judge than Olivia Newton John was last time.

We get a montage of Dannys and Sandys talking about how hard the show is and why they should win the respective role. No one says anything shocking here. It's now time to find out which of the Dannys and Sandys have gotten the lowest number of votes.

After the last show, I ranked the Dannys and Sandys as follows:

Dannys:
Chad
Derek
Austin
Max
Kevin
Jason
Matt

Sandys:
Ashley S.
Laura
Kate
Kathleen
Allie
Juliana
Ashley A.

Now, here's the result of the audience vote. Billy calls forward Kevin, Derek, Chad, and Austin and tells them they're all safe! Jason, Matt, and Max are left on stage. One of them is safe, the other two are not. I hope Max is the safe one... and he is! So, it looks like I got the bottom two Dannys right this week.

Denise now turns to the Sandys. She calls forward Ashley A(!), Ashley S., Laura, and Kathleen. Ah! One of them is in the bottom two and it's Ashley A. (Phew!) The other three are safe. Allie, Juliana, and Kate remain. Allie joins Ashley A. in the bottom two. So I was slightly off there.

The sing-off will happen later. First, Denise tells us the Dannys and Sandys will be singing songs from Broadway musicals this week – many written by our guest judge, Andrew Lloyd Webber. “Slacker Danny” Max is going first for the guys. This past week he has spruced up and cut his hair to change his image. While “Small Town Sandy” Laura will be the first woman singing. (WHAT is with the nicknames?!)

“Slacker Danny” Max, “Can You Feel the Love Tonight”: Max's new haircut looks good, and he generally performs well. However, he seems to strain on a few of the notes. I also don’t get much of a Danny vibe from the song, and since that's the main criticism against Max, I don't know if this was the right song to pick.

“Small Town Sandy” Laura, “Jesus Christ Superstar”: Laura emotes through the song. It's another interesting song choice – not very Sandy and not traditionally sung by a woman. However, she sings the whole thing with passion and conviction and really sells it. Good job.

Andrew Lloyd Webber says that Max got the wonder in the song, but he really liked Laura's performance. He notes it's a male song and he really loved what she did with it. Jim approves of Max's haircut and he loves his storytelling skills. He thinks Laura was fantastic. Kathleen continues the love parade for these two, noting Laura blew her away. She does say Max needs to show them the Danny swagger soon, though. David says that they asked Max to change, and he's doing it! He says Laura hadn't made much of an impression on him so far, but she blew his socks off tonight.

“Wholesome Danny” Derek, “Footloose”: This is a great choice for a Danny. I can buy Danny singing “Footloose.” Derek actually gets four back-up dancers for this routine. His cut-off shirt also emphasizes his biceps, but I'm sure that was an accident. Derek sings the song well and he handles singing while dancing well too. I have to say I sure buy him as Danny more than I buy Max after seeing both numbers.

“Ballerina Sandy” Ashley S., “Take That Look Off Your Face”: This is a relatively unknown number from a lesser Andrew Lloyd Webber musical. Ashley shows good vocal range in the number and has no problem emoting while singing. Her vocal performance maintains her front-runner status. The ladies are stepping it up so far tonight!

Kathleen says both of them were terrific and that she'd be happy to have them both in the show. Andrew Lloyd Webber notes that Derek sang and danced live brilliantly and that Ashley really played into the confrontation with another woman. Jim says that they've both been favorites of his since day one and neither one has disappointed him. David thinks Derek could definitely be a leading man, while Ashley also performed well, although David would have liked to see even more anger from her in the song. Wow! Quite the love-fest from the judges. Will they ever say anything negative?