Taylor Hicks is a Teen Angel?

With the continued success of American Idol, another American Idol winner is making the jump to Broadway. It has been announced that Taylor Hicks, winner of American Idol in 2006, will be joining the Broadway case of Grease playing the role of Teen Angel from June 6 through September 7. Are you kidding me?

As Teen Angel, Hicks will be singing the famous Beauty School Dropout. However Hicks intends to add some “soulfoul flavor” to the song that Frankie Avalon sang in the extremely popular movie version of Grease, which starred John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John. It is interesting that Broadway producers are willing to take the risk of having Hicks as part of the case, considering that he has lost his record deal with J Records, which he won as part of the American Idol win.

Hicks will be joining quite a few American Idol winners/contestants that have had a stint on Broadway, including Fantasia Barrino, who was in The Color Purple, and Clay Aiken, who was in Spamalot.

Normally, I was would be asking, why. However, I have started to lose faith in Broadway, with the increasing role of reality television in the selection of role. For example, the Broadway production of Grease, the producers decided to have their auditions as reality television show on NBC, which was titled, “You’re The One That I Want.” Sadly, this quickly became a popularity contest where looks, at times, beat out actual talent. I would love to know, how many people that actually participated in the voting has gone to Broadway and seen the show. Also, how many people actually shell out the hundreds of dollars to get close enough to be able to distinguish the physical features of the various contestants if they made it to Broadway. I remember an article from the New York Post last month that said people were asking for their money back. However, it is the age or reality television. So MTV has announced that they are having a similar show called, “Legally Blonde The Musical: The Search For Elle Woods.” I just hope this show is a flop so Broadway can rise from this mess and revert to the good old days when theatrical stars where everywhere and you needed talent to be there.