Friday, 29 January 2010
Why Elaine Paige is Totally Right about Susan Boyle
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“SuBo Is a Virus” says dirty diva Ellie Paige. “Susan Boyle's Idol is Horrible to Her,” say the headlines. “Elaine has 'No Pride' For SuBo” the tabloids broadsheets cry out in shame.
So some woman called Elaine Paige, who has apparently done some songs or something, said some really horrible things about Musical Sensation Susan Boyle. And by “really horrible” you understand, I mean “accurate, politely stated, and largely uncontroversial”.
For those who don't know, Susan Boyle shot to fame after being a runner up in Britain's Got Talent. New Media obsessives insist that her meteoric rise to fame and fortune came as a direct result of her performance getting over 100 million hits on youtube. Perhaps I'm just behind the times, but I can't help but think that its being aired on national fucking television and splashed all over the conventional news like a bucket of Jade Goody's sick might have had more to do with it. Indeed I can't help but notice, having checked the list of most viewed youtube videos here that the key to getting “virally” popular on YouTube seems to be ... umm ... having the backing of a major conventional ad campaign. The top spots are all either (a) user generated content that sank without a trace and made no money for anybody (b) stuff produced by well oiled marketing machines (why hello Twilight) and perhaps most comfortingly of all (c) Rickrolls.
But I digress.
Anyway, Elaine Paige was absolutely horrible about poor old SuBo. She said, amongst other things, that she was “doing terribly well considering that she literally came to the attention of the world overnight,” that she is “a girl with no experience of theatrics, the music business or art in any way,” and that had been turned “into an immediate celebrity at the expense of longevity and working hard and experience.”
Wow, what a fucking bitch.
There's an edition of The Order of the Stick a not-that-good-really webcomic about a D&D party in which the party's idiotic bard (Elan) evinces an interest in taking a level of Wizard. This causes the party's hubristic mage (Vaarsuvias) to go apoplectic, ranting that it took him years of study to master even the simplest of cantrips, and this fool expected to be able to pick it all up overnight. This is, of course, mostly just a joke about the stupidities of the D&D rules system, but it works remarkably well as a model for what's happening here.
Elaine Paige is a – oh hang on, bear with me for a second, what's that word again? It means “person who performs a particular role in return for financial remuneration.” Oh yes that's it, a “professional.” According to the ever reliable Wikipedia, Paige made her west end debut in 1968 in Hair (she was twenty at the time). She went on to be in Jesus Christ Superstar, Grease and a number of other productions, finally winning an Olivier Award for her role in Evita at the age of thirty. For those doing the maths, she's been at this for ten years by now, and this is her big break.
Just before Christmas, Paige and Boyle sang a duet – a version of Paige's classic I Know Him So Well. The original single was released in 1985, when Paige was thirty-seven and had been in showbusiness for seventeen years. Again wiki reliably informs me that it was at number one for four weeks and remains the biggest selling record by a female duo. The duet took place in 2009, by which time Elaine Page had fully forty years experience working in the music industry. After the recording, Boyle apparently said: “I never thought I would see myself standing on the same stage with such an icon from West End theatre, let alone singing with her as an equal.”
Excuse me Susan? An equal? You dare compare yourself like that to somebody who has been working at their craft since you were eight years old? Somebody who actually got where they are by being good at what they do, instead of by flogging the Great British Public the same rags-to-riches bullshit they've been gagging for since poor old Jade bought it.
Who Needs a Dream, Who Needs Ambition
Susan Boyle's debut album is called I Dreamed a Dream. It's a reference both to her first performance on Britain's Got Talent, and to her lifelong dream of being a singer, which she finally realised with her overnight success courtesy ofYoutube a carefully orchestrated marketing campaign.
But the tragic thing is that she hasn't achieved her dream at all.
Susan Boyle is no more a singer than I am. Yes, her album has sold three million copies, but Mr Blobby managed to get a number one single, it doesn't make him a professional vocalist. Susan Boyle is a reality TV star, just like Nasty Nick from Big Brother or the late lamented Jade. She most certainly is no Elaine Paige – that ship sailed long ago. Being a real, dedicated performer involves years of effort, the kind of effort most people really don't want to put into something they might fail at. It involves getting by on hard work and talent, not sitting back waiting for success to fall into your lap.
Susan Boyle's album has sold three million copies, but is has not sold them on the strength of her singing. She's not a bad singer, but you only have to listen to her duet with Elaine Paige to hear the difference. Seriously, listen to it. Susan Boyle's voice is okay, but it's the voice of a forty-eight year old woman who hasn't had any formal training. Comparing her to a real professional singer is like comparing the best player on your company football team to David Beckham (or whoever's big in football nowadays, I'm a bit out of date).
Perhaps I'm naive, or perhaps I'm an asshole, but I think if I wanted to be a singer it wouldn't be because I wanted to sell records, or have people describe me as a singing sensation, it would be because I wanted to actually be able to sing well enough to make a living at it. Susan Boyle's “dream” seems to me to be miserably acquisitive. Can she really feel any satisfaction at getting all of the rewards of being a professional singer – the fame, the money, the biographical films – without ever actually sitting down and really trying to get to the point where she was actually good enough to sing songs for a living?
It just all feels so venal. There is nothing the British public likes to celebrate more than mediocrity. We took Susan Boyle to our hearts because she was good enough that we could support without being anything like good enough to be threatening. People love Susan Boyle because they know that they could be Susan Boyle. She has made herself a fortune selling the idea that success can come to anybody, no matter how undeserving. She's the poster child for a generation that thinks society owes them not only a living, but fame and fortune just for being who they are. Hell, even the title of the show Britain's Got Talent smacks of this insipid commonality – Britain, in general, has talent, whatever that is. That talent apparently consists of the ability to sing quite well, but not as well as people who actually do it properly.
What makes me really furious however, about the success of Ms Boyle, is the fact that I know for absolute damned certain that there are people out there who do amazing, extraordinary things, who won't get a sniff of Susan Boyle's success because they don't conjure up the right cosy, comforting, infinitely saleable “I could do that” image. It's like those ads you get on the internet that insist that you can lose weight using “one weird old trick discovered by a mom!” - none of that scary inaccessible stuff, oh no, we like our celebrities ordinary so we can pretend that one day we'll be celebrities too.
Just look at Kseniya Simonova, winner of Ukraine's Got Talent. Give it a second, it starts out slow, but this really fucking blew me away. Not only that, but it made me feel genuinely humbled. This girl is absolutely fucking beautiful, four years younger than me, and doing something which not only could I not do, but could not imagine myself doing. Kseniya Simonova doesn't let you kid yourself for a second that “it'll happen” for you if you just keep on dreaming, but it does show you something haunting and beautiful and amazing that you are better off for having seen.
I'll take that over Susan Boyle's dreams any day, my self-deception's beginning to bore me.
So some woman called Elaine Paige, who has apparently done some songs or something, said some really horrible things about Musical Sensation Susan Boyle. And by “really horrible” you understand, I mean “accurate, politely stated, and largely uncontroversial”.
For those who don't know, Susan Boyle shot to fame after being a runner up in Britain's Got Talent. New Media obsessives insist that her meteoric rise to fame and fortune came as a direct result of her performance getting over 100 million hits on youtube. Perhaps I'm just behind the times, but I can't help but think that its being aired on national fucking television and splashed all over the conventional news like a bucket of Jade Goody's sick might have had more to do with it. Indeed I can't help but notice, having checked the list of most viewed youtube videos here that the key to getting “virally” popular on YouTube seems to be ... umm ... having the backing of a major conventional ad campaign. The top spots are all either (a) user generated content that sank without a trace and made no money for anybody (b) stuff produced by well oiled marketing machines (why hello Twilight) and perhaps most comfortingly of all (c) Rickrolls.
But I digress.
Anyway, Elaine Paige was absolutely horrible about poor old SuBo. She said, amongst other things, that she was “doing terribly well considering that she literally came to the attention of the world overnight,” that she is “a girl with no experience of theatrics, the music business or art in any way,” and that had been turned “into an immediate celebrity at the expense of longevity and working hard and experience.”
Wow, what a fucking bitch.
There's an edition of The Order of the Stick a not-that-good-really webcomic about a D&D party in which the party's idiotic bard (Elan) evinces an interest in taking a level of Wizard. This causes the party's hubristic mage (Vaarsuvias) to go apoplectic, ranting that it took him years of study to master even the simplest of cantrips, and this fool expected to be able to pick it all up overnight. This is, of course, mostly just a joke about the stupidities of the D&D rules system, but it works remarkably well as a model for what's happening here.
Elaine Paige is a – oh hang on, bear with me for a second, what's that word again? It means “person who performs a particular role in return for financial remuneration.” Oh yes that's it, a “professional.” According to the ever reliable Wikipedia, Paige made her west end debut in 1968 in Hair (she was twenty at the time). She went on to be in Jesus Christ Superstar, Grease and a number of other productions, finally winning an Olivier Award for her role in Evita at the age of thirty. For those doing the maths, she's been at this for ten years by now, and this is her big break.
Just before Christmas, Paige and Boyle sang a duet – a version of Paige's classic I Know Him So Well. The original single was released in 1985, when Paige was thirty-seven and had been in showbusiness for seventeen years. Again wiki reliably informs me that it was at number one for four weeks and remains the biggest selling record by a female duo. The duet took place in 2009, by which time Elaine Page had fully forty years experience working in the music industry. After the recording, Boyle apparently said: “I never thought I would see myself standing on the same stage with such an icon from West End theatre, let alone singing with her as an equal.”
Excuse me Susan? An equal? You dare compare yourself like that to somebody who has been working at their craft since you were eight years old? Somebody who actually got where they are by being good at what they do, instead of by flogging the Great British Public the same rags-to-riches bullshit they've been gagging for since poor old Jade bought it.
Who Needs a Dream, Who Needs Ambition
Susan Boyle's debut album is called I Dreamed a Dream. It's a reference both to her first performance on Britain's Got Talent, and to her lifelong dream of being a singer, which she finally realised with her overnight success courtesy of
But the tragic thing is that she hasn't achieved her dream at all.
Susan Boyle is no more a singer than I am. Yes, her album has sold three million copies, but Mr Blobby managed to get a number one single, it doesn't make him a professional vocalist. Susan Boyle is a reality TV star, just like Nasty Nick from Big Brother or the late lamented Jade. She most certainly is no Elaine Paige – that ship sailed long ago. Being a real, dedicated performer involves years of effort, the kind of effort most people really don't want to put into something they might fail at. It involves getting by on hard work and talent, not sitting back waiting for success to fall into your lap.
Susan Boyle's album has sold three million copies, but is has not sold them on the strength of her singing. She's not a bad singer, but you only have to listen to her duet with Elaine Paige to hear the difference. Seriously, listen to it. Susan Boyle's voice is okay, but it's the voice of a forty-eight year old woman who hasn't had any formal training. Comparing her to a real professional singer is like comparing the best player on your company football team to David Beckham (or whoever's big in football nowadays, I'm a bit out of date).
Perhaps I'm naive, or perhaps I'm an asshole, but I think if I wanted to be a singer it wouldn't be because I wanted to sell records, or have people describe me as a singing sensation, it would be because I wanted to actually be able to sing well enough to make a living at it. Susan Boyle's “dream” seems to me to be miserably acquisitive. Can she really feel any satisfaction at getting all of the rewards of being a professional singer – the fame, the money, the biographical films – without ever actually sitting down and really trying to get to the point where she was actually good enough to sing songs for a living?
It just all feels so venal. There is nothing the British public likes to celebrate more than mediocrity. We took Susan Boyle to our hearts because she was good enough that we could support without being anything like good enough to be threatening. People love Susan Boyle because they know that they could be Susan Boyle. She has made herself a fortune selling the idea that success can come to anybody, no matter how undeserving. She's the poster child for a generation that thinks society owes them not only a living, but fame and fortune just for being who they are. Hell, even the title of the show Britain's Got Talent smacks of this insipid commonality – Britain, in general, has talent, whatever that is. That talent apparently consists of the ability to sing quite well, but not as well as people who actually do it properly.
What makes me really furious however, about the success of Ms Boyle, is the fact that I know for absolute damned certain that there are people out there who do amazing, extraordinary things, who won't get a sniff of Susan Boyle's success because they don't conjure up the right cosy, comforting, infinitely saleable “I could do that” image. It's like those ads you get on the internet that insist that you can lose weight using “one weird old trick discovered by a mom!” - none of that scary inaccessible stuff, oh no, we like our celebrities ordinary so we can pretend that one day we'll be celebrities too.
Just look at Kseniya Simonova, winner of Ukraine's Got Talent. Give it a second, it starts out slow, but this really fucking blew me away. Not only that, but it made me feel genuinely humbled. This girl is absolutely fucking beautiful, four years younger than me, and doing something which not only could I not do, but could not imagine myself doing. Kseniya Simonova doesn't let you kid yourself for a second that “it'll happen” for you if you just keep on dreaming, but it does show you something haunting and beautiful and amazing that you are better off for having seen.
I'll take that over Susan Boyle's dreams any day, my self-deception's beginning to bore me.
Themes: Topical
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However, the actual music had little to do with that.
I'm one of those terrible people for whom the appeal of Britain's Got Talent lies solely in the early episodes, when the auditions are happening. This is because they genuinely show you two types of audition. There are the people who actually might have some promise to them - talent of the very specific type which the Cowell empire is interested in exploiting - who go on to the next round. Then there are the nutjobs, the people who have absolutely convinced themselves into thinking they are hot shit, and all it will take is one audition for the world to see their genius. I'm the sort of bastard who derives great pleasure from watching people in the latter category suddenly realise that no, actually, they're not talented (or at least, not in the way they thought they were), and perhaps all of their friends were just humouring them when they told them they had a lovely singing voice.
The Boyle audition was a minor slap in the face for me and people like me. Here was this person who had been carefully built up - by the editing, by the judge's reactions to her when she came onstage, and to a certain extent by her own behaviour - to make us believe that she'd be another nutjob. Surely someone who is ugly and behaves in a moderately eccentric manner is going to have a voice like a basket of cats being tossed through a wood-chipper, right? Then she opens her mouth and delivers this dazzlingly competent rendition of the song, and the crowd goes wild. Bad Arthur, for letting appearances and TV editing make him prejudge her! I was moderately ashamed for about a minute. Then the rest of the auditions happened and my prejudices where resoundingly reconfirmed.
The thing is, I used the phrase "dazzlingly competent" up there very deliberately. Susan Boyle is competent. She is no more than that. There's nothing especially special or interesting about the delivery of the song, or any of the other songs she's performed. Hers is a voice born of spending the last few decades going about her business singing along to cast albums of musicals, to the point where she can come up with a decent approximation of the "standard" delivery of a song that is fairly pleasing to the ear, but doesn't betray any real independent personality or talent to her. It's a sort of mimicry, and whilst I suppose it is at least laudable that she's actually worked at to the point where she can sing competently rather than squawking like the self-deluded misfits that litter talent show auditions, it doesn't speak well for her having an enduring career.
There is a reason that her album consists entirely of cover versions of well-known songs. I'm not trying to be one of those insufferable snobs here who thinks musicians should only ever write their own material there - cover songs, when invested with a performer's own personality and style, can be great. (As much as I love the original All Along the Watchtower, I'm with Dylan in thinking that Jimi Hendrix's version is far superior.) Even when the musical delivery is close to the original, a great singer can still seize the moment and make the song their own. I honestly can't see Boyle doing that. I also can't see Boyle doing well singing original songs written specifically for, even if you got a fantastic songwriter to do the job. She's essentially someone who depends on a song already having been performed by at least one talented singer (if not several), so she can model her performance accordingly.
She isn't unique in the music industry, of course. Essentially, Boyle can expect a solo career much like the one that Rod Stewart is enjoying these days: cranking out soulless covers of old standards that have already been covered widely by superior talents.
tl;dr: What Dan said.
I was pretty moved it when I first saw it (on Youtube - since I'm too up myself to watch these things) but the few bits and pieces of things I've seen her singing since have done nothing particularly for me - I guess it was partially the set up of that original decision, the fact she chose a song that clearly really meant something to her so there's a fair degree of passion and convinction in her voice while she singing (I saw an interview with her in which she said she'd always watched life go by).
And I guess the thing with, y'know, singing theatrical numbers is that they require acting and performance as singing - so I Dreamed A Dream really works for her in that respect.
Whereas for most other songs she's just a person who can sing quite well again.
Also, lest it be forgotten, it should be pointed out that Boyle lost in the end to Diversity, who are also ridiculously good at what they do.
But as anyone knows, being a professional isn't about that moment. It's about being reliable and learning all sorts of technical things (even if you're self-taught) and being able to bring much more than that. As Elaine Paige has been doing for years. (I saw her in Sweeney Todd a few years ago, actually, I've just remembered!) It's not a special talent show every night, it's being impressed with something else.
I was actually thinking that last night. I saw A Little Night Music with Catherine Zeta-Jones, who many people forget started as a musical theater performer. The one song from ALNM everyone knows is Send in the Clowns, a number that's easy technically--but that just makes it easy to fail at it artistically. And imo she did it wonderfully. It's a song I've heard a hundred times, but it was completely fresh when she did it, and communicated everything the character was saying. (She was sharing the stage with Angela Lansbury--60 years in the business and just as brilliant putting across songs without being able to technically kill them.)
This actually relates to an ongoing frustration I have in a particular fandom. Not to get into the details, but I often feel in discussions about this one character that people really want there to be no difference between Susan Boyle and Elaine Paige, and I just don't get that. I've never gotten it. I remember watching an episode of Laverne & Shirley of all things when I was a kid and ranting about this exact subject. I don't want to see the person who hasn't worked to be a professional get treated as a professional! I don't think people are mean for telling judging their abilities honestly!
If a beautiful young girl had walked in with that voice, and sung that song, the judges would most likely have said "You're good, but try drama school - your voice won't sell in a commercial market." But because Ms Boyle is so surprising, they realised that she has the novelty factor and hired her. Score 1 for Simon Cowell, but she's nowhere near the calibre of Elaine Paige or Ruthie Henshall, so she's probably gone about as far as she can go.
I'm curious now...
It is really annoying that people want guts, pluck and of course "dreams" to be seen as equivalent to actual effort. Tragically it's a deeply ingrained part of our culture. It's the basis of pretty much every work of escapist fiction you've ever read.
I think you're probably right (irony, thy name is Susan) - Susan Boyle doesn't sell music, she sells an ugly duckling story that was splashed all over the evening news.
Of course the difficult thing is for anyone to know what to do with Susan Boyle. The songs she likes and has modelled her style (such as it is) on are songs from post-jazz musicals, but it would be madness to put her in a musical because she obviously can't act and (this latter point being by no means her fault) doesn't look at all right for any major role except maybe Mrs Lovett in Sweeney Todd. So what's she going to do, just record albums of songs from '70s and '80s musicals? I'm not sure there's even as much room for her in the market-place as there is for Rod Stewart because of the difference in the material.
And, pursuing a tangent:
Really? Blimey. I'm surprised by that considering how awful she was in Chicago. Well, 'awful' is unfair, but it's significant that she was nominated for (and won?) the Oscar for female supporting role when the whole point of that show is that her character and Renée Zellweger's are constantly competing to be the centre of attention and the fight should be a fairly even one.
On the other hand, Send in the clowns, like the whole part of Desirée, is written for a non-singer (and that's part of the reason singers so often come unstuck on it, as you say), so maybe she was miscast as Velma but well cast as Desirée.
Susan Boyle is what she is. An okay singer who made a great story. I don't really think her fame comes at the expense of those who have worked harder and longer, because her audience isn't the same. I mean, if anyone's going to spend money to buy her CD or go see her in concert, it's not that they would have otherwise spent that money on an Elaine Paige show or cd. They just wouldn't have spent it at all.
As far as that video duet goes, it is obvious that Boyle isn't even in the same ballpark as Paige in singing that song. But it wasn't like they were starting on an even playing field in any sense. In addition to having worked 40 years in the business, Paige spent however many performances singing that very song and it shows. Boyle is probably performing it for the first time before an audience, she can't have had that much rehearsal, and she has very little experience. (Or breath control.)
On the other hand, all those millions of Boyle fans are getting to see a better singer. Maybe some of them are seeing Elaine Paige for the first time. And maybe some of those people will think about going to see her in an actual show after having seen her sing with their good friend Susan.
I'm not going to put words in Dan's mouth. But, personally, what annoys me is the way that people are expected to embrace Susan Boyle as though her achievement were every bit as great as Elaine Paige's.
In particular, I feel that there's a slightly nasty double standard (that the tabloid press encourages) whereby it's OK to imply that she's a slightly mad cat lady, but it's not OK to suggest that her voice is anything less than angelic.
I randomly saw Marti Pellow and he was actually surprisingly good - very very slick and sleazy.
It makes me angry because Elaine Paige got lynched in the press for *saying* that Susan Boyle was not her equal in skill or practice. It makes me angry because Susan Boyle is described as a "singing sensation" which she is not rather than as a "reality TV star" which she is. It makes me angry because it is *actively taboo* to suggest that Boyle's singing should be judged by the standards of the professional she *aspires to be and is described as*.
It makes me angry because Susan Boyle did not make a "great story" she made an insipid, insulting story full of self-help bullshit.
It makes me angry because people treat the story as if it's the same as the singing, and it isn't.
It makes me angry because I'm sick to fucking death of a culture that treats *wanting* something as being the sole prerequisite to *achieving* it, or to deserving it, which is a comforting lie at best and an insulting, offensive lie at worst.
It makes me angry because it sells people a fairytale and tells them that it's real life.
Sorry, that was rather longer than I'd anticipated.
Honestly, let's see her get through Sweeney Todd as Mrs. Lovett--or the whole show of Chess for the matter--and see if Susan's really that much better.
I'm curious now...
Batman fandom--Stephanie Brown.:-)
Now, I'm curious. What conversation about Steph does this relate to? Is it the "was she a real robin?" debate?
The other view is that she's got potential and all her not following orders or not listening is a good thing. Since she's going to do this anyway, the argument often goes, they must make sure she gets the success she's entitled to just by wanting it.
And while I can sympathize with the character in the first reading, I just feel like the second gets into the "wanting to do something=sole prerequisite to achieving it or deserving it." And it's mean to suggest someone isn't good enough or isn't going to make it.
No worries. See, I didn't hear anything about this criticism scandal. As far as I knew, on this side of the Atlantic, Elaine Paige's reputation for... uh... not delivering criticism to national darlings is unblemished.
Maybe I'm understanding the term wrong, but it seems to me that "singing sensation" is exactly what Susan Boyle is. Or maybe "this year's flavor." But if she's being treated as something other than someone who got lucky and hit a chord with people--that's probably more a British than a global reaction. As I recall, Susan Boyle made the morning show rounds when her video was popular. After a week, it was someone else. Balloon boy or something.
And she'll probably show up again on "American Idol Gives Back." But then people like Miley Cyrus sing on that, so how seriously can it be taken?
But you're right about culture putting stupid emphasis on the wrong things--wanting to sell us a "story" rather than admiring achievement. We're in the midst of a new American Idol season and all we're getting is touching or inspiring stories. Most of the touching and inspiring *singers* are millisecond blips of someone holding a golden ticket.
And the downside of that fairytale can be seen in the devastated tears of thousands of would-be candidates who are told in no uncertain terms that their dreams are *not* the same as talent and hard work.
Those were the days. Now it's cooler if Batman has to run around after Robin the super brat!
Ah, I see. Most of my knowledge of Steph Brown comes from her death sequence and the outrage that the "in my eyes, she wasn't a real Robin" quote in answer to "why isn't her costume in the batcave?" brought on. My friend and I had a long discussion on her death vs. Jason Todd's death as part of longer a women in comics discussion. Thus my curiosity.
See, that's fine with me. The main thing is that she should have a case in there. Even if her death was incredibly unimpressive (a slight to the writers/artists not the character). ::mutters bitterly::
That's the one! But I think you're remembering it wrong (or I am). She doesn't get the role--I think even they know it would be too much to give someone who's literally never really danced a role in a National Tour of West Side Story. What happens, as I remember, is that she starts off planning to do a little tap routine she learned as a kid--the last time she took lessons. Carmine explains to her how that's completely not the style of dance and gives her a crash course in Jerome Robbins where he looks great. He pulls her along enough that they do a number together that's fun, but Laverne's clearly not up to his level.
Then when she goes to audition she does about two steps and gets stopped because they can type her out pretty quickly. Then her father I think somehow appears, like he's followed her or something? And tells off the director for not respecting how much courage she had to come there and how much she wants it.
And I remember just thinking...wtf? There's got to be hundreds of people waiting to audition and you're wasting the guy's time showing up without having done any work to get the job and you're yelling at him for not thinking his job is to play into her fantasy? You're the one not respecting his time!
But it often is a version of that the character on the sitcom gets the role and usually turns it down, and I always feel that same conflict. Like, I remember an ep of maybe Fresh Prince of Bel Air? Where the mother, who apparently used to dance, pushes herself to compete with all the young snotty dancers for some role and gets it. And even there I was like...um, why are you all making this about age? The woman stopped dancing for decades and you're acting like it's unfair for the younger dancers who have dedicated their life to this to get the part!
But, yeah, telling off the director?? And what's especially strange is that everybody involved with the show is by definition a professional show business person. So I have to wonder whether that was cynical on the part of the writers ("We'll pat the little people on the head"), or if they just genuinely thought that non-showbiz folks think showbiz folks look down on them and would enjoy seeing "one of them" tell off the snooties, or what.
I'm reminded, actually, of a book I read as a child (I'm not sure but I think it was /The Queen's Nose/) in which the protagonist uses a magic-wishing-thingy to turn her father into a brilliant tennis player, to show up a cocky professional. Afterwards they do in fact point out that while the guy was a horrible person who deserved to be taken down a peg, he had actually worked to get where he was, whereas the father hadn't.
I can't believe I remember it so well after yeah, probably 20 years or so! But I'm not surprised you thought she got the part since often that's the way it goes for exactly the reasons Dan's talking about here. And even in the way I remember it it's still about Laverne *deserving* the part. It makes me want to re-watch "Every Little Step," the movie about the auditions for the Chorus Line revival.
Of course, just as an aside, they obviously know the whole set up of the episode is ridiculous since dance auditions don't work the way they were setting it up. It's not like So You Think You Can Dance where you go in with a piece you've prepared. You'd learn choreography in a group and get cut in a group.