Lloyd Webber ejects Irishman Niall from Superstar
Irishman Niall Sheehy has been booted off Superstar, but Andrew Lloyd Webber told him he would be perfect for another role in one of his musicals. The 31-year-old from Bray, Co Wicklow, ended up in the bottom two alongside Rory Taylor, 24, from the Wirral, after the pair received the least number of public votes in the contest to find the lead performer in a new production of Jesus Christ Superstar. But the final decision between the two had to be made by Lord Lloyd-Webber, who offered Niall his commiserations and told him he would be better suited to playing Marius in Les Miserables or Raoul in his own Phantom Of The Opera. Niall had left a job on the UK tour of the Monty Python musical Spamalot to be able to take part in the show. During the show, he had failed to impress the judges when he sang How To Save A Life by The Fray, while Rory had performed a rousing rendition of Coldplay's Fix You. Actor David Hunter, 27, who narrowly avoided being sent home on Wednesday night after ending up in the bottom two, got plenty of praise when he sang Prince's Nothing Compares 2 U, famously covered by Sinead O'Connor. But Lord Lloyd-Webber said the best performance of the night was by Ben Forster, 31, from Sunderland, with his version of Tracy Chapman's Fast Car. The new production of Lord Lloyd-Webber and Tim Rice's musical goes on tour in September, featuring comic Tim Minchin as Judas Iscariot, DJ Chris Moyles as King Herod and former Spice Girl - and Superstar judge - Melanie C as Mary Magdalene.
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Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix.
An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.