Musical Star

by Rowan Coleman

  “We are going to get caught,” I hissed, feeling worried. “Bound to.”

  “Probably,” Dakshima said, her eyes sparking. “But not definitely. Come on, Rubes. We’ll just have a peep and then go back. I’ve always wanted to see what Mick Caruso looks like in real life. Like a bit of old bark if his photos are anything to go by.”

  “Well, I saw him at the Academy’s open day last year and that’s exactly what he looked like, so can we just go please?”

  Dakshima glanced sideways at me, “Well I didn’t see him at your artsy fartsy do and I want to have a look now. Come on.”

  “Fine,” I said, my voice tense. “Let’s just get it over with.” Holding my breath, we crept closer to the crack in the door, stepping carefully over the equipment and cables.

  The view into the room was restricted because there were at least ten crew in there; sound men, cameramen, a make-up lady, a director and a few others. We could just see the large yellow circle (the ‘Spotlight’) that had been placed on the floor for the singers to stand on, and the two judges – rock legend Mick Caruso and former West End leading lady Elaine Emerson.

  “Next!” Mick Caruso shouted out.

  I don’t know how long we watched contestants come and go but once we started it was hard to stop. The longer we crouched with our eyes pressed to the crack in the door, the safer it felt.

  Some of the auditionees were very good, and some of them were awful, but none got chosen to go through to the live televised final. A boy called Harry du Pont was so awful that Dakshima and I had to clap our hands over our mouths to stop ourselves from laughing out loud.

  “Tell me I’m not that bad,” I whispered in her ear, my shoulders shaking with suppressed mirth.

  “You are no way that bad,” Dakshima whispered back, her big brown eyes sparking. “Haven’t you worked out that you’re a pretty good singer yet, Ruby?”

  “We’d better get back,” I hissed. “We’ve been gone for ages.”

  Dakshima looked disappointed, but didn’t protest. Then her eyes widened. “Wait! Look!”

  I peered in through the crack. Danny was standing on the spotlight.

  “We have to go,” I said automatically, but neither of us moved.

  “Well, Danny Harvey, we recognise you, of course,” Mick said. “Tell us why you’re auditioning for my new musical Spotlight!”

  “Well, I love singing,” Danny said. “I’ve always been a massive fan of yours, and of musicals…”

  “Liar!” I exclaimed loud enough for Dakshima to dig me in the ribs. “He always said he thought musicals were for losers.” I muttered sulkily.

  “…And I really like lead character, Sebastian. He’s wild and rebellious, and I think I could play him really well.”

  “Well, you’ve got a head start,” Mick Caruso said, leaning back in his chair and crossing his arms. “I don’t think any of the other contestants here today have had a number one single. But your fame won’t get you any special favours here, Danny. Not even my daughter is getting those. All we care about on the Spotlight! Search for a Star is true talent.”

  “I wouldn’t want it any other way,” Danny said, which sounded so unlike him that I was sure he was reciting a line he’d been given.

  “Take it away, Danny,” Elaine Emmerson said.

  As Danny began to sing ‘You Take Me To…’, Dakshima and I looked at each other in total horror. The sound that was coming out of his mouth was nothing like his voice on the record. It was dreadful. I wished I could get a look at Danny’s face, but we could only see him from the back. He must be feeling dreadful, I thought. It’s embarrassing. Yet he carried on until he’d completed one chorus and another verse. I braced myself for the judge’s comments.

  “Amazing,” Mick said. “What an incredible talent.”

  “It certainly was distinctive,” Elaine Emmerson said uncertainly.

  “You’re going through the live final,” Mick told him. “Congratulations, Danny.”

  “Er…thank you,” Danny sounded uncertain. “I’m never really that sure I’m any good, but I suppose if people keep telling me I am…”

  “You’ve got a great attitude,” Mick said. “Good luck for the final.”

  Danny left the room and Dakshima and I looked at each other in astonishment.

  “That was well rank,” Dakshima said.

  “He was pants,” I said, nearly forgetting to whisper.

  “Can we have a tea break before we have to subject our eardrums to any more?” we heard Mick call out. “Milk and two sugars, please, Lucy.”

  “Well, we’ve put him through,” Elaine said. “I have to say, Mick, I don’t approve of this at all.”

  “I know, I know,” Mick said. “But if it makes Jade happy then it’s worth it. She wants Danny Harvey as her leading man so it’s Danny she is going to get.”

  “He’s a great actor,” Elaine said. “It’s just a shame that he can’t sing at all – even with his charm and good looks I don’t know how you are going to cover that up and still look credible. This is live television, Mick. Not a recording studio where you can make anyone sound good. Miming won’t cut it.”

  “I know that,” Mick said. “But we’ll get it sorted.”

  “I know better than most people that Carmen Baptista is a genius when it comes to choreographing and staging a musical, but do you seriously think that she can teach Danny and Jade to sing like stars in less than a month?” Elaine asked.

  “She won’t have to,” Mick said, lowering his voice. Dakshima and I leant nearer to the door. “Not once we’ve got them wired up to an Auto-tune Miracle Microphone.”

  Elaine didn’t say anything, but I assume she must have looked puzzled because Mick Caruso explained. “It’s a tiny device fitted inside a microphone just like the one musical actors wear on stage. The only difference is that whatever the actor sings into it is instantly retuned to sound fantastic in a fraction of a second, and then feeds through the speakers as live. No matter how bad the singing, the Auto-tune Miracle Microphone can make it sound brilliant. And the best thing is that the audience in the studio and at home will never know the difference.” Mick chuckled. “It’s going to make my Jade and that Danny the hottest two musical stars in the country.”

  There was a long pause.

  “I don’t like this at all,” Elaine said uncertainly. “Mick, I don’t want to be involved in something that means cheating the public and those kids.”

  “No one is getting cheated if everyone is happy,” Mick said. “Plenty of kids will get a chance to let their talent shine, but Jade and Danny need a little bit of extra help. And because I’m Jade’s dad, I’m going to make sure she gets it. Nobody will ever know.”

  “If this gets out,” Elaine said, “the reputation I’ve worked hard for will be shot to pieces. I don’t think I can go on with this, Mick.”

  “I think you can, Elaine,” Mick said. “For one thing, if you check your contract you’ll find that you’re stitched up tighter than a kipper. So think about those kids you can help and stop worrying about Jade.”

  “Hey, you!”

  Dakshima and I fell over each other as we heard someone shout behind us.

  “Run!” Dakshima yelled, grabbing my hand and racing down the corridor.

  “Come back here!” the security guard yelled as we pelted around the corner and away.

  “Stairs!” Dakshima breathed hard as she yanked at my arm. “Come on, Ruby!”

  We scrambled down one flight of stairs and tumbled into the corridor on the floor where our holding room was.

  “Here,” Dakshima took her scrunchie out and handed it to me, shaking her long hair over her shoulders. “Put you hair up in this and give me your headband. Act natural, OK?”

  “OK,” I said squeakily, twisting my hair into a bun.

  We strolled back into the holding room full of students, about five seconds before the security guard burst in. He stood stock still breathing heavily, looking around the room.
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  “Any one just run in here?” he asked. A room full of nervous kids stared blankly at him. “Right, well, if you see anyone running, let me know. We’ve had a serious breach of security.”

  Dakshima and I looked at each other as we sat down with the rest of the choir.

  “Where have you two been?” Mr Petrelli said. “They’re going to announce who’s going through to the finals any minute now.”

  “We went to the loo,” Dakshima said, looking at me. “We were nervous, weren’t we, Ruby?”

  “Very, very nervous,” I said. I still couldn’t believe what we’d overheard. I couldn’t believe that anyone – not even Jade Caruso’s dad – would give the lead parts in his musical to two kids who couldn’t sing. I couldn’t believe that he was cheating so much. I could only hope that Jade wouldn’t have any say about anyone else, which meant that Anne-Marie and Nydia still had a good chance of getting one of the lead roles.

  It seemed to take a long time before Highgate Comprehensive School Choir was called through to hear our fate. Other choirs went out one by one, but as they didn’t come back in again, we still had no idea what was happening. Finally there were just two choirs left – ours and St Mildred’s School for Girls, a very good choir all dressed immaculately in tartan kilts and blazers. Suddenly I felt a bit silly in my legwarmers.

  The door swung open.

  “Right, can the last two choirs come through to the auditorium, please,” the blonde production assistant said.

  We all stood in a row in front of the judges. This time there were TV cameras, and Mick Caruso and Elaine Emmerson had joined the judging panel.

  “Hello, choirs,” Lillian Shoreditch, the head judge, began to speak. “You were the best two choirs in the competition today…”

  There were cheers from both choirs and looks of stunned disbelief from a few of the Highgate Comp kids, not to mention Mr Petrelli.

  “You each had different strengths. St Mildred’s, your performances were a technical tour de force, the sounds you made utterly beautiful – and you must be commended for being the only choir here today to achieve such a high standard of singing.”

  A ripple of applause momentarily broke the tension in the auditorium.

  “Highgate Comprehensive – you brought something completely fresh and original to the competition, with your very successful attempts at staging the songs and your unique approach to costume. You gave us some much need showbusiness and reminded us that we are looking for a West End chorus and not a school choir.”

  Lillian Shoreditch picked up a piece of paper. “It’s been a very tough decision, but the choir going through the national final of the competition is…”

  And we waited…

  And we waited…

  And just when I couldn’t stand it any longer she read out, “Highgate Comprehensive School Choir – you’ve won!”

  And suddenly I was engulfed in hugs and my ears were filled with shouts and screams and all I could think was…“We’ve got through to the final. We did it!”

  One thing I knew for sure though was that our choir had got through because we’d tried really hard and did the best we could. Nobody rigged our result, not like Danny’s.

  The question was, now that I knew about Danny, Jade and the Auto-tune Miracle Microphone, what was I going to do about it?

  TOP CHOICE!

  The only TV listings guide that helps you pick of the best and forget the rest!

  Saturday 25th Top Choice! Star Pick of the day!

  SPOTLIGHT!: SEARCH FOR A STAR THE FINAL 7.05 p.m.

  There’s really only one show worth watching this Saturday and it’s SPOTLIGHT!: SEARCH FOR A STAR THE FINAL. We’ve all been waiting with baited breath since iconic rocker Mick Caruso announced that he was planning to turn his pantheon of classic hits into a musical that was to star only under-sixteens and premiere with a live performance on TV. Mick’s own daughter Jade Caruso has gone through rigorous auditions to win her place in this live final and we’ll see some other more familiar faces competing alongside unknown talent too. Danny Harvey of Kensington Heights fame will be hoping for your phone vote, as well as popular children’s TV presenter Nydia Assimin. Also look out for the face of H&M summer teen collection Anne-Marie Chance. All four of these hopefuls are pupils of the legendary Sylvia Lighthouse Academy for the Performing Arts. Cue tears, tantrums, hopes and dreams dashed, and much, much more! Can there be a better way to spend your Saturday night? RF

  (NB: Look out for the finalist of the choir competition; our old favourite Ruby Parker is making a low key appearance in one of the choirs hoping the win a place in the chorus and £20,000 for their school. Everyone here at Top Choice! misses young Ruby and we hope this is the start of a comeback.)

  Chapter Nine

  “It is kind of amazing that all of your friends got a place in the final,” Dakshima said, as she read the piece in the TV guide out on our way to our last rehearsal before the national final. “Maybe their results were rigged too. Maybe ours were. Maybe we only got picked for the national choirs final because of you!

  It had been two weeks since we found out that we were going through the final. Two weeks of solid rehearsing in which we found out that Anne-Marie and Nydia were going to join Jade and Danny in the final for the lead parts too. And two weeks since Dakshima and I found out that Danny had got through, not because of his talent, but because Jade had wanted him to. Mick Caruso had been rigging the results.

  So far Dakshima and I hadn’t told anyone. We didn’t know who to tell or even if we should.

  “They didn’t put our choir through because of me,” I told her, shaking my head. “Jade hates me so much that we’d have been out in the first five minutes if she’d had a say in it. They put us through because we were the most original, so forget about worrying that we don’t deserve it. And I know that Nydia is one of the best singers I’ve ever heard and that Anne-Marie can belt out a show tune like a star. Those two deserve to have a chance. Besides, you heard Mick Caruso; he told Elaine that it was only Danny and Jade that he was going to plug into that microphone thingy, everyone else would be there on their merits.”

  “I suppose so,” Dakshima said. “But it’s just not right that those two should get the places that two other kids really deserve.”

  “Well, they might not,” I said slowly. “I mean, there’s the phone vote. Maybe people won’t vote for them.

  Dakshima looked at me. “Do you really think that Mick’s going to let that happen to his little girl? Either the show will make them look so good people vote for them, or they’ll rig the results – you hear about it all the time. Either way, they’ll get through, I’m telling you.”

  “What should we do?” I asked her.

  “What do you mean, what should we do?” she replied.

  “Well, we know this thing and it’s a really terrible and wrong thing – shouldn’t we tell someone? Maybe Mr Petrelli?”

  Dakshima frowned. “I don’t know,” she said. “I mean maybe this is what it’s like. Maybe this is the real reality of reality TV. Besides, if we tell someone now then the show might be stopped completely and we wouldn’t get a chance to be in it and the school won’t get the prize money. And there are more people who do deserve to be in Spotlight! than the two who don’t. I think we should forget what we heard, keep our heads down and hope our choir wins.”

  “It’s just…” I paused, feeling uneasy. “I’m sure if Danny knew that he was being manipulated like this he’d be really upset and he wouldn’t have anything to do with it. I know he dumped me for Melody in a letter, and at the worst time of my life, but he’d hate to think he got through because of cheating. And he wouldn’t want the part just because the producer’s daughter fancies him. He’s not that bad.”

  “Are you sure he’s not like that?” Dakshima asked me, hooking her arm through mine. “You said he told you he hated musicals, and then we saw him in front of the cameras going on about how much he loved them. Maybe he knows what M
ick is planning for him.”

  I shook my head. “No, not Danny. He’s a stubborn idiotic pig, but he’s not evil.”

  Dakshima laughed. “You are so not over him,” she said, ducking as I swiped at her with my bag.

  Dakshima was right though; Danny had said he loved musicals at the audition, something I didn’t think he would ever normally say, even to get a part. The truth was that the Danny I knew and the Danny that was going to be singing live on national TV in a couple of days’ time seemed like a completely different person. Plus Anne-Marie and Nydia said he hadn’t been hanging out with them since the auditions, so I couldn’t even ask them what they thought.

  “Is he hanging around with Jade?” I’d asked Anne-Marie on the phone last night, trying and failing to sound casual.

  “No, he’s trying to escape from her I think,” Anne-Marie had said. “She’s all over him like a rash. I don’t know why he’s cooled it with us, though. He’s not even hanging about with Sean any more. Maybe it’s because Melody didn’t get through and he doesn’t want to rub her nose in the fact that the rest of us breezed it.”

  I’d found myself wondering if Melody not getting through had something to do with Jade’s plans for Danny.

  “Look, if you think Danny would hate what’s happening, then it’s obvious what you should do,” Dakshima said, as we walked to the music room. “Why don’t you tell him?”

  “Tell him?” I asked her, stupidly surprised by the suggestion.

  “Yes, go and see him and tell him what you overheard. I mean, he’s not an idiot is he? He must be able to work out that the sound he’s hearing in his head is completely different to the one coming out of the speakers?”

  “I don’t know,” I said uncertainly, lowering my voice to a whisper. “Don’t you think that would be a bit weird? For me, his ex-girlfriend, to go and tell him that his whole singing career is a fake?”

  Dakshima shrugged. “Well, you said he’d hate it if he knew the truth. If you tell him, then he’ll know. He can make the right choice for him, instead of being pushed around by that Jade and her family without even realising it. As long as we still get our chance to be in the chorus and win the money for the school. I’m not saying blow the whole thing wide open, I’m saying give him a chance to back out before it’s too late.”