Casey James gets our only ‘excellent’ grade, and the rest have some serious studying to do! By Eric Ditzian The “American Idol” top 12 men Photo: Patrick Ecclestein / FOX Call it a case of nervousness on the first day of class, a failure to study hard, or a bunch of students in over their heads. Whatever the case on Wednesday’s “American Idol,” the top 12 men arrived for their first live show test and promptly flunked. Most of them, at least, especially when compared to the top 12 women the previous evening. So, who surprised us, who disappointed us, and who’s in danger of going home? Let’s take a look at the top 12 men’s report card. (And don’t miss Jim Cantiello’s review in the Newsroom.) ‘American Idol’ Season Nine Performances Excellent Casey James : The judges predictably continued to milk the Kara-hearts-Casey storyline, which besides getting a bit tired, is starting to be unfair to the singer who called himself “just some dude.” Drop the manufactured drama, because with his stripped-down acoustic take on Bryan Adams’ “Heaven,” James established himself as a front-runner. He alone among the male contestants looked natural onstage. He alone injected a sense of live show verve to the dull proceedings. He alone deserves two gold stars. Satisfactory Andrew Garcia : By now, Garcia’s shtick has become clear: He takes a pop tune and turns it inside out. The judges were not impressed by his remix of Fall Out Boy’s “Sugar We’re Going Down,” but it hardly deserved such vociferous hate from them. If anything, Simon and his crew seem to be knocking down a front-runner just so that he might rise from the ashes later in the season. Make no mistake: Garcia is still the singer to beat this season. Todrick Hall : Hall took the judges’ instruction to be creative and ran with it … possibly off a cliff. It’s never good when words used to describe a performance include “murder,” “torture” and “verging on stupid.” But you know what? With his re-jiggered version of Kelly Clarkson’s “Since U Been Gone,” Hall displayed guts and creativity, and has us looking forward to his performance next week. He shouldn’t have a problem making it through. Joe Mu
