Andrew Lloyd Webber is inconsistent with his musicals (Excellent: “Jesus Christ Superstar” and “Phantom of the Opera”; Less than stellar: “Starlight Express” and “Cats”) and has an impish look about him, but I thoroughly appreciated his coaching, honesty and insight for an episode that I was initially dreading.

Don’tcha get me wrong (don’tcha get me wrong), because I performed in dozens of musicals from fifth grade through college, and one of my favorite roles of all time was playing the comically nefarious Herod in a concert version of “Jesus Christ Superstar” my freshman year at Boston College. But for a competition seeking the next great mainstream pop icon, why should “Idol” subject rockers, soul singers and teeny boppers to songs from the Great White Way?

Yes, many former “Idol” contestants—from Frenchie Davis in “Rent” to Fantasia Barrino in “The Color Purple”—have hit the Broadway circuit. And another, Jennifer Hudson, scored an Oscar-winning performance for the film adaptation of “Dreamgirls.” But none of those songs, with the exception of perhaps a dance remix or two, is heard on mainstream Top 40 radio.

But perhaps the best case for a Broadway night is based in something that Randy Jackson said, with which I half-agree. When he told David Cook and David Archuleta “If you can really sing, you can sing anything” last night, the sentiment was right, but the singers upon whom he bestowed that praise were wrong.

Despite Jackson overcompensating to try to convince voters for an all-David finale that’s inevitable anyway, the contestants most deserving of that praise were Carly Smithson and Syesha Mercado, who shined with sheer power, positivity and personality.

After the break, I rank and break down last night’s performances—including the mini-meltdown from Brooke White, whose stop-and-start-again performance on live TV was still better than that of the only remaining contestant I haven’t yet mentioned.

1. Carly Smithson—Before yesterday’s show, I hoped Carly would “rock an upbeat number.” So when she started singing “All I Ask of You,” I started clenching my fists and muttering, “No, no, no.” Thankfully for everyone involved, ALW stepped in (quipping, “That’s not a song for a great big chest voice”) and basically did everyone (except Carly’s competitors) a massive solid by switching the song to her alternate choice, “Jesus Christ Superstar.”

That performance was nothing short of fun and fantastic—and yet the judges’ praise was still underwhelming. Randy liked it but still mused that it “wasn’t one of (her) best performances” and Simon’s praise (“One of my favorite performances of the night”) hardly warranted the funny/desperate T-shirt she held up: “Simon Loves Me (this week).” Hopefully the voters actually paid attention to the performance.

As for the other “Idol” hope I expressed yesterday, “a David Cook-Carly Smithson finale,” I’m still not holding my breath.

2. Syesha Mercado—Upbeat, sexy and filled with an emotion that wasn’t “mopey” for the first time since singing “Got To Get You Into My Life,” Syesha heated things up to open the show with the lesser-known “One Rock ‘n’ Roll Too Many.” So when Randy Jackson said it was her “best performance to date,” it was probably the only time I agreed with one of his raves last night.

Two small caveats, though. First, her careless comment to AL-Webb that “It’s ‘American Idol,’ it’s not musical theatre” seemed to cut the mentor more deeply than she intended. And second, the raves that Carly Smithson and the next person on this list received might make viewers forget that the beginning of the show even happened.

3. David Cook—Showed restraint and a softer side for his version of “Music of the Night” until the last note, which he unnecessarily and arbitrarily belted. It’s too bad, because the rest of the song was Monster Ballad-y enough to maintain the edge he’s portrayed all season; it would have been nice to hear him pull back a bit more on that last note. It was pleasant, but not the “amazing vocal performance” Mr. Jackson wanted viewers to believe it was.

But DC still earned some cred from me for admitting his musical theatre history, something that my last-place finisher for the week, evidently, had never experienced as a performer or viewer, tsk tsk. And how funny was the awkward sequence with Sir Andrew, who made Mr. Cook serenade him as if he were a “gorgeous 17-year-old from the chorus line.” And why couldn’t the Brit tack on another year to the hypothetical girl make that situation just a little less awkward and a little more (ahem) legal for the 25-year-old singer?

4. David Archuleta—His adult-contemporary take on “Think of Me” was perfect for radio stations; that is, if those frequencies were LiteFM and its equivalents nationwide. Much like most of the playlists on those stations, his version sounded like a harmless *NSYNC ballad from circa 1998, back when Justin Timberlake had frosted, curly hair. Mistakes all the way around there.

I reluctantly agree with Jackson that Archuleta’s “the one to beat,” because of his sheer popularity and previous seminal performances, but not because of last night’s song, whose first two-thirds he mailed in with juuuust enough second-class postage.

Before the performance, ALW said he “could not imagine how a boy could sing that song” and pleaded with Archie to open his eyes while doing so. I’d just settle for a less robotic delivery. For a guy virtually guaranteed of competing in the “Idol” finale, the kid just seems downright uptight at this point. Then again, I was uptight about a lot of things that were far less significant when I was 17, so I’ll try not to blame him for that.

5. Brooke White—With two words—“I’m sorry”—replacing lyrics Brooke had forgotten, her performance of “You Must Love Me” came to a screeching halt. Actually, if we’re going to be technical here, it was an eerily silent halt on very live television. She and the band regrouped and started again, but she never seemed to fully recover or relax for the duration of her song, which wasn’t bad, but wasn’t great, either.

Kudos to Simon, though, for saying that it was brave and “the right thing to do” to stop the performance and sing the correct lyrics. At a hypothetical Brooke White concert, I’d agree, but I actually side with Paula Abdul on this one. Because of the “American Idol” format, you’re better off pulling the David Archuleta “We Can Work It Out” fumble with a smile and keep on going, rather than drawing the embarrassing silence from which it’s almost impossible to regroup when you’ve only got two minutes that week to prove to America you’re a star.

6. Jason Castro—Andrew Lloyd Webber won me over this week when he said of Jason Castro’s interpretation of “Memory”: “He kind of understood it. I think.”

True, Castro admitted in the live interview that he’d never seen any of Webber’s works, but that’s just not something to admit when you’re trying to survive the week, let alone win the competition.

Castro’s upper register on the song was more tolerable than the lower, which was full of more careless whispers than a Wham! convention in 1985. (Hiyo!) And for the ultra-dramatic last note, which Syesha Mercado would have held for no fewer than 10 seconds, Castro held it weakly for just over two.

You know Randy Jackson thought it was a bad performance when he started his critique with the word “Um.” Calling it a “train wreck” was another indicator. But he accurately reached another level of insult when he said the song was a bad choice because it had “too much melody.” As opposed to any other song?

I predict Brooke White, Syesha Mercado and Jason Castro in the Bottom 3, with Mercado heading home. Why? Mercado was fantastic, but I still don’t know if she’s really anyone’s absolute favorite. And White probably will pick up a lot of the votes from fans of skinny white blondes. (Don’t laugh, they last long on “Idol” for a reason.) But despite a horrid performance, a Bottom 3 might just be the best thing for Castro, who—if he survives—will need and probably get that voter surge from complacent fans who think he’s dreamy.

(Performance photos by Frank Micelotta/FOX; Group photo by Michael Becker/FOX.)