With famed composer Andrew Lloyd Webber as mentor, last night's American Idol proved a simple task for nerd Idols with a musical-theater or acting backgrounds. Unfortunately, that left two of the remaining contestants, Jason Castro and Brooke White, with their work cut out, and they clearly struggled. White actually committed an Idol first of flubbing her lines and—gasp!—asking the band to start over. Given the strong performances of the other four contestants, an old-fashioned popularity contest should determine who joins them tonight in the bottom three. If Idol history proves anything, don't expect it to be a cute boy.

Starting off the show and singing for her life was recent bottom-dweller Syesha Mercado, who drew on her acting skills to show some much-needed personality on a sassy rendition of "One Rock 'n Roll Too Many," from Starlight Express. Should she not win the show outright, expect Mercado to be giving Anika Noni Rose a run for her money on Broadway.

Jason Castro not only had the bad luck of following Mercado, but confirmed he was completely out of his element with his choosing of the female power ballad "Memory" from Cats. Upon meeting Lloyd Webber and taking a first run at the song, Castro admitted he "had no idea the song was sung by a cat," and then said, "I'm really nervous ... it's kinda a popular song." Yes, Jason, Cats was fairly huge. Without an ounce of oomph or a power note in sight, Castro's rendition was deemed "the longest two minutes of my life," by judge Simon Cowell. It's agreed, then!

Not faring much better was Brooke White, who owned up to simply forgetting the lyrics when she blanked on the second line of Evita's "You Must Love Me," and asked the band to begin again. Cowell and judge Randy Jackson didn't fault her too much, admitting they would have done the same but Paula Abdul suggested could have "sang from the heart," or ... just make up a song! All agreed that regardless of how she handled it, the mistake left her tense and nervous. White, for once, didn't cry, and took her lumps from the judges without a single tear.

Breaking out of the "hopeful ballad mode" for a change was David Archuleta who gave a nice, if not slightly "vanilla" performance, as deemed by someone in my AI pool, by turning The Phantom of the Opera's "Think of Me" from a ballad to true pop song. The most important advice Lloyd Webber gave to Archuleta: Keep those eyes open while singing. Finally! Thank you, Lloyd Webber. With only a minimal amount of squinting, Archuleta drew praises from the judges, including Jackson's exclamation that he was the "one to beat."

Also well-received by the judges, for the first time in a long while, was Carly Smithson, who kept her tattoos covered and ramped up her personality on "Superstar" from Jesus Christ Superstar. After weeks of nothing but criticism, Smithson finally broke Cowell, who said she had "one of his favorite performances of the night." Smithson, who had clearly planned for such a happy occasion, immediately whipped out a T-shirt that said "Simon Cowell Liked Me (This Week)". Luckily for Smithson, the camera caught Cowell laughing.

Closing the show was resident rocker David Cook who showed off his vocal chops on Phantom's "Music of the Night." Last week, I predicted Syesha Mercado might sing this song, one of Lloyd Webber's most famous, so I was a bit nervous for Cook to give it a go. No need for alarm, though, as the judges ate it with a spoon, especially Jackson, who exclaimed that Cook dropped "another molten hot lava bomb tonight!" Whatever that means (sounds gross, though).

Tonight, the results show. Usually, the mentor performs, so I'm holding out hope for an Idol twist, with Madonna popping in for an Evita reprise. Is she not lagging behind Mariah in record sales at the moment?