"American Idol" sends a "theatrical" contestant to Hollywood

Adam Lambert performs in a December cabaret in NYC (Source)

Last night, in between flipping between Inauguration coverage and watching the stockpile of Chelsea Latelys I have on the DVR, I happened upon a few very interesting moments of American Idol Season 8, Episode 3.

Those moments involved contestant Adam Lambert, a handsome young sylph with Broadway credits under his belt who impressed the judges with his performance of Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody", confessed to seeing Paula Abdul in concert when he was 10 and complimented new judge whats-er-name on her jewelry.

Not that there's anything wrong with that.

To watch me discuss this matter without breaking our editorial policy on speculating about sexuality, meet me after the jump.

Here's the thing: Whether or not Adam Lambert the 26-year-old aspiring singer is gay, the persona that he brought to the American Idol judges is as gay as a bucket of rainbow-striped newborn kittens dipped in glitter and tastefully arranged on Liberace's grave.

Or, as Randy and Simon put it with odd throwback charm, "theatrical".

Lambert (center) with friends at the Upright Cabaret (Source)

See, it looked like Simon was going to dismiss Lambert because he is a very "theatrical" singer ... and we all know what that's bully code for. But here's where things got interesting: first, Paula and New Lady jumped to the kid's defense, saying that he's got a great voice (which he does).

But then Randy also got in on the discussion, and made the rather interesting observation that "maybe theatrical is what this competition needs at this point" (paraphrasing, but that was pretty close). In the end all four judges voted him through to Hollywood, and on the way out he graciously shook all of their hands (kissing the ladies' and threatening to bite off La Nueva's ring). 

So here's what I'm wondering: Is Idol acknowledging (finally!) that their audience isn't nearly as boring as they think it is, and that they might be ready for a "theatrical" contestant? Please - have you seen how much eye makeup Tokio Hotel and Fall Out Boy use? They put The Pussycat Dolls to shame.

I'm really hoping that Adam stays around a while, because Idol has some serious goodwill makeup to do when it comes to how it has treated its gay contestants. And its "theatrical" ones.

If you'd like to learn more about this promising contestant, here's a cache of his decommissioned Myspace page, and some more pics collected by VotefortheWorst.