{alltv} Final 4 perform last 'Talent' routines

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

{alltv} Final 4 perform last 'Talent' routines

LOS ANGELES – Prince Poppycock may have lost the "America's Got Talent" crown.

The outlandish operatic creation of 32-year-old singing store clerk John Quale from Los Angeles was the only act to receive the dreaded buzzer on Tuesday's edition of the NBC variety competition.

Piers Morgan declared he wasn't a fan of Poppycock's more serious, less spectacular interpretation of the aria "Nessun Dorma" from Puccini's "Turandot."

"This didn't make me smile," he said.

The other three finalists faired better than the Prince. Michael Grimm, the fedora-wearing 30-year-old crooner from Waveland, Miss., and Jackie Evancho, the sprightly 10-year-old opera soprano from Pittsburgh, were both lauded for their respective renditions of Michael Bolton's "When a Man Loves a Woman" and "Ave Maria" from Verdi's "Otello."

"You are a little angel," Sharon Osbourne told Evancho.

Fighting Gravity, the 13-man performance troupe of Virginia Tech students from Blacksburg, Va., were also praised for their performance, which featured members of the group flying through alternating doors lit with black lights.

Morgan chastised the group for "one bad" technical mistake, but the other judges encouraged viewers to vote for the winner.

"You're exactly what makes this show so special," Howie Mandel told the troupe.

The winner of "America's Got Talent" will be revealed Wednesday and earn a headlining show at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas and a $1 million prize.

If the Prince doesn't become reality-TV royalty, Quale said he still has grand plans for Poppycock: He wants to unleash a saga similar to John Cameron Mitchell's 2001 rock opera, "Hedwig and the Angry Inch."

"Ultimately, I do want to write an opera based around the Prince Poppycock character and his trials and tribulations," Quale said last week after securing his spot on the finale. "I would love to stage it as a full-on Ziegfeld Follies, Broadway extravaganza ... then one day, turn it into a movie."