Runner-up on the seventh season of “American Idol,” David Archuleta went on to join the ranks of those who competed on the show and went on to fame despite not winning.
Archuleta gravitated to stage musicals, making his professional musical debut in 2022 in the title role of “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” at Utah’s Tuacahn Amphitheatre.
More recently, he’s about to launch his annual holiday tour, bringing yuletide joy to 15 different cities throughout North America.
In a new interview with Playbill, Archuleta opens up about how working with a theater icon during his “Idol” season has continued to resonate in his career, nearly two decades later.
Working with Weber
As Archuleta tells Playbill, he was in awe when “American Idol” brought in Andrew Lloyd Weber as a mentor for Season 7.
Working with the mastermind behind such hit musicals as “Cats,” “Evita” and “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” remains a favorite memory, although in hindsight he now wishes he’d been more mature.
“Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber was very excited to get involved with brainstorming ideas for songs, which I thought was nice,” recalled Archuleta, who wound up performing “Think of Me” from Weber’s “Phantom of the Opera.”
“I was 17, and I remember not being able to concentrate on what he was saying to me because he had a habit of touching the side of his eyelids and then licking his fingers after,” Archuleta remembered.
“But overall he was a lovely person and engaging,” Archuleta continued. “I wish I had taken in the moment more, but it was hard to fathom and keep up with everything that was going on at that time while on the show. I couldn’t really process that I was with Andrew Lloyd Webber discussing singing one of his songs on national TV. It all felt rather premature to be having those experiences, not really being able to process anything. And yet, that’s how life tends to be. A lot of moments are the only moments we’ll get regardless of whether we think we’re ready or even deserving of it. It’s something I can look back at now and be in awe of it since I didn’t have time to when it was happening.”
A Passion for Musicals
Being able to star in one of Weber’s plays, all those years later, proved to be an important stage in his musical evolution.
“My favorite part of the whole experience was the cast I got to work with,” he told Playbill of that Utah production of “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.”
“I love the community that comes with being in a theatrical production, and getting to collaborate with other performers/creatives to tell a story is so gratifying,” he added. “The biggest challenge was feeling comfortable getting into a character in front of a bunch of strangers. It’s a good challenge to try out.”
Archuleta also shared his own favorite musicals, a list that includes a couple of Weber-written classics.
“I love ‘Wicked,’ ‘Six,’ ‘Into the Woods,’ ‘Evita,’ ‘Cats,’ ‘Dear Evan Hansen,'” he said.
“There are so many great ones with great music,” he added. “‘Les Misérables’ was my introduction into musicals, and I was so obsessed with that show.”
David Archuleta Recalls What He Learned From Mentor Andrew Lloyd Weber on ‘American Idol’