VegasChatter

Act I: Early English Stardom

North & South’s biggest hit, (the Lowester’s the one on the left with the fetching curtains). To see them in action, you need this link.
* Tom Lowe is born in 1978 in Manchester, Engerland.
* At 18, he brings shame on shocks his family by turning down a place at Cambridge University to move to London and join a boy band.
* Luckily, said boyband is managed by Tom Watkins, who’d put together Bros (Matt Goss’ insanely huge band), East 17 and the Pet Shop Boys.
* With North and South, Tom and three others get to number 7 in the UK, number 2 in Malaysia and earn themselves a TV series, No Sweat, clinching the highly prestigious (for middle schoolers) pre-Neighbours 5pm slot on BBC1. They are huge, as Tom says, for "at least one month".
* His celeb friends at that time include Cat Deeley and UK TV presenters Ant & Dec (whose album launch party he is thrown out of for dancing on a table)
* He does a stint as backing vocalist for Take That, the biggest boy band to hit the UK since Matt Goss jumped off the Bros bandwagon.
* Sadly, it turns out that N&S are no Bros, and RCA drop them after their third single charts at 27 ( ☹ ). Tom decides to return to academia.

Act II: The American Dream

Opening for the Red Sox at Fenway Park
* Tom wins a scholarship to do East Asian Studies at Harvard, where he learns to speak fluent Mandarin (#notjustaprettyfacealert).
* As part of his studies, he lives in Beijing, where he teaches hip hop dance to elderly Chinese women at a local gym, then travels the Silk Road to produce a guidebook for Let’s Go Travel.
* After he graduates (in 2005) he gets a job as the “Face of Massachusetts” for the state’s online marketing campaign. He becomes the first foreigner to sing the National Anthem at Fenway Park before a Red Sox game.

Act III: American Idol

The Idol audition, including the epic Lowe laugh
* It’s 2006. Tom is 28, and his friends are telling him to audition for American Idol (28 is the cut off age). To qualify, he must be a “legal permanent resident” – ie have a green card – and he only has a visa. He applies anyway, and hopes he’ll “slip through the net”.
* He does, to start with. At his audition Paula tells him his voice is “amazing”, Randy calls him “sheer brilliance” and Simon says he’s “obviously through”.
* In the group audition stage, he performs How Deep is Your Love with Blake Lewis (who finished second). It becomes the most viewed video on AOL and they’re told it’s the best group audition (check it out here).
* He’s booted out when the final 40 are whittled down to 24. Randy Jackson tells him he’d been “up and down” but Tom suspects they discovered his lack of green card. He sits and cries on a bench outside the studio, and Cat Deeley walks by. She doesn’t speak to him. That's LA for you.

Act IV: LA Dreamer

Les Mis (albeit his London performance)
* Tom is in LA when he’s kicked off Idol. He accidentally-on-purpose misses his flight back to Boston and stays in LA to seek his fortune. He stays there three and a half years.
* He sings in a production of Les Mis at the Hollywood Bowl (we forgot to say that back in part I, post North & South, he was in the West End production of Les Mis - the youngest Marius in history).
* He gets a regular gig at a place called Upright Cabaret. While there, he is spotted by Broadway choreographer Tiger Martina.
* He does voiceovers for some video games and stars in a commercial for sparkling water for German TV (zupercool).
* He stars in a Burt Bacharach revue at the Henry Fonda Theater in Hollywood with Diana DeGarmo, who was Idol runner up in season three, in a Si Coleman revue in Ventura, and plays “Pocahotness” in a production for the Hasty Pudding Show – “the nation’s oldest theater company” (top show title: The Magic Futon)
* He does a “sizzle reel” – like a pilot – for a mooted Broadway production of a Village People musical. It has yet to be picked up.

Then this spring this year, he gets a call from Tiger Martina, who’s been brought on board for a new Vegas show imaginatively titled Vegas! The Show. He auditions April 10, moves to Vegas May 17, and Act V of the Tom Lowe epic begins.

And if that hasn’t piqued your interest to see Vegas! The Show, we actually give up. Go fall asleep in front of watch Believe or something.