American Idol: Hollywood Hell Week Grinds On . . .

. . . or “Norman Gentle: Beyond Thunderdome.”

The show begins with Seacrest announcing the festivities are coming to us from “the historic Kodak Theater,” perhaps the first time the word “historic” has been used to describe a structure completed in 2001. Then again, it is Los Angeles, where anything more than 10 years old is considered a heritage building.

Have the producers been reading this blog? Because this week they seem to have called ix-nay on the ama-dray, and given us a solid hour of performances. This is how you produce an Idol episode, unlike last week’s train wreck in which half the show was spent following stupid conflicts between stupid people.

The performance, for the most part, are pretty good. No major meltdowns or screw-ups from the 72 remaining contestants, who perform a single song with no comments from the judges until the end of the day.

First up is Adam Lambert, the spitting image of Fall Out Boy’s Pete Wentz. He tries a bit of David Cook-style voodoo by performing Cher’s disco-tronic “Believe’ as a ballad, clearly an attempt to convince the judges that he’s not too Broadway for the competition. Not sure if it worked, but a pretty solid performance.

Matt Giraud (who reminded Simon of Elliot Yamin) sat himself down at the piano and belted out a rousing rendition of Ray Charles’ Georgia. Standing O from the peanut gallery, and the judges seemed pleased.

BFFs Jamar Rogers and Danny Gokey were next, Jamar singing “Hey There Delilah.” I like Jamar, but he has a tendency to verge on over the top, and he started off a little cheesy but quickly settled down for what I think is his best to date.

Danny came next, and delivers yet another memorable performance, “I Hope You Dance.” I’m saying Danny will go top 10.

Then, some solid if not particularly memorable auditions from Anoop Desai and Jorge Nunez before we get to see Scott McIntyre, the visually impaired guy. Thankfully, Seacrest didn’t attempt to high-five him this time. Even better, he was allowed to play piano while performing, which was clearly much more comfortable for him, and he delivered. Although I gotta wonder, if he makes it to the top 10, are they going to have him attempt choreography when they do those group-sing medleys? Could be awkward.

A few more fine-but-whatever auditioners, and it’s time for Nathaniel Marshall, the mouth-pierced drama queen whose teary meltdowns have taken up so much screen time this season. Aptly enough, he sings “Disturbia,” and it’s . . . really good, actually. This could be interesting, having a contestant who is, on the one hand, really talented, and on the other hand, a complete emotional wreck. This may be the first Idol contestant to be both a good singer and a walking disaster. I can just imagine Fox reality TV guru Mike Darnell salivating over all the potential carnage to come.

Then a shocker. Joanna Pacitti, who’s already made headlines as this season’s ringer due to the fact that she’s already had a major-label recording contract, spaces out and forgets the words. Oh-uh. This is followed by a montage of other contestants forgetting the lyrics.

Next up is Nick Mitchell/Norman Gentle, who’s shown deliberating which persona he should take on tonight. And it’s . . . Norman! Yay! I know, it’s starting to get a little annoying, but it’s a nice tension breaker to see him writhe all over the stage like an effeminate slinky, and concealed amongst the drag-queen theatrics is a pretty good voice. The judges are laughing, which may or may not be a good sign.

Anne Marie Boskovitch is shown prior to the audition having a bad case of the nerves, since she is apparently the 18th contestant of the day to sing “I Hope You Dance.” She does it anyway, and it’s fine.

But she’s followed by Ju’Not Joyner (who, Seacrest tells us, has been flying under the radar), who is the day’s 18th contestant to sing “Hey There Delilah.” Throw that Carrie Underwood cheating-boyfriend song into the mix, and those three songs have made up the majority of tonight’s auditions. This does not bode well for future episodes.

After a shaky start, Kaylan Lloyd soldiers on with her performance until Simon wordlessly holds up his hand and stops her mid-song. You can literally see her heart burst from her chest, drop on the stage and roll down the aisle and out the door. I know I’ve been complaining that Simon hasn’t been mean enough, but c’mon, was that really necessary?

Kai Kalama strapped on his guitar and . . . yikes! His voice is shot. Straining and rasping, he clearly over-rehearsed, and it shows.

Finally, oil-rig roughneck Michael Sarver performs, and we see a clip of him saying he’s doing this to give his family some security. The producers clearly love this guy, although I’ve been finding his performances bland and white-bread. Then again, I thought the same thing about Clay Aiken, so perhaps I’m not the best judge of what America is looking for in an Idol.

But let’s not forget good ol’ Tatiana, who has somehow managed to outpace Bikini Girl as this season’s most vacuous and annoying contestant. To illustrate, we see several clips of her tendency, when offered any criticism whatsoever, to simply start singing another song. When she’s told to stop, she sings yet another one. She needs to go.

The performances done, the judges deliberate, for hours, Seacrest tells us, until the wannabes are separated into four groups, herded into four different rooms.

Since there was little drama in tonight’s episode, the producers decide to manufacture some by having the judges make a last-minute change of heart that results in Tatiana being moved from one room to another. She practically has a stroke.

The decision made, Simon wisely gets the hell out of there and jets to London (presumably to appear on one of the half-dozen talent shows he judges over there), leaving Paula, Randy and Kara to do the dirty work.

The grim-faced trio enters the first room, looking all downtrodden and offering up explanations about how they tried their best, but . . .

Nice try, guys. We’ve seen this trick too many times before. Right as the tears start flowing, Kara explodes and tells them they’re going through.

New group, new room, same shtick. Tears turn to joy.

New group, new room, but you can tell this time the judges aren’t playing. Room 3, you’re going home.

And room four, which we’re supposed to THINK is going to go home, but the judges’ tricky shtick winds up causing Tatiana to have a full-on psychotic break, with the sobbing and the gnashing of teeth and the rending of garments, Paula finally trying to calm her down, telling her she’s not doing herself any favours, until they finally are forced to reveal group four is moving on before Tatiana embarrasses herself more than she already has. But they’re so weird and vague about it that one of the contestants actually puts up his hand, like he’s in second grade, and asks, “So . . . we’re through, right?”

The dust settled, the singers we thought would get through all got through, while, surprisingly enough, Norman Gentle and Tatiana make it through another round.

Tonight, a bloated two-hour edition will give us our first glimpse of the final 36.