Glee Club

[captainsblog]

I've been vaguely aware of this Glee show, but haven't given it a try. After experiences last night and today, I think I ought to.

After dinner tonight (ribs, corn and brownies- om nom), I finally got to the New Yorker review of the show from a few weeks back. Once the reviewer had dispelled any fears that it might share toxic chromosomes with Disney's High School Musical franchise, she went on to nail the premise of the show in this single pithy paragraph:

The success of “Glee” depends on the energy and the obvious talent of its young (but way beyond high-school age) performers, and on Jane Lynch, who plays Sue Sylvester, the acid-tongued, sneaky, and completely loony cheerleading coach, whose every line of dialogue is quotable (and is duly quoted, minutes after being delivered, on Facebook pages and in Twitter feeds). Sue’s counterbalance, and nemesis, is Will Schuester (Matthew Morrison, who has a solid Broadway background and Leyendecker good looks, including thick, wavy hair that Sue mocks, in elegant variations, pretty much every time she sees Will), a youngish Spanish teacher and a graduate of McKinley High in the days when it had a top-notch show choir. Will makes it his project to bring back that glory, and he starts by tricking the captain of the football team (Cory Monteith), whom he hears singing in the shower after practice one day, into joining his ragtag crew. If Will gets funding for his group, the economy being tough—Sue’s cheerleading crew will lose theirs. Will also wants some of Sue’s girls—the Cheerios—for his group. She tells him that he doesn’t get it—that he can’t blur the lines in the rigid caste system that is high school: “Your jocks and your popular kids—up in the penthouse. Your invisibles and the kids playing live-action druids and trolls out in the forest—bottom floor.” What about the Glee kids? Will asks. What category are they in? “Sub-basement,” she says.

I lived at that address in high school myself, with filthy hovels down there among both the band fags and the publications nerds. So anytime I can see the next generation rising above that, I'm all for it.

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I was a part of it, and all for it, last night, as well. It was the final concert for the Class of 2010 versions of Glee at Emily's high school. One of her longest-standing and still best friends was one of the graduating seniors, as was Cameron, Em's boyfriend. Each of them, along with the other half-dozen or so graduating seniors, got to perform a final solo and to speak a little if they chose (Sarah did, Cam didn't) to thank friends and family. I fully admit to my prejudices, but the two of them gave what I felt were the most beautiful, and heartfelt, of the performances by any of the soloists or ensembles.

Sarah was one of the first up, and she sang Vienna Teng's "Lullabye for a Stormy Night." Making it all the more touching was guessing (a guess Em later confirmed) that she had introduced Sarah to the song when we first discovered it, and Vienna's awesomeness, a few years back. She was a little nervous onstage and it came out ever so slightly in her voice, but it was so beautifully done, and so plainly from the heart, that nobody in the hall cared for a second.

Toward the end, Cam got his moment, choosing "Can You Feel the Love" from the Lion King. His range, delivery and emotion were magnificent; his only manifestation of nervousness was far from the mike, where he couldn't stop one of his legs from spontaneously tapping the stage. (I told him that was fine; since Sir Elton occasionally changes his words around, "Can You Feel the Leg Tonight" would scan just as well.)

Their fellow seniors, and the other kids in the select groups, all did well, too. There were plenty of perfectly pretty and handsome kids among them, defying the stereotypes of popular/jock/stoner/nerd; but unlike Jane's purely popular kids in the penthouse suite, these kids all had dreams, heart and love of their friends and families that any King or Queen of the Prom would do well to emulate.