'Glee': Leave It to the Guest Stars
Last night’s episode rode on the mighty musical shoulders of Charice and Gwyneth Paltrow
After a sad, lingering hiatus (don't you care about us at all, Fox?), Glee returned with the New Directions performing songs by neglected artists.
Like Aretha and Adele? Yes, they are criminally overlooked.
But the episode was only marginally about the students and faculty of William McKinley High. Instead it was a showcase for returning guest stars Charice and Gwyenth Paltrow, as, respectively, Sunshine from rival chorus Vocal Adrenaline and substitute teacher Holly Holliday.
Judging by the jagged fashion in which both ladies were inserted into the plot, it would seem Glee had limited time to work with them.
Charice was there mainly to knock "All By Myself" out of the park (see video below). That poor neglected Eric Carmen ballad that has been covered by everyone from Frank Sinatra to Hank Williams Jr.
The song is so well known that a few weeks ago, Pia Toscano even sang it on American Idol. Randy Jackson identified it as a Celine Dion song. Oops.
Sunshine was there primarily to sing at the New Directions' fund-raising concert, which she somehow dropped out of at the last moment.
Holly stuck around long enough to sing Adele's "Turning Tables" and then blithely announced she was leaving for Cleveland. (That sentence contained a Gwyneth pun. Did you spot it? Answer below.) What happened to the duet she and Mr. Schuester were supposedly rehearsing?
Alright, so both ladies left abruptly. Maybe they had flight reservations they couldn't change.
Color me petty, but I'm wondering how a glee club that can't afford to travel to Nationals is able to put on such lavish song and dance productions for an audience that numbered in the single digits.
Holly was supported by a large, remarkably young, formally attired string section. And Mercedes appeared with a full gospel choir in robes.
Those kids are going to have to sell a mountain of salt water taffy. (Hmmm, wonder if it's Fralinger's?)
Okay, the Gwynnie pun: Her mother's name is Blythe Danner. Hey I didn't say it was a good pun. Maybe if I had delivered it Glee-style backed by the entire cast of The Book of Mormon, it would be clever. Or maybe not.
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