SOUND OFF: GLEE Prom King

Boasting the big, bright and blazing return of Broadway baby Jonathan Groff as show-favorite featured guest star Jesse St. James and the very finest vocal song performance of Season Two so far, last night's "Prom Queen" episode of GLEE was everything but CARRIE's bucket of pig's blood on top. Speaking of pigs, Karofsky certainly got his comeuppance - quite heartfelt in its denouement - at long, long last, on the dramatic side of the story, and the audience got to musically pig-out and irreverently indulge in the frothy pop confections of Benny Andersson, Bjorn Ulvaeus & Stig Andersen - otherwise known as ABBA - with the rousing gleeked-out, tweaked-out rendering of the newly-crowned MAMMA MIA super-anthem "Dancing Queen", as well as partake in the pop culture right-this-moment fun of the funky Black Kids' song "I‘m Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend To Dance With You" courtesy of fan favorite Darren Criss at his hipster height, and the YouTube sensation Rebecca Black‘s "Friday", performed by the boys of New Directions riotously right. Kings, queens, hearts, diamond tiaras and even a few jokers were in the deck as the hand was played out in this brisk, brash and glossy entry in the spectacularly strong - if dramatically inert more often than not - second half of Season Two. So, today, we dust off our best blue tuxes and pop the cheapest pink champagne for a guilty pleasure edition of the weekly SOUND OFF reviews of GLEE that will be wrapping up - so very sorry to say - all too soon at the end of this month with the highly-awaited season finale on May 24 and our year-end (w)rap-up soon thereafter. But, with this column as well as with GLEE, certainly the very best is yet to come - and, even if not, this is good enough to score.

Rolling In The Crepe

It's that time again - actually, make that: those times again - GLEE and prom season, that is. The blossoming of buds and buzzing of bees - plus, all about the birds and the bees - pervades the land all around us, and the time for formal attire and corsages is ushered in with the biggest event of high school life: junior prom. Last season GLEE avoided a depiction the McKinley High prom in many ways, but this year they went for it - and went almost all out - in bringing the gleek celebration to top all celebrations to the small screen in "Prom Queen". That's not to say it was a royal flush by any means. We also so appropriately (given the event) saw the return of the two most popular male guest stars of both seasons of the show, Jonathan Groff and Darren Criss, with some truly unforgettable musical moments to strut, dazzle and suitably show off all of the near-unbelievable star power and musical prowess that they both so clearly possess - in spades. They certainly did not disappoint in any of their moments last night. They rock. Much like the wedding episode earlier this year, last night's "Prom Queen" did a big blow-out like only the best variety show on television can do - and, make no mistake, GLEE is a variety show. To take GLEE too seriously or expect too much plot development in any given week is a fool's bidding, so on an expectedly drama-light theme as last night's you go in with a preconceived understanding that it will be delivering on certain promises, but most probably not on others - and, if it does, so much the better for all. That is: there is always going to be one knockout song performance and one laugh-out-loud joke, but the rest of it is anyone's guess - much too much like a deck of card or a roll of the dice. Sometimes all the elements work together to create something truly special - as it did spontaneously tonight during Michele and Groff's duet and "Dancing Queen" and, even, "Isn‘t She Lovely" - and sometimes they fail to come alight (Sue's material much of this season). While this isn't the be-all and end-all episode of the series, Season Two, or even the second spate of episodes this year, there was much to like, some things to cherish, a few things to love and one moment in particular that will be impossible to erase from our collective gleek memories - or our ears. Thankfully.

To say that Jonathan Groff and Lea Michele's acapella rendering of Adele's stormy break-up ballad "Rolling In The Deep" is revolutionary would be doing a disservice to Enjorlas. It is much more than that. Much, much, much more. And, they made it really happen and feel real and theatrical and alive, as well. They are both due so very much praise. This cover of this song on this episode of GLEE single-handedly reinforces the fact that GLEE contains moments of heavenly musical transcendence meeting character-exposition-nirvana that explodes with the fire and passion that only a really, really, really good pop song can even begin to express eloquently enough. And, they make it feel authentic - at least in classic GLEE moments-in-the-making like these. When Idina Menzel and Lea Michele took on "I Dreamed A Dream" and, especially, Lady Gaga's "Poker Face" late in Season One, GLEE ascended from a good show to a great show - maybe even a classic one. If only for the music, it is so - and, anyway, the show reinvents itself every week and more closely resembles a variety show or a sitcom than a thoroughly-devised dramatic entity (it can't even come close in that category to Murphy's NIP/TUCK, which was often ingenious in its plot contrivances and left-field revelations) so it can be judged as such. Last night Murphy & Co once again proved that they can have their prom cake and eat it, too - sure, some plotlines don't work (and some never have: Mercedes is a diva stereotype, not a character; and, Sue is one-dimensional, for starters), but the music makes it all work almost effortlessly more often than not. It's not so much that the music covers any flaws - because it can't and it doesn't when you have Grand Canyon-esque plot-holes at every turn on this, admittedly (to some, at least, like myself) lovably absurdist, over-the-top show - but it acts as a spackle to cover the gaps in the character's journeys. After all, in high school we often reinvent ourselves on a continual basis - some, every day - as a means to discover our most essential essence and who we really are and want to become in the real world. That's part of the journey - and so it goes for the show, as well. So, perhaps, the variety show conceit as it pertains to the plot and storytelling aspects on GLEE are not as non-meta as one might at first assume. There's a design that exists just below the surface sheen of it all that is far more labyrinthe and serpentine than may at first appear. Murphy is the kind to get his message across through unconventional means, and as recently as the T-shirt statement "Night of Neglect" episode he has been continuing his many political, musical and dramatic agendas in surprisingly subtle ways, in addition to the more obviously out-there and outré statements made along the way. Case in point, and rolling back to where this was going when we began: "Rolling In The Deep".

Many say that Darren Criss and The Warblers have dominated - nay, some would say outright stolen - the second season of GLEE and while their material has constituted the vast majority of the best performances so far this year, it does not mean that the show so definitively and damagingly shifted its focus in a beyond-reproach - and, some would say, exceedingly detrimental, to say the least - way, when that happened. And happened. And happened. You can't deny that it became THE BLAINE SHOW. The Valentines Day episode, "Silly Love Songs", and the Super Bowl extravaganza, in particular - and, exponentially revealed on reflection - come across as some new mash-up of GLEE-meets-THE BLAINE SHOW when viewed out of context with the rest of the season and/or rest of the show. Again, that is not a bad thing - actually, I quite enjoyed it and feel that it breathed a whole new musical and dramatic life into the series (or, with Blaine & The Warblers destined for their own spin-off series, should I say: into the franchise). But, sacrifices had to be made for Blaine to steal the show. The cost was mostly the loss of multiple Lea Michele solo spots per episode as we had more times than we could count in Season One, as well as Chris Colfer being justifiably established as an equal lead to Matt Morrison, Jane Lynch and Lea Michele's characters, whereas last season it seemed like Cory Monteith and Mark Salling were given significantly more screen time than they are now. We must also consider that there have been a number of new additions to the Glee club this year (and one deletion), so there has been less screen time to spread around by almost half, anyway. Throw in the fact that Gwyneth Paltrow sang an album's worth of songs and pretty much guaranteed herself a Best Guest Star Emmy, and you have a pie - or a prom cake - that is split many, many ways. And, really, shouldn't we just sit back, relax and enjoy the frothy fun and stop splitting all these hairs?

Yes, indeed - the hair was standing up on the back of every gleek's neck when Jonathan Groff and Lea Michele tore into Adele's "Rolling In The Deep" - and not just because of the brilliant, flawless technical performance they gave, with souls fully-bared. While The Warblers and their acapella-accentuated sound has dominated much of the sound landscape of Glee Season Two when considering the over-one-hundred-entries-and-counting catalogue of songs so far, by making the Adele bass-heavy blues song a clarion, pristine and oh-so-primal cry of the heart with no accompaniment whatsoever - with that Warblers meta-narrative being that they always had some accoutrement of some sort amid their vocal mix and now there is none for these two in this pivotal moment - it makes the genius of the story arc come through with full force. It could not be merely an accident that this is what happened - and how it all happened, to boot. It's magic - pure and simple. "We could have had it all" - and, for once, thanks to this track, we did. While many of the other musical moments of "Prom Queen" were frivolous fun - the aforementioned Amber Riley and ladies-led "Dancing Queen"; as well as Mark Salling, Chord Overstreet and the boys‘ take on "Friday", and Darren Criss's "I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend To Dance With You" - Kevin McHale's version of Stevie Wonder's classic r&b anthem "Isn't She Lovely" was uniformly strong and sensitively delivered in an especially memorable scene. Lea Michele's "Jar of Hearts" was certainly more impressive than the whiny original, but that is not saying that much (the false, lazy rhymes of that song are maddening, to me), although it was perfectly placed in the structure of the show, if nothing else. Speaking of the dramatic flourishes, the CARRIE-like prom queen reveal was DePalma-ish-ly done and the Quinn/Rachel slap was an unexpected moment of icy angst erupting into curt violence. Speaking of which, the blue-hued Quinn/Finn scenes were elegantly done and the baroque musical underscore was divinely interwoven with the Sirkian visuals as she sat at the tri-fold mirror, calculatedly preparing for prom. A chilling moment icicle-clearly culled from the mind behind NIP/TUCK, no doubt. Brava and bravo - this scene was a POPULAR-reminiscent follow-up to the tiara crypt shown previously in Quinn's lavish abode. It made you feel her pain all the more when she lost - to Kurt, no less. The balance of the characters was especially strong on last night's episode, with Kurt/Blaine, Rachel/Jessie, Finn/Quinn, Artie/Brittany, and the rest, all given moments to shine. Plus, Kurt's "Eat your heart out, Kate Middleton," followed up by "Dancing Queen" and Kurt urging Karofsky to come out was a moment only GLEE could pull off with grace.

As for further pontification on plot points as they appeared and seem to be developing as the season comes to a fast close: What's next for Satan - excuse Kurt - Santana now that Karofsky has had his epiphany? After the many dramatic interludes Rachel was given last night, will she start a new future with soul-mate Jessie or stay hooked on fickle Finn? What lies ahead for Kurt and Blaine, and, furthermore, how will the audience handle the next developments of the unprecedented depiction of their relationship? What of Will and Emma (never Wemma)? Will Sue meet her match? And, most importantly: what will they all be singing while it happens? While next week's funereally-themed episode may not pack the punch of "Prom Queen" - it will be hard to top this - some surefire musical entertainment is surely in store given the participation of Groff yet again. Plus, will Cheyenne Jackson and Charice return - and will they sing together? Hopefully, all these questions will be answered and mucho fodder for new ones will be posed come this time next week, post-"Funeral". Until then, we can be content with the fact that we were given one truly gleek-sent moment to remember.

In closing, while "Prom Queen" could have had it all and did not quite deliver on that prospect given the gala affair of a prom that only GLEE could have provided from a musical POV - I'm talking epic "Paradise By The Dashboard Light"-level musical moments featuring many members of New Directions - it certainly gave us some great glee-worthy moments of MARATHON MAN-inspired comedy from Sue, a fond junior prom memory thanks to "Dancing Queen", and - most importantly - the most stunning musical selection so far in Season Two courtesy of Lea and J Groff, voices laid raw, bare and real. Plus, only the coldest of hearts wasn't touched a little bit by Kevin McHale and company serenading Heather Morris on "Isn't She Lovely" in Home Ec. Class. And, who knows what we can expect from Groff and Michele next week - and, additionally, from the big finals in New York City?! If CARRIE is prom hell, Rachel and Jessie are without question a match made in prom heaven. Furthermore, Michele and Groff are veritable musical manna - "Hello" to "Total Eclipse of the Heart" to "Rolling In The Deep" to whatever is next. They have it all - and they play it to the beat. Roll on.

 

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