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It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Glee’ing)
Review of Glee Live! at Radio City Music Hall
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The last song I listened to before stepping into Radio City Music Hall for Glee Live! was Some Kinda Hate by the Misfits. Clearly, I am not Glee‘s intended demographic, and yet I love the show—and loved the live performance too, as did the seemingly millions of 14 year old girls who were there as well.
Glee has become a national phenomenon, with stellar ratings for Fox, iTunes downloads by the million, and for two weeks, a live musical with stops in Arizona, California, Illinois, and for the final five shows, New York City’s storied Radio City Music Hall.
To tell the truth, I didn’t except much from Glee Live! The main draw was seeing some of my favorite TV characters, like Lea Michelle (the diva-in-training/aficionado of sweaters with animals on them Rachel Berry) and Cory Monteith (the jock/singer Finn), in person, but the performances would probably reek of overproduction and thinly veiled product placements. Shockingly, neither of these came true.
The Radio City performances stayed true to the TV show: same outfits, same songs, even the same sets (the Glee rehearsal room) and props (a truck was brought on the stage for Bust a Window, similar to the one Amber Riley (Mercedes) wrecked havoc on in “Acafellas).
Over 90 minutes, and backed by a nameless band (sadly, Glee’s resident piano player, Brad, was not present) 21 songs were performed. Like the show itself, the live tour began with Journey’s Don’t Step Believing, a.k.a the reason Glee has become the sensation it is now. It was used at the end of the pilot episode, back in May 2009, and has now been downloaded nearly one million times.
Every song performed had already been done on the show, but that didn’t make them stale; instead, it was refreshing to hear Like a Prayer and actually see Michele sing, Life is a mystery! And it came as no surprise that she and Riley would have the best pipes of the kids; what was shocking was how good Mark Salling (Puck), Chris Colfer (Kurt), and Naya Rivera (Santana) sounded. Those three got the audience standing on their feet with The Lady is a Tramp, Defying Gravity, and The Boy is Mine.
Sunday evening was the final show of the brief tour and all the episodes for season one have been filmed (the finale airs June 8), meaning the members of New Directions are finally free to relax and rest their voices. It’s been well earned and I hope they eventually tour again behind a new slate of songs—even if it means more time spent being “That Guy” at a performance mainly for tweens.