Anyone as horrified at Gwyneth and Lea doing Chicago songs on Glee??- Page 2

[Mattbrain]

Posted: 11/23/10 at 12:14pm

I liked it.

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 11/23/10 at 12:20pm

Thank you onemoreday,
Criticism and dicussion is fine, but it just seems that this board will trash the show no matter WHAT they do with it... Go to the right? "How dare they." Go to the left? "Blasphemy?" Walk down the center? "Oh please, what are you doing?". NEVER happy.

Eris,
Exactly. It's not gratuitious when it is there in the piece. If ANYTHING, I find the idea of over sensoring these things doing far more harm.

[Disneyland Magic Man]

Posted: 11/23/10 at 12:36pm

The thing about Glee that should make ANY musical theater fan or performer cringe is that it tells America is that is ALL IT TAKES.

Performing songs that badly is ALL IT TAKES. You don't have to be any better. Don't have to dance well. Don't have to sing well. Everyone is autotuned. It's legal for high schools to do stuff like this... Recreate original choreography. Create these mashups. Cast women in men's roles. Change lyrics to Broadway showtunes. GLEE TELLS AMERICA THIS IS OKAY.

And what the nail on the coffin is, it's supported by the influx of Broadway performers on the series. By them doing the show it says, "we think this is okay too. tee hee." when in reality they just want to be on TV so they can come back to New York and get better parts. That's the only reason Broadway performers do TV work.

Glee is offensive. Maybe they should do an episode where they do the movie version of Grease and get sued by Paramount for $20,000. THAT's the reality of high schools in this country. How about some REALISTIC story lines about high school performers. Or getting really excited to do something like Wicked and realizing that oh, the rights aren't available. Or maybe even doing it anyway and then getting SUED.

Glee represents fantasy la-la land, which is fine, but they don't make it clear that it's doing so. It tells America that this is normal. Because Americans believe everything they see on TV.

IT NEEDS TO BE STOPPED.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 11/23/10 at 12:47pm

Glee represents fantasy la-la land, which is fine, but they don't make it clear that it's doing so. It tells America that this is normal. Because Americans believe everything they see on TV.

LOL I heartily disagree. Glee is no more far-fetched than any other high school themed TV show or movie. You are giving it FAR too much credit than it deserves.

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 11/23/10 at 12:53pm

what do you mean "this is all it takes"? portraying, and sounding appropriately like, an actual high school's glee club membership might sound - albeit without the autotone (which is standard practice in the music world, but that is another kettle of fish)?

Hmm.. Cynic much? Perhaps performs are excited that the show is opening up the world of musical theatre to a new audience.. same as high school musical.. and think that THAT is a great thing?

So the show should ignore that creating mash ups and recreating choreography and 'looks' is something that EVERY school does? Particular if they don't have the resources of an actual choreographer? They should just IGNORE that fact? Then you would blast them for being too 'professional'. By your same logic, no teenage character should ever be depicted as having sex, cursing, drinking, cutting class, talking back, skipping class...

[Disneyland Magic Man]

Posted: 11/23/10 at 1:58pm

They are not portraying anything like any live performance group.

They are doing "live" performances being autotuned beyond comprehension. Ask ANY high schooler in America if they are regularly autotuned during live performance. I dare you.

As for things all high schools do, of course people recreate choreography and do a multitude of highly illegal things... but you know what, a LOT of them get caught. And that is the real reality of high school performance. The media should not be teaching American high school students that it's not okay to follow the rules.

You can't do a show any way you want to. It's illegal. And high schools get sued. It's common practice by the major film studios, all the musical theater licensing agencies, BMI, and ASCAP.

A $20,000 lawsuit from Paramount isn't an exaggeration. It happened to Camarillo High School in CA in the early 2000's. The case was eventually dropped but only because the High School faced the possibility of having to close because of the cost. And all because they added "You're The One That I Want"... etc to their production.

[NYCJUDE2]

Posted: 11/23/10 at 2:11pm

I guess some people missed my second post where I acknowledged my use of the melodramatic word "horrified'. Yes I realize there are truly horrifying events throughout the world daily.

It's a show about highschoolers singing. In most glee clubs, community theater groups, etc. there are always the few extraordinary singers(who get the leads), while the rest are decent, carry a tune singers.

The performers on Glee are professional, trained singers. Most of the performances are really good (some better than good)but... it feels like more often than not, the attitude coming through is one of "look at me! i can outdo Barbra!" (guess who)...or"look at me! i am more Tina than Tina". (and let's not even talk about Happy Days Are Here Again"). I dunno...it just all sometimes seems less than homage and more a conceit.

Yet I continue to watch because there is certainly enough entertainment to be found, including some enjoyable musical numbers.

[TheatreFan4]

Posted: 11/23/10 at 2:13pm

All of this I just have to answer with, who gives a fck? If it hurt you that bad then just don't watch it.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 11/23/10 at 2:41pm

Ask ANY high schooler in America if they are regularly autotuned during live performance. I dare you.

Ask ANY high schooler if they know that Glee is a fictional TV show. I dare you. Ask ANY high schooler if they get a $25k budget to perform one song just for class. I dare you. Seriously, this can go on all day.

My high school did Grease and added You're the One That I Want while recreating the film choreography. You know what happened? Nothing. Well, it was the biggest money-maker the drama department ever had, but other than that, nothing. It may have been illegal and it certainly wasn't very creative, but it wasn't due to the faults of the students. I get what you're trying to say, but I'm not sure Glee owes anyone the responsibility of illustrating the legalities of copyright laws, which are essentially the responsibilities of the teachers and administration, NOT the students or the producers of Glee.

[Eris0303]

Posted: 11/23/10 at 3:13pm

My sister's high school used "You're the One That I Want", completely cut the character of Marty, gave Rizzo a cousin, gave "Freddy, My Love" to Jan, and made Danny and Sandy black. They also had a screen and showed the beach scene from the movie and the "Grease" opening song. They may have made more changes but I can't remember.

They also gave lines to Toto in "Wizard of Oz", had two Wicked Witches of the West, and added "Lullaby to Broadway" for the General to sing in "Guys and Dolls".

I couldn't even tell you what they did to "The Music Man" since I didn't see it.

[Marianne2]

Posted: 11/23/10 at 3:15pm

Scripted television is usually all far fetched. That's just what it is, to make it more interesting.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 11/23/10 at 3:26pm

Marianne2 - You forgot to post "SPOILER ALERT"

[TheatreFan4]

Posted: 11/23/10 at 3:30pm

The only far fetched thing my high school did was put 'No Bad News' in The Wizard of Oz.

It didn't end well...

[Gothampc]

Posted: 11/23/10 at 3:40pm

"Maybe they should do an episode where they do the movie version of Grease and get sued by Paramount for $20,000."

Already done in Season 1 - Lea playing Sandy of course.

[Disneyland Magic Man]

Posted: 11/23/10 at 3:43pm

Wow. It's amazing that you all have such disrespect for the writers of these Broadway shows.

You're lucky your school didn't get caught.

Well, I hope you all are ready answer questions that MTI, Tams, et all have when I report this thread to them. :)

[TheatreFan4]

Posted: 11/23/10 at 3:48pm

You act like we named schools & directors...

What's MTI gonna do? Water board us?

[Gothampc]

Posted: 11/23/10 at 3:53pm

"What's MTI gonna do? Water board us?"

You laugh, but it's something I could see the R&H organization doing.

[Disneyland Magic Man]

Posted: 11/23/10 at 3:59pm

Thread reported.

[TheatreFan4]

Posted: 11/23/10 at 4:00pm

Mmm kay. And we'll just wait to see what happens with anonymous reports about anonymous productions.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 11/23/10 at 4:12pm

Tams Widmark has a "Refer A Production" option. They target kids that don't get cast in the show and offer them $25 to rat out changes in the production.

That's why you see small shows like "You're A Good Man Charlie Brown" that have a 25 member chorus. Teachers are afraid to say no because some disgruntled student will rat them out for a Jackson and a Lincoln.

[TheatreFan4]

Posted: 11/23/10 at 4:13pm

LOL! That explains out 75 person cast in The Wizard of Oz!

[Skywalker3]

Posted: 11/23/10 at 5:06pm

Am I the only one who thinks Lea would be a awesome Roxie on Broadway someday!

Cute and a little crazy!

[jonartdesigns]

Posted: 11/23/10 at 6:36pm

Clearly "reality" is not the basis of this show. If it were, every week until sectionals they'd be rehearsing the same damn songs over and over again.

To the original topic, Lea's singing in nowadays was possibly the least grating its been thus far.

As to illegality of high school productions, I once heard of my old high school adding a MASSIVE ensemble of fairy tale characters to Into the Woods, they literally had a Shrek wandering around. I reported said production and MTI didn't seem to care

[jasonf]

Posted: 11/23/10 at 11:08pm

"Clearly "reality" is not the basis of this show."

Nor is it the basis of Disneyland Magic Man's rants. Get over yourself, dude. It's a tv show that a lot of people enjoy. It's not the end of the world.

It kind of pains me that you would use "Disney" in your name -- makes me think other people might think Disney is a bitter, shrill anonymous, sad person with nothing better to do than rant on a message board in all his holier-than-thou glory.

[Disneyland Magic Man]

Posted: 11/24/10 at 2:02am

Video taping Broadway shows, stealing from grocery stores, raping small children, murdering people, and embezzling are all enjoyed by a lot of people too.

That doesn't make it right.

The Nazi party was enjoyed by a lot of people as well. As was Hitler as a leader of their country. If the war had ended differently, he'd have gone down in history as a revolutionary great person.

Again, just because things are enjoyed by the masses, it doesn't make them right.