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Music Recap: "Glee" + "Grease" = GLEASE

Michelle Man |
November 16, 2012 | 5:48 p.m. PST

Staff Reporter

"Glee's" take on "Beauty School Dropout".(Fox)
"Glee's" take on "Beauty School Dropout".(Fox)

Made in 1978, "Grease" is one of the most iconic musical films that is an accurate representation of the 50s, starring John Travolta and Olivia Newton John. This week's episode of "Glee" was dedicated to this classic film. As a "Grease" fan myself, I certainly have mixed feelings about "Glee"’s rendition of the many "Grease" numbers in this episode.

Starting with positive reviews - there were songs that accurately depicted the sentiments of the original songs as sung in the movie. "Hopelessly Devoted To You" sung by Blaine (Darren Criss) in last week's episode is a clear example. Based on his break-up with Kurt (Chris Colfer) in the episode prior, and having lost the "love of his life",  he is able to portray the despair he’s experiencing by channeling it through this number. The song was accompanied by shots of him wandering around campus alone, and naturally triggered audiences' sympathy for his loneliness. There is no doubt that Darren Criss has a compelling voice, but to be able to cover a female song just as well as the original? That definitely takes some skills.

There are other numbers that were able to achieve the same effect, such as "There Are Worse Things I Could Do" sung by Santana (Naya Rivera), Unique (Alex Newell) and Cassandra July (Kate Hudson). The audience could sense the desperateness in Naya Rivera and Alex Newell’s characters voices, reaching out from their disappointments and misery. However, despite Kate Hudson being the celebrity star of the episode, the song only acts as an excuse for her affair with Brody, lacking the underlying hopelessness that the song is supposed to portray.

Sadly, however, one of the major movie numbers "Grease Lightning" was slaughtered by the show. Perhaps it's that John Travolta is too much of an iconic figure or that Ryder Lynn (Blake Jenner) is not a major character of the show long enough to carry such an important role. "Glee"'s rendition of "Grease Lightning" lacked the true essence of "Grease". The song is all about flamboyance and boyish fantasies. Despite Jenner's attempt to mimic the original style of singing, he lacks the charisma and well, simply put - “swag”, that John Travolta had. This results in a poorly arranged cover which does not make audience want to jump up from their couches to dance along like the original did.

The other numbers were fairly at "Glee" standards of covers. "Look At Me, I’m Sandra Dee" captured the essence of childish mockery but was sadly over auto-tuned. "Beauty School Dropout" and "You’re The One I Want" contributed more as a plot device rather than a musical event. I would say on the whole however, "Glee" made a good attempt on its rendition of "Grease" under the limitations that the songs would be rearranged as contemporary pop music.

Reach Staff Reporter Michelle Man here.



 

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