On My Own: Fox's GLEE Brings The Musical Back.

Fox's September 30th episode of the new hit show GLEE, entitled The Rhodes Not Taken, proves to be just as bubbly as the first episodes. Plus the cast welcomes brilliant Tony and Emmy award winning performer, Kristin Chenoweth as a guest star. Chenoweth plays a very "super" senior who had previously left high school, but has now returned to finish her requirements for her diploma, but also help the Glee Club.

Chenoweth's combined austere as broadway royalty with her incredibly diverse covers on the show illustrate a trend that GLEE is leading. This trend is bringing back the musical to the masses and Chenoweth is the perfect guest star for this. She encompasses all that is stage broadway but mixed with the covers she relates to the teen audience who, as a whole, are not broadway's main demographic. This musical revival is only present now because musicals were dormant for mainstream audiences for so long. For years the musicals were major blockbuster hits like Gene Kelly's SINGIN' IN THE RAIN and Fred Astaire's SWING TIME. And then the musical was lost for a period with only a few stand alone hits like GREASE or WEST SIDE STORY. And now the musical is trying to make a comeback.

After the unprecedented success of the High School Musical franchise and then the subsequent triumph of HAIRSPRAY, GLEE takes the musical to a bit more of an adult level with more adult content for the teen audience. It borderlines on a teen soap opera with its over dramatic musical sequences that combine the over-the-top qualities of soaps with a smartly and artistically satisfying production value like modern day music videos. This teen audience is, for now, fully satisfied with the hunky guys, the scandal of unplanned pregnancies, the mix of drama with music video styling but will it last? The adults who view the show see the quirky, stylized world and conjure images of the surreal environment of PUSHING DAISIES, with smart, spunky characters. However, my biggest concern for GLEE is that it is too quirky, too stylized, and will end up like PUSHING DAISIES, with a core following that won't see it through a third season, let's hope I'm wrong.