Glee may have jumped the shark a few seasons back, but since the demise of the sorry Smash (which never even got to the the shark) Glee has been, and remains, our only mainstream TV-theater crossover. The musical comedy-drama features two bona fide crossover stars, in fact. Matthew Morrison, who plays beloved Glee Club coach Mr. Schue, received good notices in South Pacific at Lincoln Center a few years ago. Lea Michele, the show's hyper-talented Rachel Berry, broke out on Broadway in Spring Awakening before she even became a television star.
Michele, in particular, is a singer of such titanic and Streisandesque gifts that a plot development in which Rachel gets cast right out of high school as the lead in a Broadway revival of Funny Girl feels entirely plausible.
Where the show loses credibility is in such plot devices as shoehorning Rachel's Glee Club classmate Santana Lopez, played by Naya Rivera--only a passable pop singer--into position as Rachel's Funny Girl understudy. (Smash committed the same sin, positing decent pop singer Katharine McPhee as a Broadway-caliber vocalist while trying its darnedest to elbow to the margins the Broadway-voiced Megan Hilty.) Just as bad are the many situational problems, like the vast Brooklyn loft apartment the kids can somehow afford.
Glee is, of course, a fantasy. But during the years when it centered entirely around the Glee Club kids at McKinley High, the show maintained a tone of cheeky absurdity and camp humor that fit right in with almost any ridiculous story its creators dreamed up. Now, though, in its fifth season, having transferred most of its now-graduated main characters to New York City to pursue careers as actors, singers, models etc., the show's fanciful flourishes ring hollow and false, even silly--and maybe even painfully grating to folks who've actually tried to live that life and make it as performers in the Big Apple.
Glee has one more season to go, and show creator Ryan Murphy gave some hints about how it's all going to wrap up. Appropriately, the big finale will feature the show's two true crossover stars. "Yes, we do have a final idea that we're working on that I think is very powerful and moving. It's about Rachel and Mr. Schue, and it returns them to their origins, their roots, how they felt about each other when they were much younger and everything was idyllic. I think the ending has to be a reflection and a celebration of how far all those characters have come."
So, although those characters may have come a lot further than they ever should have, viewers who continue to stick with the show should have some meaningful and probably tear-jerking scenes--and no doubt a few fine musical numbers--to look forward to as the Glee Club kids fade into their fanciful, and finally invisible, futures.
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