I thought I was dense as well. Now it makes perfect sense soap opera sense.
This is Glee, and is subsequently rife with twenty-somethings twiddling around with auto-tune functions, so I’m suspicious. However, NPH has an extremely good set of vocal chords, so it wouldn’t surprise me if he was responsible for those notes.
To summarise: I have no idea. Thanks for reading.
or, y’know, don’t quote him on that.
(d&r)
Based on NPH’s singing in Dr. Horrible and other things - I would assume it’s really him.
Just two posts into my Straight Dope experience and already I’m chastising myself for a lack of imagination when choosing a username.
Oh no - I love the UN - don’t change it!!
Me too. NPH has done plenty of Broadway musicals (eg/ Emcee in Cabaret and some Sondheim musicals, and was in a touring production of Rent), so he certainly has notable vocal chops.
Welcome!
Artie’s was the most autotuned last night, but works since it was a fantasy sequence anyway, plus he has a good voice and very distinctive. Hopefully they’ll rein it in a bit with the others. (To quote Henry Higgins, “I’d rather hear a choir singing flat”.)
Somebody on the DOPE was planning to go to the concert- if they’re here, have you been? I was curious how they did in person. The only review I’ve found mainly mentioned that Artie/Kevin McHale was in character/in a wheelchair, that Brittany did a stupid cheerleader routine, and that the mostly tweener crowd went into hysterics whenever Cory Monteith moved or opened his mouth. (I’d have thought it would be Mark Salling who’d elicit that reaction, for verily I say unto you I’d drink that boy’s bathwater.)
So if the coach for Vocal Adrenoline is trying to reconnect with her daughter, how is this going to affect regional? OT1H, she evidently is to show choir what Sue is to cheerleading, OTOH she wants to help her baby.
So what do people think that Jesse’s master plan is?
Originally I’m sure we were all assuming that Idina Menzel (anyone actually know her character’s name?) had sent him to infiltrate the glee club for some nefarious purpose involving spying/sabotage.
Now it seems that she sent him just to get into contact with Rachel? Or is he also spying? And might he love Rachel enough to switch allegiances?
I got a little verklempt during “I dreamed a dream” but that song does that to me anyway. It was also nice to see the speculation about Menzel’s character being Rachel’s mom payoff. I was worried it was going to be a ploy, like Vocal Adrenaline coach notices the resemblance to Rachel and decides to use it somehow to sabotage their team but pretending to be her mom would be extremely nasty and her story and feelings for Rachel seemed genuine.
NPH didn’t sound autotuned. heck, he barely sounded lip synched. it’s clear that when adults sing they can fake the sync a lot better than the kiddies, even rachel. mercedes is pretty good at making the singing sound convincing though.
i’ve found that long, sustained notes that don’t waver are a clear sign of autotune. also odd, discrete note-jumps. those kind of harmonic perfection is just not feasible with human larynxes. dream on had none of those qualities.
then of course you have to wonder if they’ve perfected autotune technologies. if they did, though, and we can’t tell? who are we to complain? it’s THEATRICS after all.
I think it’s significant he said he “liked” her rather than he loved her. Though he also said “seduce” rather than befriend.
Anyway, before I knew the actor was gay I thought the character was gay and still think that might be the twist- he ends up with Kurt (who they have said is going to have a love interest [i.e. a reciprocal one] soon).
Personally I think that the grand scheme is for Idina Menzel’s character (whose name escapes me) to ultimately steal Rachel away from the McKinley glee club, so she can join her, and together they can rule the galaxy as mother and daughter.
After all, it is… her destiny.
I can certainly imagine Rachel screaming out “No! No! That’s not true! That’s not possible!”
Does that mean Rachel’s going to get her hand cut off?
[QUOTE=Don’t Quote Me On That]
I can certainly imagine Rachel screaming out “No! No! That’s not true! That’s not possible!”
[/QUOTE]
Oh please, it’s Rachel. More likely she’d cry out “Yeaaaa, me and mommy will rule the school! Can I have a kitten and a SUV?”
I loved this episode. Artie seemed to have gotten a little neglected by the writers for a little bit there. So it was nice to see him get some camera time. I loved Rachel and her mom’s story coming into focus. There’s some potential for some good things there. “I Dreamed a Dream” was very touching. Perhaps Glee will actually get me to start listening to more show tunes. I didn’t start watching until they came back from hiatus, so the one’s I’ve caught have apparently been lighter on the show tunes than the one’s I missed, but (maybe, hopefully?) that could be changing.
Neil Patrick Harris was amazing, of course. I watched a preview clip yesterday while jonesing for the full episode to be available on Hulu, and was disappointed with where they seemed to be taking it. But after they showed the support group I was sold. You have to wonder how there are apparently enough people in Lima, OH to fill all the male roles in Les Miserables ahead of NPH in that audition. Then again, I have no idea how many male roles there actually are. And, of course, that’s just one of the things you kinda have to accept in Glee.
I’m definitely wondering what’s in store for Jesse. I guess that really depends on what’s in store for Rachel and her mother. I don’t want Rachel’s heart to be broken, even if she does need to maybe get knocked down a notch or two in the full-of-herself department. But I can’t see any non-devastating way out of this for her. Perhaps you guys speculating that he’s gay are as on the ball as the speculation about the Vocal Adrenaline coach being Rachel’s mother. They certainly seem to have left his “falling for her” comments to his coach open to that possibility. I’d like to see it for entirely selfish reasons (he’s certainly easy on the eyes).
Oh, and I’ll toss in a link to a possible upcoming guest appearance.
I’ve been considering dropping Glee from my TiVo lineup (husband already has) but this episode was great. We’ll see where they go from here.
I did wonder that- I figured he must be understudy to Valjean, or maybe Lima’s just super talented. Or, if it’s like some community theaters I’ve been involved with, they had several patrons they needed to thank with plum roles.
I did love Bryan practicing his line though: “Hoo-ray! Hooray! Hooray!”
I expected to see John Michael Higgins, Molly Shannon, and Stephen Tobolowski at the auditions as well. (Actually, Tobolowski could make a great Thenardier.)
The support group was funny but I swear it’s almost needed if you know college theater stars who go on to careers in grocery stores or night managing convenience stores- they can be very bitter people. I remember a guy who starred in every play when I was in college, including playing Lancelot in Camelot. Later he got a role at Alabama Shakespeare Festival- a professional repertory which occasionally hires locals for spear carrier roles- and he was demoted from Lancelot down to “third guy from the left- not him, the one behind him”. He was such an incredible ham all the way through, but towards the end when there’s sword fighting in the song Guinevere he took longer to die that any gut stabbed knight in all of the Dark Ages.
I was also in a production of The Crucible that almost ruined my love of acting because of the number of embittered dicks associated with it (you don’t get paid for community theater, you do it for the fun- take away that and the applause [the director- a guy who spoke in a British accent he picked up in Chicago- did away with curtain calls because he considered the play too serious] and it’s miserable). John Proctor had majored in theater and by then worked in various McJobs; in college his specialty had been stage combat. Consequently this was the most violent production of The Crucible ever staged- when they come to arrest Elizabeth, when Proctor loses his temper in the courtroom, even briefly in the final scene Proctor was a “TNT layin’ motherfucka”. Worst of all was at the cast party when he clearly mistook everybody around him for being James Lipton as he gave his theories of acting and the creative process. I myself adjourned outside and soon found everybody else with me, except him- he was managing to enthrall a couple of easily impressed she-teens or two so that delighted him.
Lies.
Who on earth wants to be Valjean in Les Mis? The cool role is Javert, guys.
It reminds me a little of something somebody said about Star Trek TNG once online - it’s like local theater. You’ve got one Real Actor, you’ve got a lot of people who have a lot of fun doing local theater, and you’ve got one guy for whom Local Theater Is His Life. (Do you really want to be Riker? Do you?)
Watching it I thought that Will was going to get Valjean and Bryan Javert and there’d be an actual fight while rehearsing The Confrontation.
Loved NPH’s comment to the dry cleaning director at the end: “I have a lot of ideas, oh and I don’t really take direction…”.
Of course you overlook such things except on message boards, but were this a real community theater-
1- the auditorium would probably look nothing like that one (not unless Lima is a lot bigger and richer a place than its demographics would imply)
2- Will dropping out wouldn’t give Bryan the part- that’s totally the director’s call, it’s not like you can name a successor
3- Bryan would at least have gotten Enjolras or Grantaire or some other significant supporting role after that audition
I’m beginning to think that Artie/Kevin McHale might end up being the breakout star if the show’s on air long enough. He’s not handsome but he’s cute enough in a twig sort of way, but he has real talent both as a performer (singing and dancing) and as an actor, and with some meat on his bones he could be good looking. Cory Monteith is more conventional leading man looks, but there’s no shortage of that in Hollywood.
Wow, even dismissing the Joss Whedon directing, and the NPH casting, just on writing/plot/musical selection alone, this was an awesome episode. This is a Glee episode in it’s prime!