Friday, May 14, 2010

Glee: I have a love hate relationship with thee part 1

Alright, so as I am continuing to write this post, it seems to be never ending...kinda like the Energizer Bunny.  So I am going to divide it up into parts, posting them as I get them done.  This first part focuses not really on Glee at all...well you'll see if you continue to read it.  And, so onto more important things like Glee.  I know I know, that's not vintage related in anyway nor is it scifi related.  Suck it up.  I don't care.  You must know about my love for Glee...well, okay, actually I am going to be focusing mainly my love-hate relationship with this show and my love for one character.  Who is that character, you might ask.  Well it is definitely not

and to the dismay of many, it is not even
Although I do have quite a bit of love for you as well, sadly Puckster, you are not my current obsession.
No.  My new love is none other than...
Forgive me, but I must warn you before you continue reading that this might be quite a long post (probably too long) of nonsensical ramblings of a vintage girl going for a  modern love for only a moment, and spoilers for the past 5 episodes of Glee will ensue.
So Jesse St. James.  Anyone else in love with him and/or just love Jonathan Groff.  My love of Jonathan Groff started about 2 years ago (although at the time I didn't know it) when I first heard Spring Awaking Cast Recording.  Wow was all I could think the first time I heard it.  It is definitely not a musical for everyone, and it is definitely not a musical for younger kids.
It is not your typical Broadway show like South Pacific or Sweeney Todd, but I could possibly name it this generation's Rent.  The songs are rockier, but still retain a Broadway air to them.  Jonathan Groff plays Melchior Gabor, a young man who is quite smart, charismatic, and knows more about life in general in terms of sex than his friends, and definitely more than any of the naive girls.  For the most part, Jonathan carries the show, with co-star Lea Michele as Wendla.  However, as I write this, it is not meant to say that the other cast is not fabulous because they all practically get lost in their characters in the play.  They are an extraordinarily young cast, ranging in ages from about 15-21 (I think)during the original production.  John Gallagher Jr is just about as fabulous as Jonathan Groff is, but he is only on stage for about half the play.  He is currently starring in American Idiot I believe.  So you can see all of his fabulousness there.  Anyways, back to Spring Awakening.  The songs in this musical are some of the prettiest, emotionally wrought songs I have ever heard, while others, if you know the context are just hilarious.  I think "Whispering" is probably the prettiest song, but I also think"I Don't Do Sadness/Blue Wind" is quite enjoyable as well.  Wendla and Melchior have some beautiful songs they share about discovering each other and life.  However, as much as I love this show, I can not recommend it for younger children or even young teens.  If this show were made into a movie (which it will be next year, it would be rated a hard "R").  This show brings up things such as child abuse, suicide, homosexuality, there is a quite disturbing scene between Melchior and Wendla involving some abuse, and the entire show is wrought with sex (it should be renamed Sexual Awakening).  So yeah, no young kiddos at that show unless you want to traumatize them for life.  They do tout this as a Coming of Age story important for teens to see, but honestly most of the high school students I know would not be mature enough to see this show.  However, if you watch that, forgive me if you like it, God-awful vapid show, 90210, you probably know Mama Who Bore Me. (Please compare the two versions and tell me there's not a difference) I swear they only performed this song just to hitch themselves on the bandwagon, to be too cool for school, and to be rebellious and to cause a statement.  But honestly, is there any high school that could actually get away with performing this?  If there is, please let me know, because I don't believe it.  This is insulting to the original cast of Spring Awakening to have 90210 performing their songs.

So, Jonathan Groff and Lea Michele.  Can't you just tell from the picture that they have undeniable chemistry.  Forgive me, but that picture exudes sex, does it not?  Love them.  So Jonathan.  You have such a clear gorgeous voice (and obviously so does Lea Michele if you haven't been watching Glee) Your best songs from Spring Awakening are obviously All Thats Known, The Word of Your Body, and Those You've Known.  Jeez, at the rate I'm going, you might have a link for every song in the play by the end of this post:D.  You, and Lea, and John Gallagher put your heart into each song you sing that I believe what you are saying and nothing ever rings false in the play.  In fact, it is probably the first time I have ever cried multiple times during a Broadway show (I actually have not seen it performed live, but watched it on youtube), which is saying something if you know my tendency to cry during movies, especially inappropriate movies that should not be cried during.  Anyways, so my love for Jonathan Groff and Lea Michele started when I first heard the soundtrack which is unusual, because it usually takes a couple of times listening to a new musical before I really fall in love with the music, like I had to with Les Miserables or Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.  The only other musical I can say I fell in love with almost immediately was Miss Saigon and Wicked, but that's another story. And I have never really listened to the soundtrack out loud until a couple days ago because of some of the lyrics.  But I am past that and don't really care who hears them. However, when I fell in love with Jonathan and Lea, I didn't really know I had actually fallen in love with them because I didn't really know or care who was in Spring Awakening.  All I knew was that I loved the soundtrack and loved the voices. I finally bothered to look both the girl who played Rachel Berry and Jesse St. James up on the Glee website and was shocked not only to find out they were both in the original cast of Spring Awakening, but they were the two main leads.  I fell in love with them all over again on Glee.

All Glee images are from: GleeImages
All Spring Awakening/Jonathan Groff images are from: JonathanGroff Fansite 
Some videos of Jonathan et al from Spring Awakening.  He has such a different way of talking and persona than what we've seen in Spring Awakening and Glee.  He honestly seems like one of the sweetest,genuinely humble actors I've seen:
Backstage Spring Awakening Part 1 
Backstage Spring Awakening Part 2
Video of Mirror Blue Night Scene
Short Clip of JGroff hugging a baby and all the women are sighing "aww" because you know its cute
Jon and Lea giving candy to ppl waiting in line
Signing autographs and answering questions
The Word of Your Body scene from SA
Broadway.com interview  JGroff and Sutton Foster Side by Side interview-hilarious, but may contain objectionable content to you
Stage Door w/ JGroff short

1 comment:

Jojo said...

So I know this is super late but I found this blogpost and I just could not agree more. Spring Awakening may be one of the most amazing musicals out there. The way Jon and Lea treated 'I believe' makes sex seem so unbelievably beautiful. And we live in a world where people poop 'that's what she said jokes' on an hourly basis and where sexual innuendos might as well be attached to your breakfast. Sex is either close to tabooed or it's dirty and fun. Spring awakening makes it so special. And no you are not the only person in love with Jonathan Groff.

Where do I even begin? HONESTLY. He has this thing about him where he manages to be sweet, charming, charismatic and adorable and yet so incredibly sexy. Furthermore, I believe that man to be beautiful. Inside and out. He is so joyous and seems so genuinely nice and down to earth. I would give anything to meet him, just to let him in on the fact that just lights up my entire world. And I would kill to see Spring Awakening with the original cast again.