SOUND OFF: Somebody Who Loves GLEE (& Whitney)

Significantly more right than wrong and much more than merely just OK, last night's GLEE tribute to the song catalog of pop/R&B icon Whitney Houston was a welcome return to Season Two levels of euphoria and razzle dazzle entertainment value that GLEE has proven time and time again it is the one stop shop for on TV these days, as dazzling in their own way as sequences on SMASH may be as that freshman musical-themed series increases in popularity and GLEE, now nearly finished with Season Three and almost 60 episodes in as a series so far, is seeing a decline in viewership and a dip in popularity. It happens. That's not to say that GLEE has lost any of its glimmer and glamour, anyway - recent breakout superstar cast member Darren Criss and the various GLEE PROJECT participants add some freshness and vivacity to the proceedings, improving the at-times predictable mix of it all. Sure, GLEE does not hold quite the same sparkly and shiny allure that it once did as a spiffy new series unlike any we had quite seen before particularly theatre fans - shimmering like a Broadway baby's deepest held dream realized; a musical mirage in a vast desert of procedural dramas and stale sitcoms - but it is still a consistently enjoyable and engaging entertainment experience; consistent being a word one would have had a difficult time ascribing to the uneven first season and wildly wanton ways of the second season, the latter of which veered from the best moments of the series to date to the very worst (a lot). Season Three has shown us the cast and creative team of GLEE focusing on their assets and playing them up as best as possible whenever possible - so, for instance, if that means Darren Criss gets two solos a show, so be it (and it has happened). I am proud to report that last night's "Dance With Somebody" can most surely stand alongside "Britney/Brittany", "The ROCKY HORROR GLEE Show", "The Power Of Madonna, "Rumours" and the other standout singularly themed spotlight shows of GLEE lore. Covering the iconic Whitney Houston's vast array of material, traversing many musical styles with an assuredness and sparkle so emblematic of GLEE when it does a show like this (you can sense they are oh-so-"on" from the outset, usually) once again we are reminded about the power of GLEE and all it has done to cement the important place of music, dance and - most of all - theatre in high schools across America, just as budgets are being slashed and theatre departments are being de-funded nationwide. GLEE can and does make a difference - just as Whitney Houston did to those who called themselves fans and who followed her ups, downs, successes, failures, thrills and heartbreaks. Being a diehard fan means sticking with something through thick and thin - the same should be true of GLEE and its gleeks. As Season Three seems to show, we may have gotten through the growing pains and the series can now remain as determined to deliver an expected product of our liking time and time again as we return to it every week over the course of the season, even with the big changes in the journey up ahead. There is a lot of story left to tell at McKinley High and "Dance With Somebody" is a shimmy, shake and riff in the right direction.

Don't Walk Away From Me

So sayeth Mr. Shu, "For most of you, these next few weeks will be your last at McKinley. Lots of changes coming up." And the same can be said of GLEE. Season Three is coming to a close and that means at least half of the original cast members will be saying sayonara come early June. While Lea Michele, Chris Colfer and Cory Monteith are confirmed to return next year, the future for the other seniors remains murkier. Acting as an all-too-apt metaphor for the series itself, GLEE's Whitney Houston tribute, "Dance With Somebody", addressed the issue of saying goodbye by way of graduation and quite ingeniously presented Whitney's unfortunate passing and its gigantic effect on the gleeks - still smarting two months later, apparently - as similar in all-too-many ways with the tropes of letting go of childhood and high school. While we may have really only known Whitney herself from a far removed distance, so, too, do we not really know the GLEE Cast members as real blood and bone human beings - yet, there is an indescribable feeling of loss for those who have become attached to the core cast of characters as they now stand as we anticipate their departure. Letting in new light is a different matter than letting go of a lamp or three, after all, and the well-founded anticipatory fear even the most ardent gleek may feel over the unsure nature of Season Four and what we can expect insofar as an essentially all-new cast and how it will turn out is very real, yet last night's spectacular Whitney extravaganza went a long way in reminding us of what we have loved most about the series all along when it is at its best - namely, stylish, appealing and gripping re-imagining of pop culture hallmarks by characters we have come to know, love and, ultimately, care about quite a lot.

Sue Sylvester's Olivia Newton-John "Physical" recreation and near shot-for-shot Madonna "Vogue" video homage could barely prepare us for the countless slick and seamless winks to the original Whitney videos and concert performances indelibly etched in the minds and hearts and eardrums of a generation in this particularly music-packed, song-heavy celebration of Whitney's life and career. Encompassing seven songs spanning the decades of her remarkably successful recording legacy, the musical choices for the show were smart and sensitively enacted, with loving and faithful renditions where appropriate as well as revitalizing reinvention employed to great effect, too. Beginning with a pan from a Whitney Portrait over the sounds of an a capella Mercedes (Amber Riley), Rachel (Lea Michele), Santana (Naya Rivera) and Kurt (Chris Colfer)-led "How Will I Know", "Dance With Somebody" gave the girls and gays of New Directions the musical focus and, subsequently, the associated cast members evidently took on the challenge of tackling the titanic song siren's biggest hits with relish - a glint in their eyes all the while. Never intending to outdo or outshine the originals in any way, from the outset it was clear that this would be a celebration of the catalog of Ms. Houston and not a risky recreation or knowing, campy homage in the way the aforementioned tributes could have been perceived as being (which gave them their own uniquely appreciable attributes that would probably have been inappropriate in this case). That being said, Santana and Brittany (Heather Morris) showed off some luxuriously long legs and luscious lips in the 80s-style "I Wanna Dance With Somebody Who Loves Me" video sequences and Blaine (Darren Criss) affected the fierceness and volatile nature of a true diva in an entrancingly envisioned and filmed, ebony-ensconced "It's Not Right But It's OK". Both songs were sharply presentationally pointed, evoking the original videos and also giving the sequences dramatic justification while still managing to continue the celebratory, wake-like theme of the collective tributes when considered as a whole (and as seen in their respective presentations, with most growing out of the rehearsal room).

Quinn (Dianna Agron) and Joe (dreadlocked Jesus lookalike and GLEE PROJECT winner Samuel Larsen) harmonized rhapsodically on a sweetly sung duet version of "Saving All My Love For You" and Rachel and Santana shone (somewhat Sapphically) in a spirited "So Emotional". Additionally, the gender-bending of the song rendering on GLEE's "Dance With Somebody" extended beyond Blaine's "It's Not Right But It's OK" with Kurt's hugely emotional musical response - and one of Houston's most iconic songs of all - "I Have Nothing". While the song purists among us may have wished for Michele to take on the big, brassy anthem, Colfer gave it diva gravitas and then some. The episode capper of Houston's late-career chart-topper, the hip-hop flecked "My Love Is Your Love" - from her hit album of the same name from her more urban, rap-infused phase - particularly as done by New Directions, was a more than satisfying way to close out a show that managed to make magic out of Houston's message as related to us all in her passionate, heartfelt and unforgettable performances of those supremely appealing pop chestnuts, never dwelling on the more salacious and sad sides of her brilliant, but troubled time spent on this planet as R&B queen, movie star and the voice of a generation. Just as GLEE gave voice to a group of kids never recognized in a major way on TV before (or, really, in pop culture) - the theatre geeks - Whitney gave voice to the most fully felt and powerful emotions within our hearts and bared them raw, whole and real. And what a voice it was - and, in the case of GLEE, it remains singing. Out loud.

"It's GLEE - I mean, we only have so many left together," said Kurt near the episode's ending. Indeed - only 42 days until graduation! So, until then, dance with somebody who loves GLEE.