SOUND OFF: In GLEE Math, 3 + 3 = Asian F

Last night's GLEE, titled "Asian F" (referring to an A-), was an A+ in almost every respect, managing to pack all the musical power, dramatic pathos, fabulous diva-tude and off-the-wall comedy that made GLEE the international sensation that it is and also push a few buttons over the course of an hour - and make a new star of its impossibly talented cast in the process, with that individual walking away - or, should I say, strutting away - with the night undoubtedly being Harry Shum, Jr., thanks in no small part to his premiere solo song sung on the show so far in his two seasons on the show (not counting the spoke-sung "Sing!" from A CHORUS LINE last season). Indeed, Shum's "Cool" from WEST SIDE STORY was imbued with more choreographic tics and embellishments on the original moves than even Jerome Robbins could have dreamed up in a week's time to get on film this swiftly and speedily and the reinvention worked wonders. Besides the ultra-hip-swingin' awesomeness of Shum, last night's GLEE also set in motion a number of plots that will surely be a central focus of this fresh-faced and bold, newly focused season - Santana/Brittany's relationship, the new Glee club member arriving next week and Idina Menzel's continuously ingratiating and increasingly impressive arc as Shelby, Rachel (Lea Michele)'s estranged mother, foremost among them. What will next week hold for New Directions now with Mercedes out? Plus, how did the famous recitative sequence from DREAMGIRLS - "It's All Over" - work outside of the classic r&b musical's context and in the GLEE one (with Kurt substituting for Curtis, among other adapted elements)? Did Mercedes (Amber Riley) deliver in true Oscar-winning Effie fashion by making Jennifer Hudson's hit single "Spotlight" her own? What about Heather Morris tackling Beyonce's "Run The World (Girls)"? And, most importantly, which semi-secondary lead spectacularly stole the whole show? To see the answers to these pressing "Asian F" queries and see the formula explained for how GLEE continues its solid winning streak with the third episode of the resoundingly successful Season Three, read on! All of it added up, though, merely calling it "cool" doesn't even begin to cover it all!

Cool, Boy & Real Cool Boy

Beginning with a nod to Bob Fosse's seminal seriocomic showbiz saga ALL THAT JAZZ, "Asian F" visually (and verbally) stated right from the start what it set out to do over the course of the episode - as Mr. Shu said, "It's not about doing your best anymore; it's about doing better." The domestic life of Will and Emma - never Wemma - continues to get an airing in each episode and harkens back to the homebound scenes of Will and Terri at the show's start. If we venture to remember back that far, all the way back to the Pilot and ensuing episodes, it is imperative to notice that that adult relationship got equal footing with everything else and once that exploration of Will's personal life largely stopped in the back end of Season One and the vast majority of Season Two - Kristin Chenoweth and Idina Menzel hookups obviously not included in that equation - the teen-centered show lost a bit of its bite and perspective. With the wisdom teeth now removed and growing pains hopefully at an end, Season Three is setting into motion the big plots of the year in an especially exciting and engrossing way. GLEE has definitely found its voice again and it is as clear and as loud as a hundred church bells - and brighter than a bunch of Broadway spotlights. The most alluring aspect of this reintroduced focus on the characters and their journeys and backgrounds is the chance for even more secondary character moments like we witnessed last night - such as Amber Riley's delectable "Spotlight" and Harry Shum, Jr.'s standout "Cool" (from WEST SIDE STORY); both coming from somewhat secondary focused glee club members usually relegated to subplot status in most shows in the dramatic and musical department - if that - now given a rare chance to burst forth in full bloom with a specialized solo moment. Boy, did they take it and make it count!

Shum's slinky and supremely impressive moves matchEd Riley's bosso profundo bravado of big r&b/gospel belting note for note, glissando for glissando and wow for wow and in the process added two more notable entries in the ever-expanding glossary of excellent performance showpieces on this show of show of shows we call GLEE. "It's All Over" was another one of those fantastic musical theatre meta-moments where the show's hyper reality collided with musical theatre nirvana - especially for us Broadway babies in the audience - coming in the form of a song that one assumes is largely unknown to the non-DREAMGIRLS fans among the audience - and the cast winningly wrung the over-the-top theatrics implicit in its high, near-operatic drama for every riff, every run and all the vocalisma it was ever worth. Michael Bennett would have been very proud as the show was given its full due, even with the slightly edited and elegantly adapted lyrics. After all, that's the real power of GLEE - to introduce a heretofore obscure musical theatre sequence and reinterpret it and readapt it to a different context while still paying due diligence to the original and respecting the authors' intentions and whipping it all up into something equally - if not more - entertaining. It's a fine, fine line to do such adaptation of vaunted material and GLEE traverses that line ever-so surreptitiously. Also among the finest GLEE glories is unquestionably its hot-button-pushing on a consistent basis and the ever-developing relationships of the gay characters on the show stand as unprecedented depictions on TV and the creators and creatives involved are allowed a certain amount of leeway when it comes to the edgy one-liners and sometimes distasteful comedic flourishes - usually involving Sue Sylvester - that give it its fierceness and feistiness. Last night's intentionally absurdist ginger supremacy storyline and Emma's mother's racial slurs alone are evidence of this facet of what makes GLEE have teeth to go alone with the sloppy kisses. The show is billed as a musical comedy, after all - though the drama is never too far off; just as in life. Laughs can only take you so far in the end and the balance of the comedy and drama this season has been smart and mostly spot on with last night a supreme example of this.

And, then, there is Heather Morris and her sexy, raucous, wild take on Beyonce's "Run The World (Girls)" complete with marching band accoutrement. Not since the classic "Britney/Brittany" episode has Morris's star shone so bright - no, not even with the original song "My Cup" from the S2 finale; a much-loved gleek fan favorite - and she acts as the final of the triptych of somewhat second-stringers who got their solo shot and hit the target bullseye like a machine-gun blast in "Asian F". Let's hope we see much, much more from Shum, Riley and Morris in the solo musical department as the rest of the season plays out over the next several months. Since no GLEE episode would really be complete without at least one of the main players of New Directions getting a solo song spotlight - Rachel, Kurt, Finn, Quinn and Blaine usually comprising that starring group - Rachel and Mercedes treated us to a famous FAME roof-raiser in the form of "Out Here On My Own" with all the expected fabulous divatude one would expect from those two titanic vocal talents taking on such a big-bodied ballad and did the famous power ballad justice and then some. Lastly in the musical number department, while Matt Morrison's song-stack has been considerably reduced this season - especially when compared to the first episodes of the series we were discussing earlier - he definitely got the chance to work his magic, leading a rousing rendition of Coldplay's hit "Fix You" over a powerful, ethereal montage, and I hope this is the first of much more of Morrison trying his rich instrument out on current radio singles and modern material and letting the kids tackle the sentimental or - dare I say, cheesier - content.

Insofar as the dramatic quotient of "Asian F", the best of the best scenes were the two parent-child relationships depicted and how they played out; and, more revealingly, how they were resolved and juxtaposed with each other. While one would not immediately assume that Shum was even capable of such sensitive acting, last night's episode afforded him ample opportunity to show many sides of his abilities that we have not seen in this sharp and detailed of focus before. The silent scene as he rehearses for "Cool" - without even mentioning the simply stupendous "Cool" itself; one of the finest GLEE solo-led performance pieces ever - and the scenes with his parents - particularly when he teaches his mother how to dance - were all expertly played and displayed an assurance and exhibition of ability far beyond Shum's twenty-nothing years would imply. Emma (Jayma Mays) also got her family life fleshed out in full for the first time with the appearance of her acrimonious and acrid parents - although the ginger supremacy-themed twist was a Ryan Murphy delight evocative of NIP/TUCK, the camp was decidedly kept to a minimum. That is, the campiness did not creep in until we saw the actual roots of Emma's OCD - in a delightfully depraved and creepy flashback to her childhood and a not-so-innocently racist remark on behalf of her deranged mother and her issues with non-gingers inspiring it all. If you thought Emma had issues, now that we've met her parents you must admit she is positively delightful and normal by contrast. Segueing from the well-played prayer into he diegetic reading of "Fix You" into a choral coda, the end sequence was expertly done and the mirror reflection to Emma's youth as Will rewrites her history before her very eyes was unexpectedly touching and made the frustrating Will/Emma storyline three seasons in the making suddenly so wonderfully worthwhile and the song more apt in the context it was used in than I ever expected it to be, to be completely honest. A welcome surprise. I suppose the same could also be said of the ingeniously reworked "It's All Over", which really worked so seamlessly well as to make it seem as if it was always destined to be on GLEE. Perhaps it was. Fate works in funny ways a lot of the time. Bonus points for the movie and original Michael Bennett staging evocation and the period wardrobe and hair. Is there anything I would have fixed about the episode? Sure, but this one was a standout in the way it represented the delicious, varied and endlessly talented cast of the most consistently entertaining show on TV in a new way, firmly ushering in a new era where it is now poised to fulfill the promise of the pilot episode and soar to new, even loftier and more heavenly heights with a newfound spark and energy. Add to all of that blatant references to Stephen Sondheim himself in every episode of this season so far - plus, three fantastically performed songs from his very own WEST SIDE STORY, with purportedly many, many more to come - what more could a Broadway baby possibly ask for? Nothing, really. Or, maybe, speaking of "Nothing": a full-out CHORUS LINE homage? Last night's subtle and more outward winks to Fosse, Bennett and Robbins certainly bode well for a future tribute should it ever happen. With WEST SIDE STORY featured all season so far - one of the very finest American musical ever written, if not the finest - it's actually pretty difficult to ask for anything more, though.

Yes, Episode 3 of Season 3 added up to a solid A+ almost all on account of Shum, Riley and Morris - with bonus high marks going to the entire cast for "It's All Over" - and, while the episode failed far too short of any of the Top Ten all-time episodes (in my estimation) as many fellow critics were boasting it would eventually turn out to be, it was a uniformly solid and all-around excellent episode of a show that has hit a new, lively, balanced stride in Season Three and kicking into high gear. While this episode lacks the hard-to-score bonus point to make it a solid 7/7, Shum's "Cool" alone is enough reason to rank this highly - and recommend that oh-so-cool performance of "Cool" to everyone you know not lucky enough to have seen it on the show last night. And, looking ahead, with the final scene of the show revealing Mercedes joining Shelby's team, we now await with abated breath their hopefully electric upcoming duet, should it happen (how can it not?)! There is so, so much to look forward to in the rest of the season, with GLEE now clearly firing on all axels and earning a 4.0 for Season Three so far. Keep up the good work, gleeks, and, to quote Stephen Sondheim's SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE: "Give us more to see." And hear! Here, here.