Have Cheetah,Will View #289 – “Glee The Concert” (2011)

Its 11:46 pm
bitter,bitter cold

The last week of December saw Dollar Tree once again put DVDs and BluRays on sale and once again I paid my two local stores a visit. As I went through the selection,I saw “Glee The Concert” and picked it on a whim. I knew very little about the show other then it was set in a high school’s Glee Club and that one of its main lead actors had died of a heroin overdose which led to the show’s creator ending the series.

So I had no idea what to except when the cheetah and I settled in under our blankets and watched this,we have only reviewed one concert film here and that can be found by clicking this link.    Filmed in the Meadowlands in New Jersey,Glee the Concert features the cast of the show in their characters performing a nice selection of classic rock,soul,pop and even some Barbra Striesand.

Between the songs,we meet a bunch of folks who share how much the show has meant to them and three young people are highlighted as they share their stories of overcoming some big mountains.

Doing a concert film with fictional characters is a huge risk,will it come across as complete cheese,will anyone actually be able to sing or will it be a full on lip-synch disaster? Sure,the crowd is hot and very into the show but what do you expect from a show targeted for a teen crowd,right?
But guess what? That crowd was full of adults who were really into what they were seeing and no,they weren’t all parents with their kids.

For the most part,all the songs were performed live and the actors who were singing have some very good voices. There was a bit of lip-synch action but it was very,very limited and didn’t distract from the fact these folks were actually singing with a lot of “glee”. (The cheetah said to write that).

There was even a guest appearance by Gwyneth Paltrow who had a good voice but definitely benefited from the rest of the cast singing back-up. The best voices belonged to Amber Riley who played “Mercedes” on the show,followed by Naya Rivera who played “Santana”. The boys weren’t too shabby with Darren Criss who played “Blaine” being the standout.
Overall the show came across much like a musical theater production and that is no slam,I think if I was casting a new play on Broadway,I certainly would be making calls to most of the folks featured here managers and agents to see about adding them to a production.

It has perked my curiosity in the TV series for sure and I’ll try and find the series while I’m out and about.
“Glee the Concert” is rated PG and has a run time of 84 minutes. Special features include Jane Lynch as the MC and some extended songs.
Since this is almost 8 years old,you may have to use Amazon or Ebay to secure a copy.
I’ll include a link to the IMDb page so you can learn more about the movie.