I am in love with Glee. We look forward to Wednesday nights with the – well – glee once reserved for Thursday and The Office. The presence of Jane Lynch drew me in, but I stuck around for the demented fun. It was only a matter of time before Kristin Chenoweth crashed the party. I will never understand how such a big voice comes from such a teeny woman.
My mom used to buy me Broadway soundtracks (on cassette tape. I’m that old.) and subscriptions to The New Yorker in an effort to inject some culture into my life, or possibly turn me into a gay man. Who knows? But those big Broadway numbers with perfect crazy harmony still make me all kinds of goofy happy. So Kristin Chenoweth and Lea Michele absolutely tearing up Maybe This Time from Cabaret (incidentally, has there ever been a weirder, darker musical)? OMG, the best thing on network TV ever. My very very hetero husband, who has suspiciously made it a point to linger in the living room for the past two or three weeks during Glee, and my eleven year old son both sat there glued to the screen. Frickin’ Cabaret of all things! I don’t know, maybe all of us recognize that talk. That talk we give ourselves over and over again. Trying so hard to convince ourselves that this time is the time that it will all be different. Not believing a word of it, but still hoping against hope that this time, it’s all gonna change. That it’s our turn now. That’s kind’ve universal, isn’t it? That need to believe that things will get better.
So for three short minutes, we sat in the living room, completely silent (no small feat in our house), listening to a broken doll of a girl singing her heart out for her last chance at happiness. It was perfect. “Wow,” Ethan whispered when the song ended. I don’t know whether he was in awe of Michele’s and Chenoweth’s vocal abilities or oddly moved by the hopeless optimism of the song, but yeah kid, wow.
