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'Glee' Music: Relive the Performances From 'The Rocky Horror Glee Show'

by Hulu Staff, posted Oct 27th 2010 9:01AM
Glee music
With episodes devoted to Madonna, Lady Gaga and Britney Spears under its belt so far, Fox's sing-along hit 'Glee' took a chance last night with a musical tribute to that '70s cult classic, 'Rocky Horror Picture Show.'

When word of a Frank-N-Further-themed episode slipped, it created a frenzy among fans of the show and the film alike -- since both focused on outcasts, after all, they seemed like a natural fit.

Yet last night's 'Rocky Horror Glee Show' may have stretched the limits of plausibility, even for 'Glee,' as Mr. Shuester (Matthew Morrison) staged a high school musical version of the raunchy sci-fi B-movie in less than a week. His motivation? He was jealous that the girl-who-slipped away -- 'Rocky Horror's' newest fan, guidance counselor Emma (Jayma Mays) -- was starting to live a little, thanks to her new boyfriend, Carl (John Stamos). Did the musical numbers live up to the hype? You be the judge.

To set up Glee's tribute to 'Rocky Horror Picture Show,' the camera focused on Santana's bright red lips as she sang 'Science Fiction/Double Feature.' It was a fitting segue to Finn and Rachel's 'Over at the Frankenstein Place' duet where, as Brad and Janet, they stumbled upon the castle that housed the Annual Transylvanian Convention. The mood breaks, however, when dentist Carl (John Stamos) busts onto the high school musical set.



As the New Directions kids rehearse -- with the normally glam Kurt (Chris Colfer) dressed down as handyman Riff Raff (!) and Mercedes and Quinn (Amber Reilly and Dianna Agron) as Columbia and Magenta -- it becomes clear that Finn (Cory Monteith) is surprisingly self-conscious about his body. Turns out you can't eat sloppy joes in the school cafeteria everyday. No matter though, his shy-guy Brad can get through a few scenes with his clothes intact, including the marriage-proposal-as-song number, 'Dammit Janet.'



Since Kurt refused to play the lead as Frank-N-Furter and Mike Chang (Harry Shum Jr.)'s parents refused to let him take on the cross-dressing role, the glee club was nearly in a lurch -- until, that is, Sue (Jane Lynch) came up with a stand-in: Carl the dentist. One problem though: while Mr. Schue wanted to cast Carl as the mad scientist/castle, Carl preferred to play motorcycle-riding/brain donor Eddie.



Fortunately, Mercedes was willing to step in as the gender-bending lead. Her version of 'Sweet Transvestite' was one of the best of the night -- even if Carl's premature entry abruptly killed the moment.



Not only did Carl's unexpected entrance distract from Mercedes' big number, it also ruined Mr. Schuester's mood. With his good sense blinded by jealousy, he made a questionable (and, admittedly, implausible) decision: he pulled underage Sam (Chord Overstreet) out of the role of Rocky, casting himself as the shirtless creature of the night instead. It's only natural that he'd need Emma's help to prep for a little 'Touch-a, Touch-a, Touch-a, Touch Me,' right?



It took a revelation by Cheerio Becky (Lauren Potter) to help Will come to his senses: upon learning that Sue's support of the 'Rocky Horror' musical was actually another ploy to bring down the glee club once and for all, he started to question his own motivations. In the end, he decided to pull the plug on the controversial production, but not before the gleeks treated themselves to a little 'Time Warp.'



-- By Rebecca Harper

What did you think of the music from 'The Rocky Horror Glee Show'?
What was your favorite performance?

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lylekira

As a Glee fan and a huge RHPS fan from back in the day, I thought the episode was extremely entertaining as a GLEE'd watered down version. There is absolutely no way to compare it to the orginal, because if you try to do that, you completely lose the extreme outlandish sexuality of the show. I enjoyed the episode and thought it highly entertaining, but like TBS trying to air Bad Santa or something, its probably best if never done at all.

October 27 2010 at 5:08 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Grdmonkey

Actually... Having done Rocky over 350 times with 5 different casts/theaters and played every male role except Frank and Rocky as well as a few female ones, It is very common for a woman to play Frank and in fact one of the best franks i ever saw was a "big" girl who rocked the house. While it wasn't a perfect episode, I consider it one of the best tv adaptations/tributes to RHPS that I have ever seen and my Rocky vet friends and family also agree.

October 27 2010 at 4:13 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Jeff P

I thought the songs were done great. Many sounded much like the RHPS cast. Then there were the changed versions such as Sweet Transvestite by Mercedes. Although I would have loved for it to be done like the original, I thought she was amazing. No one should take Glee as a serious show. It is a compalation of musical skits, most set up like music videos. Behind all the music lies a storyline, but in my opinion the storyline takes the back seat to the music.

October 27 2010 at 2:44 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Marvin R. Autry

My daughter likes the show and I have seen a few of them but for someone who has seen a many of midnight showings of the Rocky Horror Picture Show I enjoyed Glee for the first time. I hope they had as much fun making it as I did watching. I will watch the show from now on. Good luck in the future to the cast of Glee.

October 27 2010 at 2:16 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Caly

Instead of a nod to the original, this came off like a watered-down made for tv rendition of a high school production. Which it was lol. RHPS is a classic, & honestly, deserved to be treated with more respect.

October 27 2010 at 2:06 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Andrej

This was by far the worst episode of Glee. They did Rocky Horror just to do Rocky Horror. I believe the episode even referenced this topic itself in the line "You're just doing Rocky Horror for the shock value."
If Glee wanted to do a true adaptation of Rocky Horror, they wouldn't have rewritten it as much. The shows writers don't know when to censor themselves. A few episodes back, there were two girls kissing. But in this episode they wrote out the words "heavy petting" and changed "if anythign grows/while you pose" to "if anything shows/while you pose."
I feel that Amber Reilly did her best with what she was given. However, the song "Sweet Transvestite" was totally changed. The overall rhythem was dramatically different from the original. I think that the network was too afraid to put a male (Harry Shum) in a leather bustier, fishnets, and heels and sing about being a transvestite.
To me, the episode just didn't know what it wanted to be and did "Rocky Horror" just to say they did "Rocky Horror." And for the ratings.

October 27 2010 at 2:00 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
eosthilas

If you can't bring yourself to use the songs' actual lyrics, you probably shouldn't remake them.

Frank-N-Furter has NEVER been from "sensational" Transylvania.

If you can't do something justice, leave well enough alone.

October 27 2010 at 1:59 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
MayNeverNo

It was one of the best shows this season. If you saw Rocky Horror then you would understand. Mercedes did GREAT!!!!!

October 27 2010 at 1:56 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
2 replies to MayNeverNo's comment
Leader

Mercedes as the Dr.....blah

October 27 2010 at 2:04 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
MayNeverNo

Mercedes as the Doctor.. Guess why? Because having a male play a female in this primetime slot with young viewers could cause alot of backlash. The young viewers of this show know nothing about transvestites. Remember the show used to play only at midnight for that reason. Do you really need me to point this out. And yes Mercedes did a really GREAT job...

October 30 2010 at 12:06 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Greg

Most of the acts were entertaining for a stage movie to movie to stage adaptation. Mercedes as Franknfurter....not so good. Most of the original cast walk-ons were entertaining, but I would have loved to see Tim Curry there.

October 27 2010 at 1:43 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Henry

THE BAXTER AVE MORGUE IN LOUISVILLE KENTUCKY DID THIS SHOW ALSO, OTHER THEN BEING A HALLOWEEN ATTRACTION IT'S REALLY A REAL HAUNTED HOUSE, WE CAUGHT FULL BODY APPARITIONS, A CHAIR FLIPPING OVER ON ITS OWN, A LAMP MOVED ON A TABLE AND A LOT MORE, CHECK IT OUT, LOUISVILLE PARANORMAL INVESTIGATIONS AND LOOK AT THE BEST OF LPI PAGE AND THE BAXTER MORGUE PAGE.

October 27 2010 at 1:33 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply

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