Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Glee TV show to feature a wheelchair dance number this fall

From Entertainment Weekly's Marc Malkin column:

Barbra Streisand is going back to high school.

Glee, Fox's new musical series about a struggling high school glee club, will use one of Streisand's classics in an upcoming episode. (After premiering in May, the show will return for its first regular season run in September.)

"Lea Michelle [who stars as Rachel Berry] is going to sing an iconic Barbra Streisand song," series co-executive producer Dante Di Loreto said Saturday at a screening of the second episode at L.A.'s gay film festival Outfest.

He declined to give a hint as to what tune its, but Jane Lynch, who plays cheerleading coach Susan Sylvester said, "Think of Barbra Streisand and the bow of a ship."

If that's the case, the song must be "Don't Rain on My Parade" from Funny Girl.

Also, an episode called "Wheels" was inspired by wheelchair-bound character Artie Abrams (Kevin McHale). "Everybody has to get in wheelchairs for a good portion of it," said co-executive producer Brad Falchuck. "There's a big huge wheelchair number, too."