You may not know it, but the guy who brought you death by
teddy-bear-stuffing on Nip/Tuck spent his high school
and college years belting show tunes like Put on a Happy
Face in Bye Bye Birdie.
So it's no wonder that his latest series, Glee, merges
the two worlds into something he happily describes as "The
anti-High School Musical".
In the series, which revolves around a group of social
outcasts who come together for high school show choir,
there's no bursting into nutty song to advance the plot, and
the playlist is made up of familiar hits spanning Top 40,
Broadway, R&B and country.
"It's sort of a postmodern musical," Ryan Murphy said.
A way to reinvent - and keep alive - the genre that meant so
much to him growing up.
In the age of American Idol, Glee is a tribute to pop.
And possibly to the iPod shuffle: Famous numbers from Wicked
or Les Miserables sit next to songs by Kanye West, Rihanna
and Amy Winehouse.
"I think that's what will surprise people who watch the
show," Murphy said.
"Like, it's cool stuff.
"It's not all show tunes.
"In fact, there are very few show tunes in it."
Not that there's anything wrong with show tunes.
One of Murphy's favourite films is Funny Girl.
"There's this whole generation of people like me who were
raised on those '60s and '70s musicals that went out of vogue
so long ago," he said.
"I just felt like: What would be this generation's version of
that?"
His answer was a story with a little more attitude and a
soundtrack with more radio-friendly relevance.
Glee builds on, rather than nixes altogether, classic
musical theatre tendencies.
In one episode, guest star and Broadway veteran Kristin
Chenoweth performs the achy 11th-hour torch song Maybe
This Time from Cabaret but later rips through Carrie
Underwood's hot-mess-hangover hit Last Name.
Murphy himself was once a hopeful thespian.
He grew up in Indianapolis, the son of church-going parents,
going to choir practice with them every week and singing
every day at Mass during Catholic school.
