SPOILER ALERT: A Day At ‘Glee’ Regionals
I’ll let you in on a little secret: every single Tuesday night, I have a Glee night with my Glee-obsessed gal pals, where we watch that week’s episode, oogle and overanalyze every single detail of the ep. Yes, I am coming out and admitting it: I, Patty, am a Gleek.
So how stoked was this Glee fanatic to find out that she’d won a pair of tickets to the taping of the Regionals episode? Um, is that even a real question?!
My journey to Regionals began at around 2PM at the Saban Theater in Beverly Hills, the set of this season’s Regionals venue. The invited audience didn’t get seated into the theater until well around 4PM, but getting there early to stake out your place in line had its perks: individually and in clusters, the cast would come out and walk past the line to go… well, I’m not entirely sure where exactly. But a number of Glee cast members were within an arm’s reach from me: I saw a brooding Heather Morris (Brittany) walk by with a serious look on her face; a sulky Matthew Morrison (Mr. Schuester) walking by his lonesome; former onscreen Glee couple Chord Overstreet (Sam) and Dianna Agron (Quinn) walking together. Dianna acknowledged the fans greeting her saying, “Hello… I have to go take my medicine” in a sweet, apologetic tone as Chord walked silently alongside her.
Also spotted: a very chipper Jane Lynch (Sue Sylvester) walking with a group of extras in her signature candy apple red track suit, waving a friendly hello to the cheers she met passing our line. Mark Salling (Puck), Jenna Ushkowitz (Tina), Naya Rivera (Santana), Kevin McHale (Artie), and Amber Riley (Mercedes) were seen climbing into a Mercedes shuttle van that kept driving off and coming back to pick up other cast members in the front of the theater.
The inside of the Saban Theater
We were finally let in at around 4:30PM and escorted inside and to our seats at the balcony of the theater, where the real fun began. It took some time for them to actually start filming, but once they did, we were in for a real treat!
THE JUDGES:
A guest judge tweeted this pic from their first day on the set:
Guess who? None other than self-proclaimed D-Lister Kathy Griffin, who makes her Glee debut. Also making an appearance as a judge at Regionals: conservative political talk show host Bill O’Reilly.
GLEE CAST Q&A:
In between takes and setting up for the next shot, a couple of the Glee cast members would be brought up to the balcony to meet with everyone and have a Q&A with the crowd.
First to meet with us audience members were Ashley Fink and Chris Colfer. Even though Ashley is relatively new to the cast, you can really get the sense of their close camraderie.
Naya Rivera and Kevin McHale were the next Glee kids to meet with us. Someone asked Naya to repeat a hilarious line from the last episode: “No me gusta!” She obliged.
Glee hunks Mark Salling and Harry Shum took to the balcony, making all the females (and some males!) up top swoon. One male fan asked Harry if he could show him his famous abs, to which Mark responded, “That’s a situation right there!” Harry gave a blink-and-you’d-have-missed-it opportunity to the requester as well as those looking on.
Jenna Ushkowitz, Chord Overstreet and Amber Riley went up together to answer questions. The two ladies took to the questions, answering with ease and sincerity, but newish Glee kid Chord was less than pleasant, giving off the vibe that he didn’t really care for the questions by inaudibly mumbling his answers. When asked by a fan if he was going to replace Justin Bieber (due to his uncanny performance inspired by the Biebs the other week), Chord smirked and took a jab at the Biebs saying, “Someone has to.” Obviously SOMEONE doesn’t have Bieber fever.
Jane Lynch and guest Kathy Griffin came up, wearing matching colored outfits. The two bantered back and forth, which was highly entertaining. Someone get these two their OWN show – together! Jane was far from her nasty character that is Sue Sylvester, and only brought out Sue-like tendencies when a kid asked her to insult him, in which she gave a signature Sue Sylvester insult.
The studly Cory Monteith was the only Glee kid to come up by himself, but he owned the floor with his boy-next-door, nice guy charm. When asked what sport he wishes Finn would play, he naturally answered in a single word: “hockey.”
The last members of Glee to grace us with their presence were Lea Michele and Dianna Agron. Surprisingly Lea was really nice (there’ve been reports that Lea isn’t the nicest of the bunch) and her and Dianna seemed to have a great bond. We found out that Lea and Dianna lived together at one point and that Dianna has a knack for making black cashmere bath robes a hot accessory to go out on the town in. Lea described her experience meeting Barbra Streisand in a way that would be Rachel Berry proud, but also left us feeling humbled and inspired along with her.
Unfortunately, much to my dismay, there was no Darren Criss meet-and-greet. Sad face.
THE PERFORMANCES:
New Directions will be singing original songs for the first time, including an uplifting ballad sung by Rachel Berry entitled “Get It Right” and uptempo track “Loser Like Me” with an uber-fun dance number, commencing with the glee club “slushie-ing” the audience.
The Dalton Warblers will be performing the Pink hit “Raise Your Glass” (apparently Darren Criss’ Blaine loves to sing songs in which he gets to say the word “gangsta”) as well as a sweet duet between Kurt and Blaine.
SO, THE BIG QUESTION: WHO WAS THE WINNER AT REGIONALS?
And the winner is… Team B – whoever that is. When we were filming the big unveiling of the winners, the host of Regionals kept referring to the winners as “Team B.” At that point we were “excused” and told that we were allowed to leave, but I think they wanted to keep the winner a secret from (most of?) the extras.
But here’s something to chew on all you Gleeks: New Directions HAS to have Regionals in the bag… it was mentioned earlier in the season that the cast is supposed to be filming in New York for Nationals, and whoever wins Regionals goes to Nationals. Put two and two together… unless the Glee writers have something else up their sleeve!
Do you like that New Directions will be doing original music or would you rather them continue to do only covers? And do you think New Directions will FINALLY win Regionals?
