Top Ten ‘Glee’ Performances
#6 – ‘Dream On’ – Mr. Shu and Bryan Ryan
Writer/director/geek God Joss Whedon, who proved he knew his way around musicals in a classic episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, helmed a great episode of Glee titled ‘Dream On.’ It’s a testament to Whedon that his episode contains three of my top ten Glee clips (Artie’s performance of ‘Safety Dance’ was the first).
Whedon reteamed with Neil Patrick Harris, who had worked with him in another musical, a short online series called Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog. On Glee, Harris guest starred as a former high school rival of Mr. Schuester who stole all the glory back in the day but had all his dreams of stardom crushed by the real world. He comes to McKinley High to crush the spirits of Mr. Shu’s students.
Matthew Morrison has reminded me of Neil Patrick Harris since I started watching Glee, so it was fun to see them playing off of each other. Harris has such effortless charm and a brilliant comic delivery… I’d love to see them turn his character into a series regular.
His Bryan Ryan starts off bitter but has the musical spark within rekindled by Mr. Shu over a tipsy rendition of ‘Piano Man’ at a local bar. They then try out for the lead role in Les Miserables, which brings them to today’s scene.
Their audition song of choice is Aerosmith’s ‘Dream On’ and the director asks that they save time by performing it as a duet. Whedon makes splendid use of his camera for the high-energy sing-off. Morrison has Harris outmatched (and wins the part) but they both sing the hell out of this song.
Watch the video clip here.
All these lines on my face getting clearer
The past is gone
It went by, like dusk to dawn
Isn’t that the way
Everybody’s got their dues in life to pay
Yeah, I know nobody knows
where it comes and where it goes
I know it’s everybody’s sin
You got to lose to know how to win
Half my life’s
in books’ written pages
Lived and learned from fools and
from sages
You know it’s true
All the things come back to you
Sing with me, sing for the year
Sing for the laughter, sing for the tear
Sing with me now, if it’s just for today
Maybe tomorrow, the good lord will take you away
Yeah, sing with me, sing for the year
sing for the laughter, sing for the tear
sing with me, if it’s just for today
Maybe tomorrow, the good Lord will take you away
Dream On Dream On Dream On
Dream until your dream comes true
Dream On Dream On Dream On
Dream until your dream comes through
Dream On Dream On Dream On
Dream On Dream On
Dream On Dream On, AHHHHHHH
Sing with me, sing for the year
sing for the laughter, sing for the tear
sing with me now, if it’s just for today
Maybe tomorrow, the good Lord will take you away
Sing with me, sing for the year
sing for the laughter, sing for the tear
Sing with me now, if it’s just for today
Maybe tomorrow, the good Lord will take you away……
Meet Me In Montauk 
Well, this was one of my favorite moments of the season. We must have replayed this scene 3 times in the middle of watching the episode for the first time, then a half dozen more after it was over. This would be my #2 song/scene, and it earns that spot due to the brilliant comic performance of Neil Patrick Harris.
I was a Doogie fan back in the day, and we discovered and became enchanted with Barney Stinson on How I Met Your Mother several years ago, but I never stop being amazed at how good he is. That he manages to deliver that performance (esp. that fabulous falsetto at the end – Adam Lambert would be proud!) while simultaneously playing it for laughs just astonishes me. Yes, they both sing the hell out of the song, but NPH clearly emerges the winner in the acting contest.
Another wonderful Glee moment–arguably one of the best.
And given your understandable appreciation of Harris as a recurring character, why have you not been watching How I Met Your Mother? He is comedy gold, as is Jason Segel, in that show, and the show itself, particularly the first few seasons, are worth a DVD rental.
I’d like to, and I will one of these days. Right now I still have a season of Entourage to catch up with on DVD and half a season of The Office on the DVR.
Great scene, haven’t seen the episode yet, I guess I still haven’t seen all of the first season. Anyway, they can sure jump as well as sing.
Another great moment. The singing point goes to Mr. Shu and the acting point to NPH (although I’ll side with Amy on how great the surprising falsetto of NPH was at the end of the song). Vocally, at least for me, there is no contest here. Acting-wise, it made me think a little bit of the Endless Love clip where so much was going on in their facial expressions.
This was a great episode and I think I have a good idea of what your third scene from this one will be (I suspect I will be in agreement with you but I’ll hold my tongue for now). 🙂
Neil Patrick Harris. ’nuff said