I love musicals. I mean, I love musicals. The two-year stint I did in secondary-school drama (crew is important too, you guys!) made me fall in love with the genre even more than I already had at home. I grew up singing Disney music. That, coupled with a growing appreciation for shows like Singing in the Rain and Guys and Dolls sprinkled some much-needed magic into my childhood, magic that didn't go away once I came to realize the magic that is the Broadway stage. Musicals are a force of nature of their own. They're more than just song and dance numbers, and cheesy costumes, and celebrities that may or may not know how to sing.
Musicals are more than just something that exists exclusively on stage or on the big screen. Small screen entertainment is getting on the musical train as well. We all know Glee, but they were not the first (actually, Fame was, but this isn't about that show). Popular television shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Scrubs, and more recently Supernatural and Fringe, write one-off, sometimes non-plot related episodes that feature song and dance numbers and far-fetched explanations as to how the characters get into these situations, whether that is through dream sequence or demons.
The most recent addition to this musical television line up is "Duet", a musical cross-over extravaganza between the CW's Supergirl and The Flash. Personally, this is my favorite one so far, and I've seen plenty. I might just be biased because these are two of my favorite tv shows, but let's be honest, if there's one thing these CW shows can do is do a cross over. Add that to an all-star, musically inclined line up and you have yourself the most glee-tastic episode of a Super Hero television show ever.
Literally, EVERYONE that sings in this episode has some type of musical theatre background. Darren Criss joins fellow Glee alums Grant Gustin and Melissa Benoist (The Flash and Supergirl, respectively) in a magical, musical, dream journey through Barry and Kara's minds. Carlos Valdez, who plays Cisco Ramon on The Flash, has a bit of his own musical theatre background, including working with Darren Criss in their college years, writing and performing music for Starkid Productions, the production company that was founded by alums of the University of Michigan, Darren included (A Very Potter Musical, anyone?) .
Rounding off the cast are Broadway vets Jeremy Jordan (Newsies, Bonnie and Clyde), Jesse L. Martin (Rent), Victor Garber (Rodger's and Hammerstein's Cinderella featuring Brandy and Whitney Houston), and John Barrowman (Doctor Who), who are all characters in the twisted dream universe that Kara and Barry invented in order to feel safe, in order to "learn a lesson", according to the Music Meister (Criss) who put them there in the first place.
If you ask me, the world should have more musical television episodes. Yes, not everybody likes musicals and yes, they are definitely silly, but isn't that what television is supposed to be? A silly distraction from the real world. And what's so different about musicals compared to actual music? The words still have to be written, the instrumentals have to be composed, the song has to be rehearsed and preformed. Some songs even tell a story, similarly to how songs in musicals aid the story.
Reading reviews of this episode, I noticed that some people wrote that they completely skipped the episode because they hated musicals. I'm sorry, but what? You are going to skip an episode of a television show you enjoy just because the characters sing and dance? Who peed in your cereal? What's there to not like about musicals? In fact, this musical episode should prove that we need more tv musical episodes. Something as popular as DC comics television should give new interest to tv musical episodes.
I mean if comic book heroes can sing, shouldn't everyone?
