"Glee" is following up last week's super-fun episode, "The Substitute," and its surprisingly delightful guest performance by Gwyneth Paltrow, with an equally high-caliber guest star: Carol Burnett!
Thanks to a chance encounter with the show's music supervisor PJ Bloom at last week's Hollywood Music in Media Awards, I have a few juicy details to share regarding Carol's appearance and another future episode.
"[Carol] plays Sue [Sylvester]'s mom," Bloom told MTV News. "It's going to be fun. One of the best things we've been able to do with 'Glee' is the exploitation of the show tunes. We do our pop songs, we do our classic songs, but what we've been able to do with American musicals has been fantastic. And I think this is an under-explored area of pop culture. It's stuff that the kids care about, clearly, because they've responded so incredibly to the musicals we've done. What we've been able to do for schools, musicals in schools have been great."
Translation: This week's episode will be loaded with showtunes.
"This next episode with Sue and Carol Burnett is going to explore quite a bit of that, which is fantastic," he said.
Another bit of information Bloom let slip was a certain pop song the cast will perform on an upcoming episode, which came up during a discussion about whether Bloom had a hand in using Florence and the Machine's "Dog Days Are Over" in the trailer for "Eat Pray Love" (on which he also served as music supervisor). He didn't, but he did reveal that the titian-tressed VMA performer will make her mark on "Glee" very soon.
"She is amazing," Bloom said of frontwoman Florence Welch. "We're thrilled she's finally broken through, and now we at 'Glee' get to be a part of it. ... We're doing 'Dog Days,' " Bloom revealed. "It's going to be amazing. Florence is fantastic. I think it's exciting that the United States gets to experience an artist like Florence and the Machine."
Woo hoo for "Dog Days," and wonderful VMA performance highlight Florence and the Machine getting the exposure they deserve! Fingers crossed they let someone other than Lea Michele sing it.
Who do you hope sings "Dog Days?" Are you more excited for episodes with show tunes or pop songs?
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