What other musical thinger did Joss Whedon direct? (you might ask).  Well, my friends, Joss Whedon directed what was probably the best back-nine episode of Glee, “Dream On.”

Okay, okay, so Glee isn’t strictly nerd, you say.  I say, WRONG.  Glee was totally just a huge event at Comic Con y’all, where it was announced that there will be a ROCKY HORROR THEMED EPISODE which, AMAZING (more on Rocky Horror at a later date).  It is a show about people who dress up and sing songs and occasionally dress up in crazy Madonna/Lady Gaga/Kiss outfits AND SING SONGS and, really, that is so nerdy and lovely.  Also, the fan base calls themselves (ourselves?) GLEEKS.  I think that Dragon*Con is all about the fans, and right now Gleeks own the cultural zeitgeist.

So this episode that Joss Whedon, “Dream On,” has a lot of great points.  Neil Patrick Harris is in it as a rival to main-character/teacher sponsor of Glee club William Schuester.   The character’s name is Bryan Ryan.  This is inspired.  They sing a battle-duet on a the barricade set of a community theater production of Les Miserables, which is genius!!!

The theme of said episode, of course, is “dreams,” and there are some dreams that are possible (playing Jean Valjean in a community theatre production of Les Miserables) some dreams that should be impossible but are possible (finding your birth mother via a recording of “I Dreamed a Dream,” which is a song I don’t like, also from Les Miserables) and dreams that are 100% impossible (dancing your way out of that wheelchair after a childhood accident left your paralyzed from the waist down.  Artie).  Anyhow, this last dream is gloriously realized in a dream sequence version of “The Safety Dance” which is one of the episode’s high points.  It is also a stunning example of how Joss Whedon loves to BREAK YOUR HEART (see: Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along-Blog, Angelus killing Jenny Calendar, WILLOW + TARA, Fred —> Illyria etc.)

P.S. you can watch that number here: Glee: ‘Safety Dance’.

So I believe, over the past three days, that I have summed up why Joss Whedon should direct musicals.  Alas, he is taking a little detour to direct some movie called The Avengers, but I’m sure he’ll get back to his jazz handsy ways before too long.