Comic-Con: 'Glee' gets a 10-day tour

Matthew Morrison as Will Schuester in "Glee"

Credit: FOX

Did your high school glee club ever go on tour? To Hot Topic stores? Bet not, but that's exactly what the stars of FOX'S "Glee" are doing, starting in three weeks.

The cast will be performing songs and promoting the second episode of the musical-comedy starting in the middle of August, touring through 10 cities in 12 days at those select retail stores.

The announcement was made during the "Glee" preview and panel at Comic-Con in San Diego on Saturday (July 25), which also featured a full screening of the second episode. That show will be aired Sept. 16, with highlights including more than a few gay jokes, the celibacy club, a pamphlet titled "So You Like Throwing Up," a sexy PSA and Matthew Morrison, as glee teach Will Schuester, rapping to "Gold Digger".

"I will be rapping in a couple more episodes, as well," warned Morrison, to great applause.

When the cast did its first shoot of one scene where they perform Salt 'N' Pepa's "Push It" for the student body, it was advised by the show's director that it "needed to be more offensive." In so many ways, the second show achieved big laughs from gags you don't normally hear on television, let alone one set in a high school, which is why show co-creator Ian Brennan said the show is like "'High School Musical' had been punched in the stomach and had its lunch money stolen."

There will be some odd and challenging inclusions as far as song repertoire is concerned during the rest of the season as well. Apparently, songs by Barbra Streisand and the Rolling Stones will get their "Glee" makeover back-to-back in one episode. Van Halen's "Jump" will get some play time. And, if the second episode is any indicator, there will be plenty more recent top 40 hits on slate. A full soundtrack will be released via Columbia/Epic in November.

The leading cast members copped to what songs they auditioned with. For instance, Cory Monteith (Finn Hudson) came in with Billy Joel's "Honesty" and sent in a tape of him belting REO Speedwagon, while Morrison came in with "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" and a ukulele.

Lea Michele (lead underdog Rachel Berry), however, came into her audition with cuts and shards of glass: she had a car wreck right before her callbacks. "They thought I was making it up," she laughs.

Like Morrison, Michele's background is in Broadway, which is precisely what the show's makers are bringing to a wider audience with future episodes. Guest actors and singers like Kristin Chenoweth, Josh Grobin, Victor Garber, Debra Munk and Eve will all make appearances.

Katie Hasty
Managing Editor

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After five years as a columnist and editor at Billboard, Katie Hasty joined HitFix in 2009 for music and film reporting out of New York. The Midwest native has worked as a writer, music promoter and in A&R since 1999 and performs with her band Numbers And Letters.