Even More Out Of The Hat.
I do not own Glee or any of the songs or musicals mentioned.
In Santana's opinion Mr Shue was suffering from a serious case of jazz hands as he took the Glee club through the routine for their new number – 'There's No Business Like Show Business'. She was not in the mood for a show tune and certainly not one with this much cheese.
Coach Sylvester had already given her a hard time during Cheerio's practice that afternoon. Santana had been caught rolling her eyes after the coach announced her big plan for regionals; to have a cheerio shot from a canon.
Now Mr Shue's jazz squares were really getting her down. Even Kurt looked miserable and he lived for show tunes.
"Now I think this next move is really exciting." said Mr Shue, "You roll your hands with a right foot slide before popping with a…"
Santana sighed and looked heavenward as the jazz hands appeared again.
"… Santana is there a problem?" asked Mr Shue catching her display of disgust.
"God," thought Santana, "I'm really going to have to watch myself. That's the second time I've been caught out today."
"It's all just a bit too cheesy." said Santana.
"It's a show tune." said Rachel. "It's meant to be corny its part of the song."
Of course Rachel was keen to continue, she was singing the lead, yet again, after all.
"Well surely there are classier show tunes out there." protested Santana. "Ones that don't require jazz hands!"
"We do seem to default to the cornier songs." agreed Mercedes.
"And doing this all the time." moaned Quinn, doing the jazz hands pose,"Is just so lame."
There was a lot of murmuring and nodding heads as the rest of Glee Club agreed.
A gleam appeared in Mr Shuester's eye and Santana swore under her breath; here comes another lame assignment. At least it would give her a break from those god damn jazz hands!
…
Santana walked into Glee rehearsal the next day her pinkie linked with Brittany's. There was an ominous cardboard box sitting on the piano.
"We'll be getting an assignment today." Santana confided to Brittany nodding towards the box. "Something to do with show tunes."
"How can you be sure?" asked Brittany.
"Mr Shue had that look in his eyes yesterday."
"Goody." exclaimed Brittany suddenly smiling, "I always like Glee assignments. They're way more fun than English assignments."
Santana smiled too, thanks to Brittany's enthusiasm, and they took their seats on the back row.
Mr Shuster entered, eagerly rubbing his hands together.
"Okay guys, yesterday you were complaining about cheesy show tunes so I have a new assignment for you. I am going to put you into teams and give you a movie to watch. You are to pick a song from the film to perform at the end of the week – simple."
Puck raised his hand.
"Our assignment is to watch a movie?"
"That's right. The thirties, forties and fifties saw an explosion of glamorous musical movies. I have a selection of DVDs from the local library, one film per team."
Santana relaxed slightly this didn't seem so bad.
"So," continued Mr Shue, "On to the teams." He pulled the first DVD from the cardboard box, "Singing in the Rain for Mercedes, Finn and Mike."
The threesome exchanged looks as Mr Shue handed Mercedes the DVD box.
Mr Shue pulled out the next DVD.
"High Society for Puck and Matt."
Puck got the film from Mr Shue.
"Doesn't this film have Frank Sinatra in it." he asked looking at the DVD jacket.
"That's right."
Puck instantly looked much happier and gave Matt a high five.
The next DVD out of the box was Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.
"This one is for Brittany…"
Santana crossed her fingers that her name would be called next.
"… and Tina."
Brittany high-fived Tina, before giving Santana a sad smile. Santana surveyed her possible remaining partners; Rachel, Artie, Quinn and Kurt.
"Okay." She thought, "Anyone but Rachel."
The next DVD was a Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers movie Shall We Dance which Mr Shue gave to Quinn and Artie.
Santana came to the decision that Mr Shue was definitely punishing her for complaining yesterday. He was going to make her do a musical number with Kurt and Rachel, Mr and Mrs Showtime.
This time the movie was Kiss Me Kate.
"This one is for Rachel and Kurt." said Mr Shue passing the DVD to an excited Rachel. "And finally in a team of one, Santana you have Summer Stock."
Santana looked at Mr Shue with new eyes. The guy definitely had a mean streak. She would be all alone in her humiliation.
"I must admit I am curious as to which numbers you will pick." He finished.
Rachel raised a hand,
"Can we wear costumes?"
"If you like." said Mr Shue. "Put as much showmanship in your number as you can!"
Everyone was muttering eagerly with their team mate. Even Brittany had abandoned her best friend to discuss the film with Tina. Santana looked at the DVD in her hand. It was a movie she had never heard of, she recognised Judy Garland grinning at her from the front cover but beyond that she had no idea what was in store.
…
Santana was contemplating removing the movie from the DVD player and throwing it out of the window. Summer Stock was yet another corny candyfloss of a musical, and quite possibly the original 'let's do the show right here!' film. Not one of the songs was particularly classy and none of them were anything Santana would sing in a million years. It was a film about putting on a show in a barn, and ridiculously, now that the show was being performed, it was a bloody big barn! Santana prayed the torture would be over soon, there couldn't be that much film left; and she still had no clue what song to sing. Santana picked up her phone to text Brittany to find out how her movie ordeal was going at Tina's; it couldn't be as bad as this.
Suddenly Judy Garland, dressed all in leotard, jacket and little black hat, began to sing a song that had Santana glued to the screen. Santana knew instantly she had to sing that song on Friday. It was just so cool and smooth and classy, she couldn't not! She quickly got her laptop out to find the lyrics online, not bothering to pay any more attention to the rest of the film.
…
Friday came and Santana found she was oddly excited. She couldn't wait to perform her song (not that she'd ever admit it). Brittany was equally elated. In the changing rooms after Cheerios practice that morning Brittany was driving herself loopy. She was obviously desperate to tell Santana all about her and Tina's number while at the same time forced to bite her tongue as she wanted to keep it a surprise. Santana knew her best friend needed something to take her mind off Glee Club. Luckily the head cheerleader knew exactly what made a good distraction in the privacy of a now empty locker room. It was a pleasant diversion for herself as well.
…
"Right guys, are we ready for our classy musical numbers?" asked Mr Shue.
He had booked the auditorium and the Jazz band was there with everyone's music. They had agreed to go in order of the DVDs Mr Shue had handed out. This meant Mercedes, Mike and Finn were up first. Their costume choice was rather conservative, the guys in shirts and grey pants and Mercedes in a colourful summer dress.
"Right." said Finn, taking centre stage. "Our film was Singing In The Rain. It was a difficult choice, which song to sing, but we decided on 'Good Morning'… um… Thank you."
With that the band began to play and the threesome sang a jolly, playful song about saying good morning after staying up all night. There was also some dancing, and bless him Finn did his best but Mike was dancing rings around the both of them. Santana was also slightly in awe of Mercedes, she hadn't seen her that cheerful and bubbly since the Walking on Sunshine number last year. All three of them were obviously enjoying themselves and their number was great fun to watch. There was much applause afterwards.
Puck and Matt took the stage next in dinner jackets and bow ties.
"Our song choice was easy. Our film was High Society and we shall be singing 'What A Swell Party This Is'. Enjoy!"
The band began again. As the boys sang Santana couldn't help smiling. The guys were having such a great time with the song. Puck had actually taken the Bing Crosby part of the song, leaving Matt to be Frank. The song was funny and smooth, a very good choice. When the song was over there was more applause.
Santana applauded loudly when Brittany came on stage next with Tina; both wearing sparkly cocktail dresses. Tina took central stage.
"Our film was Gentlemen Prefer Blondes." said Tina. "We decided to sing Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend."
The two girls took it in turns to sing the verses. It was sweet and they made it funny with a very clever dance number which began quite daintily but ended in a fight over a diamond necklace. The song was concluded to loud cheers from the rest of Glee club. Santana could see why Brittany had wanted to keep it a surprise, they were amazing.
Quinn and Artie came on next.
"Our DVD was Shall We Dance." said Artie, "And we would like to sing to you 'Let's Call The Whole Thing Off'."
The jazz band, who were working like troopers, played the intro and Quinn and Artie began the duet. It was a cute and funny song, and they had worked out some simple choreography to go with it. They actually made quite a cute couple. Boy, Quinn, the bitch queen from hell, had really changed in a year! Santana knew if she'd told Quinn last year that she would have to sing and hold hands with the wheelchair kid she would have laughed in her face! Having a baby had really mellowed that girl out. When they were finished there was more enthusiastic applause.
Next up was Kurt and Rachel.
"We shall be performing 'So In Love' from Kiss Me Kate. Thank you!"
This time the only accompaniment was Brad on the piano. They were dress like rejects from a Shakespeare play and when Rachel and Kurt began to sing a love song to each other Santana had to hide a laugh. The amusement lasted for just a moment though as they song they were singing was beautiful, and credit where its due they made a very good pair. Kurt was singing slightly lower that his normal octave, kind of like the time he was pretending to be straight. It really suited the song. Rachel was obviously have a great time as well, playing with harmonies and melody. The applause when they were finished was equally ecstatic.
Now it was Santana's turn. She'd got a costume together, borrowing a leotard from Brittany and a jacket and hat from the Glee prop box. She knew she looked hot which always boosted her confidence.
"My film was Summer Stock." explained Santana as she took to the stage. "And I shall be singing 'Get Happy'."
The jazz band started up and Santana began to sing. She had watched the number on the DVD over and over to get the routine just right; copying Judy Garland's key moves until she had got them down pat. Santana was singing, swaying and smiling with delight, it felt wonderful. When she was finished there was another huge round of applause from Glee Club.
Mr Shue looked delighted.
"That was amazing guys." He exclaimed, "Amazing. You guys really got into this project – I am so proud of you. You all found some very classy show tunes and you have done a creative and quite frankly brilliant job of bringing them to life."
Glee Club cheered.
"There is just one little thing I'd like to point out." He said, before exploding into the jazz hands pose.
Santana burst out laughing, some of the others were slightly slower on the uptake. Every single one of them had used jazz hands in their number, even Rachel and Kurt. Hell, Santana's dance routine had been almost exclusively made up of the pose.
"You can't do a show tune without it." said Mr Shue, smiling.
One down - two to go.