Glee Club hits the Big Apple

Milli Vanilli would have been proud. The Glee Club made their Big Apple appearance in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and like the pop duo, lip-synched their main song to the hundreds of thousands of people lining the New York streets. The vocal track for their performance had actually been recorded weeks earlier and sent to Hollywood where an arranger added orchestral accompaniment as well as a tap-dance track. The Glee Club and their three floats of roses were the 14th attraction featured in the parade, marching right between Raven Symone of the Cosby Show and Bert and Ernie of Sesame Street fame. After trekking two-and-a-half miles, and struggling through some technical difficulties, the undaunted Glee Club strutted their stuff in front of throngs of people packing the grandstand in front of Macy's. Glee Club's marathon morning began at 4 a.m. as members straggled wearily onto an awaiting bus to be driven to the start of the parade on 81st and Central Park West on Manhattan's Upper West Side. Arriving two hours before the parade started provided club members the opportunity to mix and mingle with famous and not-so-famous stars such as Wil Shriner and The Guys Next Door. Competition to perform in the parade is stiff with hundreds of acts applying annually to participate in the Thanksgiving extravaganza. Normally, college bands and groups are considered in a second group, but Glee Club members said they must compete with Broadway musicals -- considered a level above college marching bands -- in which the selection process is extremely limited. "We're not judged as just another college chorus or even another glee club," said James Mendelsohn, general manager of the Glee Club. "We're judged on a higher level because we're not just another glee club." But this was not the first time the Glee Club has participated in the parade and Director Bruce Montgomery hopes that the Glee Club will be able to do it again in the future. "We are in the parade about every six or seven years," Montgomery said. "Its great to be seen by virtually the entire country. Also, the guys now have the chance to put on their resumes that they sang on Broadway." "It's a great thing for the Glee Club to do it," added Mendelsohn. "But it's also a great thing for the University."

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