Glee: The Musical Part 1, rated PG Spoiler through 3x22
Glee: The Musical
Rated PG, spoilers through 3x22, fill for Glee Angst Meme
Completely unabashed wish fulfilment fic post 3x22.
Summary: The second musical Kurt Hummel ever wrote became his most famous.
It was called "Glee" and it was a story about being the underdog.
Write what you know.
That's what people say, teachers, authors in interviews, people in movies pretending to be writers. One day you'll have something in you that has to come out, something too big to be held back.
You'll write that, they say. You'll have to. Write the thing that won't stay inside. The feeling that you felt so much, so long, that you have to scream it to the world.
That's the story people will listen to.
The first musical Kurt Hummel wrote never saw the light of Broadway. It was, even he would one day admit in interviews, a self-indulgent foray into the life of Pippa Middleton. He traipsed along with it for the summer between junior and senior years of high school, writing a musical mostly to be able to say he'd written a musical. It was never finished.
The second musical Kurt Hummel ever wrote poured out of him like a dam in his heart had broken. The second musical Kurt ever wrote was finished in two months, in time to be presented to his former Glee club as an option for annual school musical.
The second musical Kurt Hummel ever wrote became his most famous.
It was called "Glee" and it was a story about being the underdog.
Blaine looked up from the pile of papers in his lap. He had tears in his eyes, so his view of Kurt was oddly haloed in the late summer sunlight drifting through the blinds.
"Kurt--This is magic," he breathed, looking back down at the musical in his lap. It was all there, script, blocking, costume design, song choices.
"I can't believe you did this--I mean, I knew you could do this, you're so talented, but this, this is--is--"
"Magic?" Kurt supplied, arching his brow at his boyfriend even as a faint, pleased blush stole over his cheeks.
"Yes," Blaine breathed.
And it was. The musical was about misfits banding together in a high school, forming a glee club. The story twisted around the characters, showing how they were all the leads in their own lives, even when they weren't necessarily the main characters in the play. The beauty of the play was that the young, strong voiced ingénue only seemed to be the main character. Her's was the hero's arc, and yet she never changed. The lovely truth of the play was the growth of the other characters around her, pushed and pulled by power of her talent and stardom. Theirs were the heartbreaking stories, theirs the triumph songs.
Kurt had written a play in which it was the supporting cast that was truly the star of the show, and their action played out from behind the girl in center stage.
The greatest triumph of the play was that you had to look past the star and see what was behind her to understand the play at all.
Blaine could see Kurt's forgiving nature in his portrayal of the main young starlet. It wasn't her fault her talent was so big, her trajectory so fixed. She did miss some opportunities to grow, but she played out like a train that only ever had one destination, she couldn't jump the tracks without crashing completely.
But the lonely young gay student, the goth girl with a powerful voice, the boy who could sing but not dance and a dancer who couldn't sing. The girl who got pregnant and stood proud before her critics, the young punk who wanted so much to raise his daughter. They were all there.
Kurt had given each of them a moment to shine.
And it was magic.
"Can I audition for the stylish young gay student?" he asked, waggling his brows at his boyfriend.
Kurt pursed his lips, seeming thoughtful. "I don't know, you seem like too much of a leading man type... maybe the charming yet somewhat simple quarterback?"
Laughter spilled from the countertenor as he dodged the pillow his enraged boyfriend launched in his direction
The next night they showed the play to Carol and Burt, the boys playing most of the roles, singing and bumping into each other and the furniture as they transformed the Hudson-Hummel living room into 'James K. Polk' high school.
The parents laughed and Carol cried openly, demanding that they show it to her again the next night, she'd liked it so much. Burt rolled his eyes a bit but the next night found him on the couch, watching again as Blaine and Kurt polished the edges and worked out the kinks. Carol and Burt even made some suggestions, some of which Kurt even used, much to everyone's surprise.
A few weeks and six private performances later Kurt found himself sitting in Mr. Schuester's office, waiting to hear what he'd thought of the final version.
Mr. Schue shuffled the papers in front of him, looking troubled. Kurt braced himself. Schue was the first person to see the play who didn't love Kurt unconditionally, maybe it was terrible and no one had wanted to tell him. Kurt wasn't sure he could survive another rejection like that.
"Kurt... I apologized to Tina, today. Now I'm going to apologize to you. Reading this play was like reading into your hearts and minds for the last three years. Even when you screamed I didn't hear you... when Tina finally broke I didn't hear her. And I am truly sorry for that."
The man paused, meeting his former student's eyes squarely. "This play, Kurt, made me hear you. It made me hear Tina and Puck and Quinn and Artie. But the best thing about it was that even if I hadn't already known who they were, I still would have heard them, seen them. You made them glow, Kurt. You made their stories beautiful... I would be honored if you would allow us to perform this play."
They say that one yes makes all the no's worthwhile. Kurt never would have predicted that Schuester's recognition would be the one to fall like rain over those burning scars. Maybe because he'd sought that approval so long, getting it was like finally reaching an oasis after three years in a desert.
Just like that, the play was a go. Figgins didn't seem to recognize that the play was satirizing his own school, while Coach Sylvester clearly saw herself in the Machiavellian cheer coach who must throw her lot in with the glee club in the second act. Her only question had been whether there was a sassy swim coach in the play--and when Kurt replied in the negative, she gave the play her blessing and even volunteered to help, since she'd clearly been so instrumental in their national's victory.
Auditions flew by, Tina ecstatic to win the role of the young starlet. Even if Kurt was confused by her explanation that she drew experience from 'having been Rachel that one time,' she knocked 'Don't Rain on my Parade' out of the park.
Blaine surprisingly went out for the punk who fathers the child with the head cheerleader. He had thrown himself into it, auditioning with the post birth scene, singing U2's 'Grace'.
When he sang 'Grace makes beauty out of ugly things, Grace finds beauty in everything,' Kurt and Mrs. Pillsbury-Schuester both burst into tears.
Rory (back for a second year and yet somehow still with Sugar) had clearly slaved over his American accent and aced his audition for the bullied gay fashionista. Kurt was very flattered he'd worked so hard for the part, and promised to help him with the higher notes.
The final surprise was when they sat down and tried to hash out who would play the Glee teacher. Joe had auditioned, but wasn't quite right... they agreed he could play the part of the aspiring director in a wheelchair.
It was Schue himself who looked at Kurt and said, “You should do it."
Kurt sputtered, but Schue just smiled. "You and Santana were the only students who really saw me, flaws and all. And--well, Santana would just be really, really mean about it."
Coach Sylvester snorted crudely, even as Kurt blushed and reluctantly agreed.
The last dress rehearsal finally arrived and that evening they'd be opening. Burt was flying back from Washington, Mercedes and Puck had come from LA, Rachel and Quinn had arrived from the East Coast together the day before. Finn couldn't get leave, but Artie had come and was uploading the play to YouTube so Finn could watch it on his downtime.
On stage, Mercedes was giving Wade some pointers as he practiced "Hell to the No," the scene where his character quits cheerleading and embraces the beauty of her body.
Kurt chewed his lip in the audience, afraid it couldn't all be as amazing as it seemed.
"Hey, weren't you the one who told me excessive worrying causes premature loss of facial elasticity?"
Warmth suffused Kurt as Blaine kissed his cheek, settling in next to him. "Weren't you the one who insisted on playing Isaac, somehow confirming to all of McKinley that I was secretly sleeping with Puck, a rumor I could have gone my ENTIRE life without ever knowing?"
Blaine cracked, laughing helplessly into Kurt's shoulder. Every time he thought of Jacob ben Israel's 'expose' on the 'real meaning' of the play, he just laughed and laughed.
Kurt finally chuckled as well, threading his fingers through the other boy's.
"This isn't going to bomb, right?" he whispered.
Kurt felt Blaine's lips curl into a wicked smile against his cheek, "Oh, Oh, Oh, hell to the no-no-na-no..."
The resulting peal of laughter from Kurt brought the action on stage to a halt, but Wade and Mercedes just smiled at each other. It was nice to hear that joy from Kurt so often these days.
That night, the play soared. Tina was luminous as star-to-be Sarah, Sam's quarterback was funny and poignant, and Blaine brought tears with his rough, tender performance of Isaac. Kurt played well-meaning Glee teacher Mr. Smythe with grace and humor. As the last strains of "Don't Stop Believing," sung as various solos by characters as they watch Sarah leave on the train played out, the audience was already on its feet.
Kurt bowed with the rest of the cast, hearing his father shout that his boy had written that play, seeing Rachel grinning at him from the front row, and it felt like every dream he ever had was coming true.
The curtain closed for the final time and the cast rushed Kurt as a group, jumping all over him with hugs and congratulations. Sugar squealed directly into his ear, and Blaine swept him off his feet, swinging him around.
"Kurt! Kurt, I'm so proud of you!" Blaine said, hugging the taller boy as tightly as he could.
"I'm glad, I want you to be," Kurt whispered back, squeezing just as tight.
Then there was chaos as their friends from the audience found their way backstage, Artie shouting 'preach' as Puck pushed him along. Rachel pushed her way in to Kurt, pushing Blaine out of the way to kiss Kurt soundly on the lips. Kurt shoved her back with a look of horror, even as Blaine shouted to Rachel that she only got one each, now they were all even.
Rachel ignored him to look at Kurt seriously. "This is it Kurt. This is your NYADA... they'll have to take you now. Just, next time, write a better part for me, okay?"
Folding her into his arms, Kurt smiled gently against her hair. "I promise my next great role will be for Miss Rachel Berry."
Artie had the musical edited and uploaded in record time, splicing together the best numbers from all the performances. It actually looked very impressive for a high school production. A few days after the upload Kurt received an excited call from Finn.
"Dude, some of the guys in my unit watched it with me and they really liked it. And these are not 'musical' guys. It already has, like, a bajillion hits on youtube. It's so awesome, I kinda wish I was still at McKinley so I could have been in it."
Kurt smiled into the phone, "A bajillion? That's not even a real number, Finn."
"Well, okay, it was a few thousand, but that's a lot for a couple of days. You guys should be really proud."
Kurt chatted a bit more with his brother before handing off the phone to Carol, running up the stairs to check the hits on the video. He was a little shocked when he saw the number.
15,124.
He refreshed, and it jumped to 15,132.
The comments were even more surprising. Sure, there were a few trolls, but the response was hugely positive. People talked about being inspired. They told stories of being bullied. Of being the bullies themselves. Dozens mentioned they were putting the vid on tumblr, on facebook, on twitter.
Kurt even thought he recognized some of the names in the comments, some of the twitter handles. There were some celebrity names. Bringing himself back down to earth, Kurt laughed at his presumption.
No way had Sarah Jessica Parker commented about his musical. It had to be a fake, right?
Ellen Degeneres? GAGA?! No way in hell.
Shutting the laptop with a snap, Kurt turned his attention to the stack of college applications on his desk. He was not going to get caught putting his eggs all in one basket again. He was halfway through an essay on what he'd learned from so much rejection when his phone rang. It was Blaine, who sounded ridiculously excited.
"Oh my God, Kurt turn on MSNBC. Turn it on now, hurry!"
Tucking the phone into his shoulder, Kurt tuned to that channel to see Rachel Maddow's cheerful face. He wasn't surprised that Blaine had called; as an out lesbian, a liberal, and once having had nice things to say about his dad's election, she was probably his and Blaine's favorite newsperson.
"Is she going to talk about Dad again?" he asked, wondering if he should run and get Carol.
"Shhh!" Blaine hissed in his ear, "Just wait!"
Rachel finished a segment on the elections, and then shifted to a frequent popular segment of the show: her 'Awesome New Thing in the World Today.'
"I'm sure some of you remember last year, when I did a segment on Ohio Congressmen Burt Hummel. Proud dad of an out teenager he raised by himself, and all around no nonsense guy who get's things done, he was my pick for 'Awesome New Person in Congress.' Now, as it turns out, Hummel Jr. is just as awesome. If you've been on twitter or tumblr the last few days, you've probably already seen this. If you haven't I highly suggest you watch it. It's a musical called 'Glee' written by Kurt Hummel, and if you were one of the 99% who were less than popular in high school, well, this one's for you. It's funny and touching and full of catchy tunes, but more importantly it reminds us that if we choose to, we can really see the people around us, that not seeing them is how things like bullying flourish. It reminded me of all the times I felt invisible, and how much that shaped me. It's a great musical with a great message and it's my 'Awesome New Thing in the World Today."
The show went to commercial.
Kurt numbly turned off the TV. "Blaine, my musical was just featured on a major cable news network."
Blaine sounded awed, "She just showed your musical. She JUST SHOWED YOUR MUSICAL! Oh my god, oh crap my parents are calling me, my dad must have seen that, oh, hang on, I love you so much, I'll call you in a sec, ok?"
Kurt must have replied in the affirmative, because suddenly Blaine was gone and his phone was ringing off the hook. He heard the phone ring downstairs and knew it was his dad.
Ignoring his phone, he went over to his laptop and opened it, refreshing the screen.
78,497 hits. 45,321 likes. Over a thousand comments. Kurt gave a small, secret smile and hugged himself.
This? Was the OPPOSITE of rejection.
********************
Rachel Berry was having a strange day.
Of course, her classes were going wonderfully, even if the professors and other students seemed to consistently overlook her talent. It was terribly frustrating that she hadn’t tested out of freshman dance or choir or composition, considering how accomplished she was. But the registrar insisted that all students were required to take what they called the 'freshman core' so that they could be broken of bad habits and everyone brought to a level playing field.
Even more humiliating to be criticized on her breath control and phrasing! She'd just left a session with her tutor who'd told her she'd never get anywhere if she didn't learn to sing with subtlety. 'Not every song begins and ends at 10, Miss Berry. Try controlling that giant voice of yours, and then we'll have something to work with.'
Still, she WAS Rachel Berry and she strode around campus with her head held high. No one here was better than her, some had more training, but she'd catch up, and then she'd show then what true stardom was.
She slipped through the campus cafe to grab a vegan muffin before her next class, glancing longingly at the students gathered in noisy groups around the tiny tables. Next year that would be her and Kurt and Blaine, doing impromptu vocal exercises and arguing the virtues of Les Mis verses Phantom. Of course they'd both be freshman to her sophomore, but she'd have so much to teach them, helping them avoid the pitfalls she'd already stepped in. Besides, she wasn't LONELY, she was BUSY.
Yes, freshman year was just too busy to waste on forging friendships.
She was about to leave when it happened again... she could swear she heard her old glee club singing... was she really that nostalgic?
No, wait, that was Blaine's voice, and he'd never sung 'Don't Stop Believing' with them... except in Kurt's musical...
Looking around, she spotted several seniors huddled around a laptop. She recognized some of them as the best seniors, one a classically trained operatic soprano, another so gifted on the violin he had played at the White House. They were the best of NYADA, the one teachers pointed out in class... look how Jeanette sings so softly but still projects, observe Will's posture as he does that step-ball-change. They are the best because even the basics are scrutinized and executed with precision.
She finally got close enough to see and hear what they were doing. On the screen was 'Glee,' Kurt's musical.
And they were talking about performing it.
"It's perfect... we said we couldn't do a single musical for our senior recital because we won't get credit for small roles and there are only so many leads to go around. But there are no small roles in this musical, that's the whole theme of it," one of the girls said, gesturing at the screen where Kurt was singing 'Still Got Tonight' as the glee teacher.
"Jeanette's right," one of the boys, a fabulous baritone, agreed. "This way we get to do one unified musical and we all get credit. It'll be the first senior recital ever that doesn't look and sound like a variety show."
"So we should email this kid, see if he'll give us permission. It's already on the news, we want to get the okay before a producer gets a hold of him and it enters into contract," Will grinned. "Besides, I kind of want to meet a nineteen-year-old who could write something like this. Could be a good contact to have, starting out."
Jeanette wrinkled her nose at him, "For you or for him?"
The seniors laughed as they gathered their things, getting up to leave. Will flipped his hand at the tiny soprano, "Like you didn't just spend an hour imagining yourself originating the role of 'Sarah' on Broadway."
Jeanette stuck her tongue out at him, prompting more laughter from the seniors. The exited the cafe as a group, none of them noticing Rachel Berry frozen by the table they'd left behind.
********************
After the segment on Rachel Maddow's show, things started happening very quickly. Kurt was fairly certain he'd had at least two phone conversations with everyone he'd ever met (and a few he hadn't) in the last few days. Oddly enough it had been Blaine's father who suggested that Kurt needed to find a lawyer first thing, and had gotten a referral for a top notch entertainment lawyer from the NY branch of his firm. Blaine had just shrugged and told Kurt to go with it when asked, clearly as puzzled as everyone else by his dad's sudden interest in Kurt.
Kurt joked that it was obviously because now he could keep Blaine in the lifestyle to which he'd become accustomed.
Carol took a leave of absence from the hospital and Burt arrived back from Washington with an intern in tow to help sort through all the calls, letters, and offers arriving daily.
At the lawyer's suggestion they got written permission from everyone who'd been in the musical for their performances to be seen on TV, and from Mercedes for the use of her song 'Hell to the No.' Mercedes cheerfully agreed after making it clear that she got first crack at playing 'herself' in any major productions.
The best thing was, it was clear that a major production was just what people had in mind when contacting Kurt. Even NYADA (or some seniors there) had asked for permission to do the play. Kurt again took his new lawyer's advice, allowing the production as long as no profit was made and no recordings of it were made for public exhibition or uploaded onto the internet. Kurt had smiled for hours at the thought that NYADA hadn't wanted him, but wanted his play.
Beyond NYADA, other schools had called, and the production companies! That was the best part! They called to ask to meet Kurt, in LA, NY, Chicago. The Broadway League, the Lincoln Center Company, even Disney.
The lawyer said that companies were so interested because the play was already popular on YouTube. They didn't have to gamble on whether people would like the play, they already knew. It also helped that although they'd have to buy licensing on most of the songs, the audience already knew and liked the music, too. It was much easier to bet money on a sure thing, especially in such a risky economy.
There were television studios, too, and movie producers. It had taken Blaine over an hour to convince Kurt that yes, Baz Luhrmann had actually called. Or, his representative had, asking to meet about a movie of 'Glee.' Representatives of HBO and Showtime had called, talking about television series and how on cable they could 'spend real money and do it right.'
In the end though, Kurt still had Broadway in his heart, so he politely declined movie and television deals and set out to meet with the NY companies.
He was going to be in New York next week anyway, to be on Good Morning America. They'd called after a piece in the Columbus Herald had laid out Kurt's entire story: the bullying and death threat, his Dad's heart attack and subsequent successful run for Congress, coming out, being crowned prom queen, losing the school play and the student council election, and finally being rejected from performing arts school only to write an amazing musical from the pain of those experiences.
That article was when the whole thing blew up. Especially in hard times like these, people loved an underdog beating everyone in the end, and that was what this was. It was playing out as a story of perseverance and hope in the face of continuous rejection and tremendous odds.
The idea that somehow, someway, hard work will pay off is pretty much exactly what Americans wanted to hear these days.
So Kurt found himself on his way to NY with his parents, Blaine, and lawyer in tow.
But first, he sat down and hand wrote a thank you note to Rachel Maddow, for her help in bringing attention to his musical and turning his life around.
tbc....
Rated PG, spoilers through 3x22, fill for Glee Angst Meme
Completely unabashed wish fulfilment fic post 3x22.
Summary: The second musical Kurt Hummel ever wrote became his most famous.
It was called "Glee" and it was a story about being the underdog.
Write what you know.
That's what people say, teachers, authors in interviews, people in movies pretending to be writers. One day you'll have something in you that has to come out, something too big to be held back.
You'll write that, they say. You'll have to. Write the thing that won't stay inside. The feeling that you felt so much, so long, that you have to scream it to the world.
That's the story people will listen to.
The first musical Kurt Hummel wrote never saw the light of Broadway. It was, even he would one day admit in interviews, a self-indulgent foray into the life of Pippa Middleton. He traipsed along with it for the summer between junior and senior years of high school, writing a musical mostly to be able to say he'd written a musical. It was never finished.
The second musical Kurt Hummel ever wrote poured out of him like a dam in his heart had broken. The second musical Kurt ever wrote was finished in two months, in time to be presented to his former Glee club as an option for annual school musical.
The second musical Kurt Hummel ever wrote became his most famous.
It was called "Glee" and it was a story about being the underdog.
Blaine looked up from the pile of papers in his lap. He had tears in his eyes, so his view of Kurt was oddly haloed in the late summer sunlight drifting through the blinds.
"Kurt--This is magic," he breathed, looking back down at the musical in his lap. It was all there, script, blocking, costume design, song choices.
"I can't believe you did this--I mean, I knew you could do this, you're so talented, but this, this is--is--"
"Magic?" Kurt supplied, arching his brow at his boyfriend even as a faint, pleased blush stole over his cheeks.
"Yes," Blaine breathed.
And it was. The musical was about misfits banding together in a high school, forming a glee club. The story twisted around the characters, showing how they were all the leads in their own lives, even when they weren't necessarily the main characters in the play. The beauty of the play was that the young, strong voiced ingénue only seemed to be the main character. Her's was the hero's arc, and yet she never changed. The lovely truth of the play was the growth of the other characters around her, pushed and pulled by power of her talent and stardom. Theirs were the heartbreaking stories, theirs the triumph songs.
Kurt had written a play in which it was the supporting cast that was truly the star of the show, and their action played out from behind the girl in center stage.
The greatest triumph of the play was that you had to look past the star and see what was behind her to understand the play at all.
Blaine could see Kurt's forgiving nature in his portrayal of the main young starlet. It wasn't her fault her talent was so big, her trajectory so fixed. She did miss some opportunities to grow, but she played out like a train that only ever had one destination, she couldn't jump the tracks without crashing completely.
But the lonely young gay student, the goth girl with a powerful voice, the boy who could sing but not dance and a dancer who couldn't sing. The girl who got pregnant and stood proud before her critics, the young punk who wanted so much to raise his daughter. They were all there.
Kurt had given each of them a moment to shine.
And it was magic.
"Can I audition for the stylish young gay student?" he asked, waggling his brows at his boyfriend.
Kurt pursed his lips, seeming thoughtful. "I don't know, you seem like too much of a leading man type... maybe the charming yet somewhat simple quarterback?"
Laughter spilled from the countertenor as he dodged the pillow his enraged boyfriend launched in his direction
The next night they showed the play to Carol and Burt, the boys playing most of the roles, singing and bumping into each other and the furniture as they transformed the Hudson-Hummel living room into 'James K. Polk' high school.
The parents laughed and Carol cried openly, demanding that they show it to her again the next night, she'd liked it so much. Burt rolled his eyes a bit but the next night found him on the couch, watching again as Blaine and Kurt polished the edges and worked out the kinks. Carol and Burt even made some suggestions, some of which Kurt even used, much to everyone's surprise.
A few weeks and six private performances later Kurt found himself sitting in Mr. Schuester's office, waiting to hear what he'd thought of the final version.
Mr. Schue shuffled the papers in front of him, looking troubled. Kurt braced himself. Schue was the first person to see the play who didn't love Kurt unconditionally, maybe it was terrible and no one had wanted to tell him. Kurt wasn't sure he could survive another rejection like that.
"Kurt... I apologized to Tina, today. Now I'm going to apologize to you. Reading this play was like reading into your hearts and minds for the last three years. Even when you screamed I didn't hear you... when Tina finally broke I didn't hear her. And I am truly sorry for that."
The man paused, meeting his former student's eyes squarely. "This play, Kurt, made me hear you. It made me hear Tina and Puck and Quinn and Artie. But the best thing about it was that even if I hadn't already known who they were, I still would have heard them, seen them. You made them glow, Kurt. You made their stories beautiful... I would be honored if you would allow us to perform this play."
They say that one yes makes all the no's worthwhile. Kurt never would have predicted that Schuester's recognition would be the one to fall like rain over those burning scars. Maybe because he'd sought that approval so long, getting it was like finally reaching an oasis after three years in a desert.
Just like that, the play was a go. Figgins didn't seem to recognize that the play was satirizing his own school, while Coach Sylvester clearly saw herself in the Machiavellian cheer coach who must throw her lot in with the glee club in the second act. Her only question had been whether there was a sassy swim coach in the play--and when Kurt replied in the negative, she gave the play her blessing and even volunteered to help, since she'd clearly been so instrumental in their national's victory.
Auditions flew by, Tina ecstatic to win the role of the young starlet. Even if Kurt was confused by her explanation that she drew experience from 'having been Rachel that one time,' she knocked 'Don't Rain on my Parade' out of the park.
Blaine surprisingly went out for the punk who fathers the child with the head cheerleader. He had thrown himself into it, auditioning with the post birth scene, singing U2's 'Grace'.
When he sang 'Grace makes beauty out of ugly things, Grace finds beauty in everything,' Kurt and Mrs. Pillsbury-Schuester both burst into tears.
Rory (back for a second year and yet somehow still with Sugar) had clearly slaved over his American accent and aced his audition for the bullied gay fashionista. Kurt was very flattered he'd worked so hard for the part, and promised to help him with the higher notes.
The final surprise was when they sat down and tried to hash out who would play the Glee teacher. Joe had auditioned, but wasn't quite right... they agreed he could play the part of the aspiring director in a wheelchair.
It was Schue himself who looked at Kurt and said, “You should do it."
Kurt sputtered, but Schue just smiled. "You and Santana were the only students who really saw me, flaws and all. And--well, Santana would just be really, really mean about it."
Coach Sylvester snorted crudely, even as Kurt blushed and reluctantly agreed.
The last dress rehearsal finally arrived and that evening they'd be opening. Burt was flying back from Washington, Mercedes and Puck had come from LA, Rachel and Quinn had arrived from the East Coast together the day before. Finn couldn't get leave, but Artie had come and was uploading the play to YouTube so Finn could watch it on his downtime.
On stage, Mercedes was giving Wade some pointers as he practiced "Hell to the No," the scene where his character quits cheerleading and embraces the beauty of her body.
Kurt chewed his lip in the audience, afraid it couldn't all be as amazing as it seemed.
"Hey, weren't you the one who told me excessive worrying causes premature loss of facial elasticity?"
Warmth suffused Kurt as Blaine kissed his cheek, settling in next to him. "Weren't you the one who insisted on playing Isaac, somehow confirming to all of McKinley that I was secretly sleeping with Puck, a rumor I could have gone my ENTIRE life without ever knowing?"
Blaine cracked, laughing helplessly into Kurt's shoulder. Every time he thought of Jacob ben Israel's 'expose' on the 'real meaning' of the play, he just laughed and laughed.
Kurt finally chuckled as well, threading his fingers through the other boy's.
"This isn't going to bomb, right?" he whispered.
Kurt felt Blaine's lips curl into a wicked smile against his cheek, "Oh, Oh, Oh, hell to the no-no-na-no..."
The resulting peal of laughter from Kurt brought the action on stage to a halt, but Wade and Mercedes just smiled at each other. It was nice to hear that joy from Kurt so often these days.
That night, the play soared. Tina was luminous as star-to-be Sarah, Sam's quarterback was funny and poignant, and Blaine brought tears with his rough, tender performance of Isaac. Kurt played well-meaning Glee teacher Mr. Smythe with grace and humor. As the last strains of "Don't Stop Believing," sung as various solos by characters as they watch Sarah leave on the train played out, the audience was already on its feet.
Kurt bowed with the rest of the cast, hearing his father shout that his boy had written that play, seeing Rachel grinning at him from the front row, and it felt like every dream he ever had was coming true.
The curtain closed for the final time and the cast rushed Kurt as a group, jumping all over him with hugs and congratulations. Sugar squealed directly into his ear, and Blaine swept him off his feet, swinging him around.
"Kurt! Kurt, I'm so proud of you!" Blaine said, hugging the taller boy as tightly as he could.
"I'm glad, I want you to be," Kurt whispered back, squeezing just as tight.
Then there was chaos as their friends from the audience found their way backstage, Artie shouting 'preach' as Puck pushed him along. Rachel pushed her way in to Kurt, pushing Blaine out of the way to kiss Kurt soundly on the lips. Kurt shoved her back with a look of horror, even as Blaine shouted to Rachel that she only got one each, now they were all even.
Rachel ignored him to look at Kurt seriously. "This is it Kurt. This is your NYADA... they'll have to take you now. Just, next time, write a better part for me, okay?"
Folding her into his arms, Kurt smiled gently against her hair. "I promise my next great role will be for Miss Rachel Berry."
Artie had the musical edited and uploaded in record time, splicing together the best numbers from all the performances. It actually looked very impressive for a high school production. A few days after the upload Kurt received an excited call from Finn.
"Dude, some of the guys in my unit watched it with me and they really liked it. And these are not 'musical' guys. It already has, like, a bajillion hits on youtube. It's so awesome, I kinda wish I was still at McKinley so I could have been in it."
Kurt smiled into the phone, "A bajillion? That's not even a real number, Finn."
"Well, okay, it was a few thousand, but that's a lot for a couple of days. You guys should be really proud."
Kurt chatted a bit more with his brother before handing off the phone to Carol, running up the stairs to check the hits on the video. He was a little shocked when he saw the number.
15,124.
He refreshed, and it jumped to 15,132.
The comments were even more surprising. Sure, there were a few trolls, but the response was hugely positive. People talked about being inspired. They told stories of being bullied. Of being the bullies themselves. Dozens mentioned they were putting the vid on tumblr, on facebook, on twitter.
Kurt even thought he recognized some of the names in the comments, some of the twitter handles. There were some celebrity names. Bringing himself back down to earth, Kurt laughed at his presumption.
No way had Sarah Jessica Parker commented about his musical. It had to be a fake, right?
Ellen Degeneres? GAGA?! No way in hell.
Shutting the laptop with a snap, Kurt turned his attention to the stack of college applications on his desk. He was not going to get caught putting his eggs all in one basket again. He was halfway through an essay on what he'd learned from so much rejection when his phone rang. It was Blaine, who sounded ridiculously excited.
"Oh my God, Kurt turn on MSNBC. Turn it on now, hurry!"
Tucking the phone into his shoulder, Kurt tuned to that channel to see Rachel Maddow's cheerful face. He wasn't surprised that Blaine had called; as an out lesbian, a liberal, and once having had nice things to say about his dad's election, she was probably his and Blaine's favorite newsperson.
"Is she going to talk about Dad again?" he asked, wondering if he should run and get Carol.
"Shhh!" Blaine hissed in his ear, "Just wait!"
Rachel finished a segment on the elections, and then shifted to a frequent popular segment of the show: her 'Awesome New Thing in the World Today.'
"I'm sure some of you remember last year, when I did a segment on Ohio Congressmen Burt Hummel. Proud dad of an out teenager he raised by himself, and all around no nonsense guy who get's things done, he was my pick for 'Awesome New Person in Congress.' Now, as it turns out, Hummel Jr. is just as awesome. If you've been on twitter or tumblr the last few days, you've probably already seen this. If you haven't I highly suggest you watch it. It's a musical called 'Glee' written by Kurt Hummel, and if you were one of the 99% who were less than popular in high school, well, this one's for you. It's funny and touching and full of catchy tunes, but more importantly it reminds us that if we choose to, we can really see the people around us, that not seeing them is how things like bullying flourish. It reminded me of all the times I felt invisible, and how much that shaped me. It's a great musical with a great message and it's my 'Awesome New Thing in the World Today."
The show went to commercial.
Kurt numbly turned off the TV. "Blaine, my musical was just featured on a major cable news network."
Blaine sounded awed, "She just showed your musical. She JUST SHOWED YOUR MUSICAL! Oh my god, oh crap my parents are calling me, my dad must have seen that, oh, hang on, I love you so much, I'll call you in a sec, ok?"
Kurt must have replied in the affirmative, because suddenly Blaine was gone and his phone was ringing off the hook. He heard the phone ring downstairs and knew it was his dad.
Ignoring his phone, he went over to his laptop and opened it, refreshing the screen.
78,497 hits. 45,321 likes. Over a thousand comments. Kurt gave a small, secret smile and hugged himself.
This? Was the OPPOSITE of rejection.
********************
Rachel Berry was having a strange day.
Of course, her classes were going wonderfully, even if the professors and other students seemed to consistently overlook her talent. It was terribly frustrating that she hadn’t tested out of freshman dance or choir or composition, considering how accomplished she was. But the registrar insisted that all students were required to take what they called the 'freshman core' so that they could be broken of bad habits and everyone brought to a level playing field.
Even more humiliating to be criticized on her breath control and phrasing! She'd just left a session with her tutor who'd told her she'd never get anywhere if she didn't learn to sing with subtlety. 'Not every song begins and ends at 10, Miss Berry. Try controlling that giant voice of yours, and then we'll have something to work with.'
Still, she WAS Rachel Berry and she strode around campus with her head held high. No one here was better than her, some had more training, but she'd catch up, and then she'd show then what true stardom was.
She slipped through the campus cafe to grab a vegan muffin before her next class, glancing longingly at the students gathered in noisy groups around the tiny tables. Next year that would be her and Kurt and Blaine, doing impromptu vocal exercises and arguing the virtues of Les Mis verses Phantom. Of course they'd both be freshman to her sophomore, but she'd have so much to teach them, helping them avoid the pitfalls she'd already stepped in. Besides, she wasn't LONELY, she was BUSY.
Yes, freshman year was just too busy to waste on forging friendships.
She was about to leave when it happened again... she could swear she heard her old glee club singing... was she really that nostalgic?
No, wait, that was Blaine's voice, and he'd never sung 'Don't Stop Believing' with them... except in Kurt's musical...
Looking around, she spotted several seniors huddled around a laptop. She recognized some of them as the best seniors, one a classically trained operatic soprano, another so gifted on the violin he had played at the White House. They were the best of NYADA, the one teachers pointed out in class... look how Jeanette sings so softly but still projects, observe Will's posture as he does that step-ball-change. They are the best because even the basics are scrutinized and executed with precision.
She finally got close enough to see and hear what they were doing. On the screen was 'Glee,' Kurt's musical.
And they were talking about performing it.
"It's perfect... we said we couldn't do a single musical for our senior recital because we won't get credit for small roles and there are only so many leads to go around. But there are no small roles in this musical, that's the whole theme of it," one of the girls said, gesturing at the screen where Kurt was singing 'Still Got Tonight' as the glee teacher.
"Jeanette's right," one of the boys, a fabulous baritone, agreed. "This way we get to do one unified musical and we all get credit. It'll be the first senior recital ever that doesn't look and sound like a variety show."
"So we should email this kid, see if he'll give us permission. It's already on the news, we want to get the okay before a producer gets a hold of him and it enters into contract," Will grinned. "Besides, I kind of want to meet a nineteen-year-old who could write something like this. Could be a good contact to have, starting out."
Jeanette wrinkled her nose at him, "For you or for him?"
The seniors laughed as they gathered their things, getting up to leave. Will flipped his hand at the tiny soprano, "Like you didn't just spend an hour imagining yourself originating the role of 'Sarah' on Broadway."
Jeanette stuck her tongue out at him, prompting more laughter from the seniors. The exited the cafe as a group, none of them noticing Rachel Berry frozen by the table they'd left behind.
********************
After the segment on Rachel Maddow's show, things started happening very quickly. Kurt was fairly certain he'd had at least two phone conversations with everyone he'd ever met (and a few he hadn't) in the last few days. Oddly enough it had been Blaine's father who suggested that Kurt needed to find a lawyer first thing, and had gotten a referral for a top notch entertainment lawyer from the NY branch of his firm. Blaine had just shrugged and told Kurt to go with it when asked, clearly as puzzled as everyone else by his dad's sudden interest in Kurt.
Kurt joked that it was obviously because now he could keep Blaine in the lifestyle to which he'd become accustomed.
Carol took a leave of absence from the hospital and Burt arrived back from Washington with an intern in tow to help sort through all the calls, letters, and offers arriving daily.
At the lawyer's suggestion they got written permission from everyone who'd been in the musical for their performances to be seen on TV, and from Mercedes for the use of her song 'Hell to the No.' Mercedes cheerfully agreed after making it clear that she got first crack at playing 'herself' in any major productions.
The best thing was, it was clear that a major production was just what people had in mind when contacting Kurt. Even NYADA (or some seniors there) had asked for permission to do the play. Kurt again took his new lawyer's advice, allowing the production as long as no profit was made and no recordings of it were made for public exhibition or uploaded onto the internet. Kurt had smiled for hours at the thought that NYADA hadn't wanted him, but wanted his play.
Beyond NYADA, other schools had called, and the production companies! That was the best part! They called to ask to meet Kurt, in LA, NY, Chicago. The Broadway League, the Lincoln Center Company, even Disney.
The lawyer said that companies were so interested because the play was already popular on YouTube. They didn't have to gamble on whether people would like the play, they already knew. It also helped that although they'd have to buy licensing on most of the songs, the audience already knew and liked the music, too. It was much easier to bet money on a sure thing, especially in such a risky economy.
There were television studios, too, and movie producers. It had taken Blaine over an hour to convince Kurt that yes, Baz Luhrmann had actually called. Or, his representative had, asking to meet about a movie of 'Glee.' Representatives of HBO and Showtime had called, talking about television series and how on cable they could 'spend real money and do it right.'
In the end though, Kurt still had Broadway in his heart, so he politely declined movie and television deals and set out to meet with the NY companies.
He was going to be in New York next week anyway, to be on Good Morning America. They'd called after a piece in the Columbus Herald had laid out Kurt's entire story: the bullying and death threat, his Dad's heart attack and subsequent successful run for Congress, coming out, being crowned prom queen, losing the school play and the student council election, and finally being rejected from performing arts school only to write an amazing musical from the pain of those experiences.
That article was when the whole thing blew up. Especially in hard times like these, people loved an underdog beating everyone in the end, and that was what this was. It was playing out as a story of perseverance and hope in the face of continuous rejection and tremendous odds.
The idea that somehow, someway, hard work will pay off is pretty much exactly what Americans wanted to hear these days.
So Kurt found himself on his way to NY with his parents, Blaine, and lawyer in tow.
But first, he sat down and hand wrote a thank you note to Rachel Maddow, for her help in bringing attention to his musical and turning his life around.
tbc....