Glee in NYC

First of all, this is my 500th post! Holy cow, I talk a lot. Thanks for listening to me for 500-posts-worth of rambling! You guys are awesome!

And now for the post at hand, my 500th...

WARNING: If you are a Glee fan, and don't want any spoilers about the upcoming season finale (even so much as costumes), this post is not for you!

If you're still with me, get ready for lots o' pictures!

Last week, on top of all our NFL fun, we had some major celebrity stalking to do. One of my most favorite current shows, Glee, was filming their season finale in New York City all week! I had been hoping that when finale filming time came, there would be lots of Glee-sighting opportunities, and that was certainly the case. I didn't even get to see them all five days they were in town, but through the magic of the internet (largely Twitter and OnLocationVacations.com), I was able to keep a close eye on the Gleeks.

These No Parking signs are always the first clue that something will be filming nearby. In the case of Glee, they just listed the project title as "Untitled 20th Century Fox Project." You're not fooling anybody, Fox!

Eric got the stalking underway last Monday, when Glee was filming the first of their New York scenes on the red TKTS steps in Times Square. He was so sweet and took a long lunch to go check things out, while I took care of business at home and spied on the filming via Times Square Live Webcam. As we watched, the girls of Glee (well, except Mercedes and Santana) filmed a song and dance number on the steps while many of the others (the boys) hung out below. It was so much fun to watch them do take after take! So much work goes into the whole thing. Good for all of them!

The girls in between takes on the red steps

Left to right: Dianna Agron ("Quinn"), Jenna Ushkowitz ("Tina"), Heather Morris ("Brittany"), Lea Michele ("Rachel"), and Ashley Fink ("Lauren")

Lea Michele, Heather Morris, Jenna Ushkowitz and Dianna Agron look down at fans from the top of the red steps

Kevin McHale ("Artie") hanging out at ground level

Jenna Ushkowitz is in the green jacket in front, with Harry Shum, Jr. ("Mike") in the red plaid jacket, hanging out with Chris Colfer ("Kurt") in the fabulous hat and Ashley Fink

Eric was also able to catch some of the cast going to and from their trailers in between takes, as well as Cory Monteith ("Finn") and Mark Salling ("Puck") shopping for hats in Lids during a break!

Heather Morris (green jacket) heading to her trailer

Mark Salling and Cory Monteith shopping in Lids

Yummy.

Lea Michele (and security) heading back to the set after a stop in her trailer

From there, the Glee cast went over to the Gershwin Theater (home of Wicked) for more filming and a photo-op with Mayor Bloomberg. We didn't catch sight of them there, unfortunately. It was one of those times I was kicking myself for having moved to Hoboken - the Gershwin Theater is just blocks from our former home on W. 54th Street. If we were still living there, I would have caught them for sure!

On Tuesday, Glee hit Central Park, starting with a "Finchel" scene filming on one of the bridges. Spoiler alert? It was sort of a romantic setting (I didn't see it myself, but I saw many photos), so perhaps those crazy kids will get back together yet.

They then moved over to the Mall for another song and dance number with the full cast. I was working on getting over there after running some errands, so before I could make it, Eric went for me (is he not the sweetest?) and got some great shots of the cast gathering at their trailers and walking over to the set together.

Dianna Agron going to her trailer

Love the butt ruffle on Naya Rivera's ("Santana") dress!

Lea Michele and Kevin McHale walking arm-in-arm to the set

(Also in this photo: Harry Shum, Chris Colfer, Dianna Agron and Cory Monteith)

A super flattering photo of Chord Overstreet ("Sam"), with Amber Riley ("Mercedes") obscured behind him (in the plaid hat) and Ashley Fink behind her

Ahsley Fink and Naya Rivera

Mark Salling, Jenna Ushkowitz, Dianna Agron, Chris Colfer

Finally I arrived and relieved Eric of his duties. He gave me some good tips for where to get the best views, so armed with our nice camera (all the rest of these pictures were taken with our point-and-shoot), I staked out the situation. They had lots of space along the Mall blocked off, and there was no real way to get a good shot of the filming up close and personal. I settled in along a path near the Mall and watched the best I could. They were filming another dance scene, complete with balloons and NYPD on horses behind them!

The best view I could get: just tons of people lining the Mall. I could catch a few glimpses of the cast here and there, but nothing worthwhile for photos.

This is obviously not my photo (found it via Twitter), but this shows you what they were filming!

VIDEO: Quick and far-off view of the kids dancing down the Mall with balloons in hand

I eventually gave up trying to get a good view of filming from a distance, and instead camped out by the entrance to their trailers. It was there that I struck up a conversation with a member of the crew who asked me if I had gotten any good pictures. I told him not yet, I just got there, and he told me earlier the cast had posed for pictures with fans, but after this scene they were moving on so I probably wouldn't have another chance for that. Bummer! He asked where I was from, and I told him I live locally. He was surprised (as apparently most celeb stalkers are tourists?), but I told him I'm just a huge fan of the show. He then said, "oh, well, if you're such a big fan, here's a copy of the draft script from yesterday's scenes."  AH! SCRIPT! Now, let me just say that for all I know this guy was some random crazy that made all this up, or maybe he is for real but this is a "fake script" to throw people off for the finale, or who knows. But what I got looks legit, and doesn't contain anything too crazy, and most of it fits with what we saw being filmed the day before. Take a little peek:

Front page of the script

(click to enlarge)

Sample page of the script

(click to enlarge)

I'm obviously not going to share the whole thing in this post, but I did put it all online here. Check it out if you want to read the rest! The only thing I see in the script that doesn't match what we saw filming is that "Will" (Matthew Morrison) was not yet in NYC when they filmed the Times Square scenes. So, those scenes in the script might have been changed or deleted? But if the rest is accurate, how excited are you to hear Rachel and Kurt sing "For Good" from Wicked?! I loved their dueling "Defying Gravity" numbers, so I am psyched.

After talking to my crew friend, I only had a few more minutes to wait before the cast walked right past me on their way back to their trailers! They all just looked like they were having so much fun.

Lea Michele

Don't they all look so happy?

Cory Monteith, Heather Morris, Kevin McHale

Chris Colfer is my favorite. Costume spoiler alert: not only does he wear a fabulous hat with this purple/black ensemble, he also has a coat with feathers on the shoulders. Feathers! Hat! Purple! Love it.

I hung around a little while longer, as the cast apparently changed into street clothes and then loaded up into vans to leave Central Park. I did a little "creeper in the bushes" stalking before they drove off, and that was that!

Dumb branches are blocking their faces, but this is Chris Colfer (sporting a Chewbacca backpack) and Ashley Fink

Amber Riley leaving her dressing room

Glee spent the rest of the week filming mostly in midtown, with some shots in Washington Square Park, but that's all we saw of them. The night of the draft red carpet we managed to miss Matthew Morrison filming outside a Broadway theater by about one hour - bummer! But, we did see some leftover signs of filming at that theater:

That theater marquis reads "Crossrhodes: The April Rhodes Story"

If you watched this week's episode, you already know that "April Rhodes" (Kristen Chenoweth) is taking her story to Broadway, and she is trying to convince "Mr. Schue" to join her. If he was filming outside "her" theater, what does it all mean? Will he just go see her show to support her? Will he leave McKinley High for the Great White Way? I'm on the edge of my seat!

I just can't wait to see all these things come together in the season finale!

Note: We took far too many pictures of these Glee peoples, so if you want to see even more than I posted here, check out the rest on the photo share site!