“Glee” Season One Fall Finale: “Don’t Rain on My Parade” and the Other Original Performances

Lea Michele was a standout in the season finale of “Glee.”

The season one fall finale of “Glee” was full of showstoppers, including covers of ”And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going” (from the 1981 Broadway musical “Dreamgirls”), ”Don’t Rain on My Parade” (from the 1964 musical “Funny Girl”) and “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” (from the 1969 Rolling Stones album “Let It Bleed”). Speakeasy will post a complete recap of the show once we come down from the sugar high of watching it.

Lea Michele was a standout with her version of “Don’t Rain on My Parade.” Her Broadway chops–she co-starred in the musical “Spring Awakening”–were on full display. She understands how to act a song, and not just sing it. She also really sells a number to an audience even as she seems to be internalizing the emotions of the lyrics. Some singers can do one or the other and be very good; very few can do both.

As usual, when “Glee” was over, Speakeasy raced to the Web to watch some of the original numbers.

Tell us what you thought of the “Glee” performances in the comments section. Were they better than the originals?

You can watch Barbra Streisand’s version of “Don’t Rain on My Parade” here.

Here’s the Rolling Stones performing “You Can’t Always Get What You Want.”

And here’s Jennifer Holliday singing ”And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going.” ( Jennifer Hudson’s version is excellent too.)