Parents of tween ‘Gleeks’ keep hands on pause button

May 20, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

Associated Press

NEW YORK

“OK,” went the e-mail that circulated among parents recently at a New York City elementary school. “Is ‘everyone’ in the fifth grade REALLY watching ‘Glee’?”

A discussion ensued: To Glee or not to Glee?

At issue wasn’t the quality of the hugely popular Fox series about a high-school glee club, which in just its first season has won a Golden Globe, seen its cast perform at the White House, launched a national concert tour, and is, to hear many tell it, approaching the status of a minipop culture phenomenon.

The question, rather: Is “Glee” just too racy for the tweens who love it?

It’s a dilemma, and not just because it’s hard to fight with one’s offspring. “Glee,” which kids love for its infectious musical numbers — a few critics call them overproduced or sloppily lip-synched, but let’s not be grumpy about it, because “Glee” is the very antithesis of grump — has an upbeat, inclusive message that recalls the “High School Musical” films.

But this ain’t no “High School Musical.” For where those rosy-cheeked Disney Channel films barely contained a kiss on the lips, “Glee” has sex. And teen pregnancy. It tackles issues of homosexuality and losing one’s virginity, and one scene showed a character, well, ejaculating in a hot tub.

So what’s a parent of a tween “gleek” — as fans call themselves — to do?

For Scott Bienstock, the answer is to keep his hand nervously on the pause button, ever at the ready to order his 9-year-old daughter and 13-year-old son to close their eyes.

“It’s pretty uncomfortable,” says Bienstock, a sales representative in New York. That hot tub scene particularly unnerved him, and he thinks some of the numbers can be a little provocative. But his kids and his wife, Ruth, love the show so much that he has given up the fight.

“They look forward to it every week,” he says. “I feel like I’m being a prude.”

Besides, let’s face it — it’s hard not to like the show. It would be hard even if you didn’t enjoy the songs performed by the charismatic young cast, led by Matthew Morrison and Lea Michele, who both cut their teeth on Broadway. Or the wisecracks of the hilariously nasty coach Sue Sylvester, played to the hilt by veteran comic actress Jane Lynch.

Because at a time when the ugliness of high-school bullying is in the news, with tragic stories of kids victimized because they’re different, this show preaches that it’s OK to be nerdy in high school.

Or to love Broadway show tunes instead of football in high school. Or to be gay in high school — one story line features a gay student, Kurt, who sings Broadway diva songs like “Rose’s Turn” from “Gypsy” and came out to his father after getting the entire football team to perform Beyonc ’s “Single Ladies” on the field. (Long story.)

Morrison, who plays the glee club adviser Will Schuester, says that when the show began, he figured it was targeted to the “High School Musical” demographic.

It’s been stunning to see how much broader the appeal has been, he says.