Glee Stars Kevin McHale And Jenna Ushkowitz Recall An Embarrassing Dance Number Fail From The Show

Ryan Murphy is known as the mind behind shows like "Nip/Tuck," "American Horror Story," and "Ratched," but out of all the shows in his collection of works, "Glee" might be one of the most bizarre. There were plenty of questionable things that we ignored in "Glee," though in some ways the drama that went on behind the scenes is as interesting as the show itself. With that idea in mind, series stars Kevin McHale and Jenna Ushkowitz have been doing a podcast called "And That's What You REALLY Missed," a title that serves as a cheeky nod to the way the show would summarize the previous episode at the beginning of each installment.

The podcast gives McHale and Ushkowitz a platform to discuss the mechanics behind each episode. Along with the drama happening offstage, the cast members were required to learn the elaborate musical numbers for which the show is known. The latest episode of the podcast, cleverly titled "A Guest Star is Born," explores the Season 1 episode "The Rhodes Not Taken." The installment was exciting to shoot for a number of reasons, though McHale and Ushkowitz revealed how a tricky dance number forced a temporary shutdown on set.

"Glee" featured a star-studded lineup of guest stars, including an early appearance from one of the most iconic figures in musical theater — Kristin Chenoweth. The "Wicked" star played April Rhodes, a former glee club member who has lost her way in life. On the "A Guest Star is Born" episode of their podcast, Kevin McHale and Jenna Ushkowitz reminisced about how excited they were to work with Chenoweth. However, during a scene when April and the glee club sing "Last Name" by Carrie Underwood, the poorly timed application of floor polish made the bottom of their shoes slippery on the stage. When it came time to rehearse the number, the cast members couldn't hide their clumsiness.

"We were messy, Zach (Woodlee, the show's choreographer) wanted to kill us because it makes him look bad. We couldn't keep our lines, it looked amok," Ushkowitz explained at around 5:07 of the episode, remembering that Ryan Murphy was concerned with making Chenoweth look as good as possible. "They took like a pause in the day for us to like, rehearse this number again." Her co-star couldn't help but chime in. "Which was not normal. That did not happen," McHale added. "Time is money."

To add to their embarrassment, the actors recalled that Chenoweth was easily able to master dance moves that took the "Glee" cast weeks of choreography lessons to learn. Despite the minor setback, the issue was fixed and Chenoweth was ultimately nominated for an Emmy Award for her portrayal of April (via IMDb).