If the “Grey’s Anatomy” musical episode, “Songs Beneath the Song” would have been limited solely to performances by Sara Ramirez, it would have been a musical hard to top; however, many other members of the cast also took part in performing different songs.
The musical episode was hardly a failure. Many of the actors were actually decent singers and could hold their own, but Ramirez, who has starred on Broadway and won a Tony award for her performance in “Spamalot,” stole the show.
The previous week’s episode ended in a car wreck in which Dr. Callie Torres, (Ramirez) who is pregnant with Dr. Mark Sloane’s (Eric Dane) baby, while she is dating Dr. Arizona Robbins (Jessica Capshaw), was thrown through the windshield.
The episode began with Callie lying face down on the hood of the car, clinging to life as she had an out of body experience in which the Callie who was observing broke in a rendition of the show’s theme song, setting the tone for the musical episode.
When I first heard that “Grey’s Anatomy” was coming out with a musical episode I was extremely skeptical; however, the show has been going on for so long that it has almost run out of ways to make dramatic situations as entertaining as they used to be; therefore, having a musical episode not only added to the intensity of the doctors of Seattle Grace trying to save Callie, but it also added a much needed spark to the show.
“Grey’s Anatomy” developed a unique way of handling an extremely emotional and dramatic episode, and it seemed like the entire show would be dramatic with various cast members breaking out into random depressing songs until halfway through, Dr. Owen Hunt (Kevin McKidd) showcased his not-so-good voice by beginning a cheesy rendition of “Running on Sunshine.”
When McKidd began singing “How to Save a Life,” a song which “Grey’s” made famous, and then the other cast members joined in, it was a definite fail.
A lot of the songs in the episode are from previous episodes where the songs were used during emotional or intense moments, such as “How to Save a Life” and “Chasing Cars.” Ramirez began singing an incredible version of “Chasing Cars” which was completely flushed down the toilet when McKidd joined in for a duet.
Jessica Capshaw (Dr. Robbins), Chandra Wilson (Dr. Bailey), Justin Chambers (Dr. Karev) and Sarah Drew (Dr. Kepner) all had decent singing voices while McKidd and Chyler Leigh (Dr. Lexie Grey) stood out as two of the cast’s worst singers, even on auto tune.
In the end, the musical episode wasn’t a disappointment and added a new flare to “Grey’s Anatomy” that fans haven’t seen before. The style of the show and the drama it is famous for portraying wasn’t lost and we were left wondering until the very end whether Callie and her baby were going to survive or not.
The musical episode was capped off by Ramirez’ performance of “I was Made for You,” which was absolutely incredible and showcased just how amazing of a singer she really is. I firmly believe that the one and only reason “Grey’s Anatomy” was able to pull of a musical episode that wasn’t terrible was because of Sara Ramirez.
