‘So You Think You Can Dance’ is back, now with Matthew Morrison
As Matthew Morrison returns to weekly television, and to Fox, he’s filled with a different kind of glee.
The actor widely known as high school “Glee” club adviser “Mr. Schue” launched his career in such stage musicals as “Hairspray” and “South Pacific,” so he knows the importance of dance. Thus, he’s excited about being one of the new judges – along with Jojo Siwa, joining returnee Stephen “twitch” Boss – on “So You Think You Can Dance,” which starts its 17th Fox season Wednesday, May 18 (after two years off because of the coronavirus pandemic). Cat Deeley is back as the program’s host.
“I’m just excited to be someone who can be there to encourage (the dancers) and help them see their potential and their greatness,” says the friendly Morrison, who did a similar stint as a judge on the competition “The Greatest Dancer” in England. “To be perfectly frank, I went there and did that show because I knew no one in America would see it ... but I had the best time doing it, and I just wanted more of it.”
Morrison appreciates how seriously “So You Think You Can Dance” fans take the show because “I’m one of them. I think what I love about it is that you watch these people work so hard. You feel their commitment to their art, and especially with the pandemic, I’m so excited to see what that means with their having been out of the dance studio for a couple of years. They may have sacrificed some of
their technique, so I think this will be a completely different kind of season.”
While musing that he’s “the elder statesman on the panel” – which has been revised to see the exits of series co-creator Nigel Lythgoe, Mary Murphy and others from previous years – Morrison notes that he knows “what it is to be a performer, the pressures and the expectations. I’m there as more of a teammate to these people. I don’t really connect with the word ‘judge,’ so I’m just hoping to help and elevate and evolve these talents.”