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Grey's Anatomy cast to sing in one-off musical episode

Greys Anatomy: Season 6

Story by Jack Foley

THE cast of Grey’s Anatomy are to sing in a forthcoming musical episode of the medical drama, according to creator Shonda Rhimes.

Describing the episode as a “gift to the fans”, Rhimes told TVGuide.com that it will play to the strengths of those cast members who can sing and won’t involve big song and dance routines a la Glee.

“Nobody is going to be dancing and singing down the halls; that’s not our show,” she said. “But our show is known for its music and I very much wanted to do something that was musical without being a musical.”

Hence, the episode will focus upon Sara Ramirez’s Dr Callie Torres, who can sing (and has won a Tony) and may well also feature singer Chandra Wilson (aka Dr. Miranda Bailey) heavily.

Further cast members will also be lending their voices… but not necessarily ones you might expect.

Rhimes elaborated: “You will be very surprised to discover that some people sing quite well. That’s sort of a little gift to the fans, to discover that people who are not necessarily known for singing have pretty great voices. Also, some people won’t be singing because it doesn’t go with the story.”

Dismissing suggestions that the musical episode was inspired by the recent success of Glee, Rhimes also insisted that the inspiration actually stemmed from Buffy The Vampire Slayer‘s musical episode – although the Grey’s Anatomy version will be less of a Broadway kind of musical.

As yet, the plot for the musical hasn’t been fully fleshed out and is in its “very early stages” but Rhimes promises that it “will have a reason” for doing so – even though she also feels nervous about the prospect of finally realising a long-held ambition for the show.

In one final attempt to reassure viewers who may be less than convinced, Rhimes added: “Part of the way I figured out that we could do this was to take the songs that our show has made iconic and have them be sung by our cast members, as opposed to singing Broadway songs or singing some songs by a known artist… We’re simply singing songs that Grey’s Anatomy has made famous.”