{alltv} Matthew Morrison breaks out of 'Glee' club

WEST HOLLYWOOD, Calif. — Matthew Morrison is more than Mr. Schue.

He had a Tony-nominated Broadway career before he took the role of Spanish teacher, glee-club adviser and McKinley High's reigning adult figure Will Schuester on Fox teen-musical smash Glee.

Now Morrison is a solo recording artist as well. His first album, Matthew Morrison (Mercury Records), hits stores Tuesday, and he has rolled out some high-powered duets —Elton John, Sting and Gwyneth Paltrow— to help send the album on its way. He'll follow with a national tour starting June 18.

"I wanted to let people in on who I am," Morrison says of the album. "I feel I'm so associated with the show now. I've done so many parts before the show, but this is what everyone knows me as."

He knows Glee (Tuesday, 8 ET/PT) has been a golden opportunity that has raised his pop-culture profile, but he wants to establish his own identity. "I have to start now and start early in the process," he says. "Glee will be done eventually, and I will want to move on and do my own thing. At the same time, I think there's going to be a lot more exposure" because of the series.

Morrison, 32, sits to talk about his album, show and career over lunch at the Sunset Marquis Hotel, where he's staying after rats invaded his home. (He caught two.) He wears a plaid shirt and jeans, a cap covering the thick wavy hair that has almost become its own Glee character.

He's working on two hours of sleep after a long day of filming and radio interviews, and he has an evening performance — complete with ukulele — at a UCLA cancer-treatment benefit looming ahead. He orders a cheeseburger, salad and fries, an odd choice for a guy who recently showed off six-pack abs in a cover photo for Details magazine. Running 30 miles a week gives him some diet leeway.

"I look at that photo and I see someone who's starving," he says. "I had a month to prepare for that. I worked out all the time. I'm a huge runner. Running has been almost my savior."

Music must be a candidate, too. Morrison is especially excited about the tour, which will give him a chance to sing and dance before live audiences. What they and album buyers will hear, as Morrison describes it, is a "classic, timeless sound" that mixes eras. "I have more of a throwback voice, like a Dino or a Sinatra." He calls his style "Bub-lake," a nod to Michael Bublé contemporized in the manner of Justin Timberlake.

"His voice crosses over to all ages," says Glee guest Kristin Chenoweth, herself a Broadway star. "I can't wait for him to go on tour and let people see Matthew Morrison and not just Will Schuester. There's so much more people will see on stage."

On the album, Morrison tries out songwriting for the first time, working with such writers as Marc Shaiman, Claude Kelly, the duo Espionage, JC Chasez and American Idol Kris Allen. Songs cover a range of his experiences, from a passionate encounter on a New York rooftop (Summer Rain) to a romantic breakup (It's Over) to a consideration of his own identity (My Name).

'Natural-born performer'

Shaiman, who wrote It's Over with Morrison, says he's "an old-fashioned quadruple threat. There's singing, dancing, acting, and he's a natural-born performer," he says. "He came to our writing sessions with a notebook full of lyrics or ideas for lyrics. He definitely had been thinking about this for a long time."

With Rain, Morrison says, "Everybody's like, 'Oh, Mr. Schuester likes to have sex in public.' But for me, it was like a memory burn of a great moment I had in my early 20s with my girlfriend at the time. We were on a roof and it was a hot, summer day, and a beautiful rain started. We ran to go inside but didn't quite make it inside. The moment took us."

Working with John (a Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters/Rocket Man medley), Sting (Let Your Soul Be Your Pilot) and Glee guest Paltrow (a version of Over the Rainbow) was a big bonus. John let him choose from his extensive oeuvre — "anything but Crocodile Rock," Morrison says. "It was such a wild experience. It wasn't until three days later I thought, 'Oh, my God, I recorded with Elton John.' "

Morrison approached Paltrow after they became friends on Glee, where she played a love interest. That isn't the only benefit of working with her on the show: "I get to make out with Gwyneth Paltrow. Why wouldn't I enjoy that? It's a good day at the office."

Morrison is a product and advocate of the kind of arts education espoused by Glee. As a youngster, a summer of children's theater gave him the acting bug. He got involved in school arts programs in California's Orange County and was inspired by dancers such as Patrick Swayze and Gene Kelly.

After high school, Morrison moved to New York to attend the Tisch School of the Arts. When he first arrived, "I remember we couldn't afford to go to a Broadway show, so we used to sneak into them," he says.

By 19, he was in his first Broadway show, Footloose. Other prominent musicals followed, including Hairspray, in which he played Link Larkin; The Light in the Piazza, for which he received a Tony nomination; and South Pacific, which he left to take on Glee.

Bart Sher, who directed Piazza and Pacific, calls Morrison "truly one of the best of a generation" on Broadway. "He plays the romantic lead beautifully. His acting skills are so high, he draws the audience to him; he has a lot of confidence on stage. He's sort of ridiculous. We miss him."

Sher says Morrison has "the most beautiful pure tenor you could ever want to hear," but it's his acting skill that gives depth to his performances. Says Chenoweth: "Mr. Schue is a great part, but it's definitely the straight man to everybody — and he makes him stand out. So he's pretty special."

On Glee, Morrison's Schuester is a nice guy who has the best interests of his students at heart. He says he modeled Schuester on a couple of his favorite teachers.

Jane Lynch, who plays Schuester's nemesis, scheming Cheerios coach Sue Sylvester, sees a parallel. "He's good-hearted and extremely compassionate. Any time I get petty or gossipy around him, I always feel bad because he's not that guy," she says. When the show started, "he was kind of to himself. Over the months, we've become very good friends. It took a while for me to get in there, and he's the best guy in the world. He feels his way around first. He's a really substantial person."

Jayma Mays, who plays Glee'sguidance counselor (and yet another romantic interest), Emma Pillsbury, says Morrison "really sets the tone for the cast and the crew. (He's) so focused and always ready to work and just so generous with his time. He's happy to run lines (with other actors) the whole time between shots."

But he's not Mr. Schuester. Shaiman says Morrison has a mischievous streak and isn't quite as clean-cut; Chenoweth describes him as "a big goofball and very funny." His humor can go a bit off-color, Lynch says, "which will keep me coming back."

Morrison feels he differs in one big way: "After high school, he never really had the confidence and courage to go after his dream. ... I knew what I wanted."

Morrison takes pride in Glee, but having the show become a phenomenon cuts both ways. "More people saw me in the first episode of Glee than in my entire career on Broadway," he says. "There's a lot to be said for that."

He's happy Glee came along when he was in his 30s and better prepared to handle the crush of attention. But there's a downside. "It's a tricky thing," he says. "When people read this and they say he's not grateful for what he has, I am. But I'm such a loner, a private person. It's taken a toll on my life ... in terms of privacy."

'My plate is pretty full'

He doesn't enjoy the paparazzi or the fact that he can't go out to dinner with a friend without whispers of a relationship. That happened with Paltrow.

"It's ridiculous," he says. "We have become friends, and now it's almost like I feel awkward going to dinner with her, because then it's something else. I was in London recently and we had dinner, and suddenly it's a big thing."

Right now, he doesn't have time for any woman in his life.

"I'm really just focused on a lot I want to accomplish, and my plate is pretty full," he says. "I don't feel I have the time to give to have a proper relationship."

Morrison says he's "always been known on Broadway as the first to leave the show."

But he rejects a rumor that he wanted to leave Glee, saying he's with it for the long haul. At the same time, he's always looking for a new creative outlet. "I'm an actor, and I want a good place where I get to express myself," he says. "This is an amazing opportunity, but at the same time, I'm dying to do something else to feed me artistically."

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