Idina Menzel Reprising Role as Rachel Berry's Mom on Glee

USMagazine, Monday, July 18, 2011, 7:45am (PDT)

While Lea Michele, Cory Monteith and Chris Colfer will be on their way out during Glee's upcoming third season, one other cast member will sticking around for a while.

Deadline.com reports Idina Menzel -- who was introduced to Gleeks in season 1 as Rachel Berry's mom -- is set to return to the song-and-dance series for a major arc this fall.

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"I'm really excited the that Idina is joining the family again," Glee co-creator Ryan Murphy told Deadline. "We missed her last year and we're happy that she is coming back."

The 40-year-old Broadway vet's role as Shelby Corcoran, the coach of rival glee club Vocal Adrenaline who left town after adopting Puck and Quinn's baby, is said to be the only major casting addition this season. When the new episodes resume, Corcoran will return to Ohio as McKinley High's newest teacher, complicating things for her daughter, Rachel (Michele).

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Earlier this month, Murphy announced plans for Michele, Monteith and Colfer's characters to graduate at the end of season 3 and leave the series.

"You can keep them on the show for six years and people will criticize you for not being realistic," Murphy told The Hollywood Reporter, "or you can be really true to life and say when they started the show they were very clearly sophomores and they should graduate at the end of their senior year."

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Though he won't reveal the rest of the cast's fate until the Sept. 20 premiere, Murphy warns: "More characters are leaving than are staying."

By Allison Corneau for Us Weekly. For more Channel Surfing, click here.

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