Smile the Musical

[aja]

Posted: 3/27/12 at 7:24pm

Anyone know where I might be able to find a recording of this show? I can't locate a cast album anywhere on Amazon and would like to hear the music if possible. Even any useful youtube links would help. Thanks!

[sondhead]

Posted: 3/27/12 at 7:32pm

You can get a demo of the licensed version from Samuel French. There is also a complete demo of an earlier draft of the show on the publicly available "Howard Sings Ashman."

[TxTwoStep]

Posted: 3/28/12 at 6:03pm

there are also at least a few covers out there of DISNEYLAND and IN OUR HANDS....some of the songs appear in the UNSUNG BROADWAY series and the other one, maybe it was called CUT IN BOSTON or some such...

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 3/28/12 at 6:18pm

Unsung Musicals has Disneyland (sung by Jodi like on stage) and the title song I know. I believe they have another song (that Spanish one?)

[bk]

Posted: 3/29/12 at 2:33am

Unsung Musicals has three songs from Smile - DIsneyland, In Our Hands, and the title song. Unsung Musicals II or III has Maria's Song - so that's four fully orchestrated numbers from the show. Disneyland, of course, is sung by its original singer, Jodi Benson.

[newintown]

Posted: 3/29/12 at 10:45am

Bruce, I utterly adore the Lost in Boston and Unsung Musicals series, and wished they would go on ad infinitum.

But I have to say that the songs from Smile represented, although arranged and performed as well as they could ever possibly be, show how weak this score really is. I suspect that Ashman was not in good health and was putting out inferior work.

"Maria's Song," for instance, is just a pointless, unfunny, semi-racist list song - just a series of Latin foods that tells us nothing and isn't even vaguely amusing. The title song is a one-dimensional peppy tune about looking pretty and smiling; it doesn't tell us anything about the story or situation - it's like a throw-back to a lesser 40's show, when the showgirls would come down to the footlights and screech out a song that had nothing to do with the story, but showed off their racks and legs.

I know the show went through tortuous revisions and no one was ever entirely happy with any version of it, but I can't help thinking that this quirky/dark narrative deserved more than the glossy and empty treatment it eventually got.

[broadwaypunk06]

Posted: 3/29/12 at 10:58am

Aja pm me!

[Markecib]

Posted: 3/29/12 at 2:12pm

I saw a high school perform this show a few weeks ago. What awful material it is. The songs and plot do not make sense anywhere. The ending was awful as it made no sense. It was the first time I thought the talent in the cast was way better than the material.

[Ed_Mottershead]

Posted: 3/29/12 at 3:49pm

Saw it in previews -- one of the most God-awful things I've ever seen. Only pleasant memory I have is that Helen Hayes was in the audience and I got her autograph after the show.

[TxTwoStep]

Posted: 3/29/12 at 3:57pm

i enjoy some of the songs and the concept of the show, and for academicians, it's rare you have a show with that many female leads and features. i'd love to see it revised, and i think there has been some inroads toward that within memory, i just haven't tracked them.

[tazber]

Posted: 3/29/12 at 5:48pm

I love Hamlisch, but this is not a very good score.

I like Disneyland (although it's not on par with some of his other work) and Tomorrow Night is rousing when fully orchestrated. Otherwise it's kind of boring and bland.

The best song is Bob's Song, which I believe was cut altogether.

[TxTwoStep]

Posted: 3/29/12 at 6:10pm

i was at a convention with William Ivey Long in the midst of the previews, and he dropped some choice stories about how uncollaborative the team was apparently...what a shame. As schmaltzy as it is, i really like IN OUR HANDS too. i don't think i've heard Bobby's song...but something about it rings true as being interesting.

[darquegk]

Posted: 3/29/12 at 6:59pm

Bob's song is included in the "revised" licensed version, which is allegedly enormously different than the version that played Broadway.

One of my friends is often quoted in conversations about the show as having said "Smile did it first, but Putnam County Spelling Bee did the same thing better."

[jv92]

Posted: 3/29/12 at 7:16pm

"i was at a convention with William Ivey Long in the midst of the previews, and he dropped some choice stories about how uncollaborative the team was apparently"


Well, Hamlisch always seemed/seems uncollaborative, and Ashman, God rest his soul, was a control freak. Not a surprise.

[bk]

Posted: 3/29/12 at 9:16pm

""Maria's Song," for instance, is just a pointless, unfunny, semi-racist list song - just a series of Latin foods that tells us nothing and isn't even vaguely amusing. The title song is a one-dimensional peppy tune about looking pretty and smiling; it doesn't tell us anything about the story or situation - it's like a throw-back to a lesser 40's show, when the showgirls would come down to the footlights and screech out a song that had nothing to do with the story, but showed off their racks and legs."

Some like, some don't. Horse racing :) I'm very fond of a lot of it, and not so fond of some of it. Maria's Song is just a list song sung by the character as part of her "talent" presentation - I think it works in that regard, but I can understand why you don't like it. Similarly, the title song is sung by the host (ala Bert Parks) of the beauty pageant. It's not designed to do anything but function as a show within a show number. That's a little weird but that's its function.

[Almira]

Posted: 3/29/12 at 9:30pm

I'm an unadulterated admirer of SMILE.

Think its power is in its almost savage examination of white Americans sense of exceptional-ism.

As for Maria's Song: I feel it is one of the most brilliant parts of the score.

I'm of latino descent myself, and at first I thought was semi-racist too.. but then I realized Maria is sharp and very savvy. She is playing the game better than the white girls. She anticipates every hispanic stereotype that the white judges are likely to associate with her culture and plays them up in an exaggerated way to to make them feel comfortable enough to vote for her. She also uses it distinguish herself from the other girls - ya gotta have gimmick. She is in it to WIN and we get to see what happens when entitled whites get threatened by smart ambitious latino women.

The songs says more about what white people think of Mexicans than it says about Mexicans.

Brilliant.

Updated On: 3/29/12 at 09:30 PM

[darquegk]

Posted: 3/29/12 at 11:10pm

I've never actually HEARD the show in its actually orchestrated form... I find it hard to imagine the sound of the score removed from the MoogSynth heavy concept recording/revision demo.

What are the orchestrations like?

[best12bars]

Posted: 3/30/12 at 9:30am

Almira--you absolutely nailed it about Maria's song. I saw "Smile" on Broadway, and what most people can't get from listening to the score is the context and staging for these songs.

I remember when I first opened my Playbill before the show started and scanned through the musical numbers. It was clearly going to be musical with a non-traditional structure. Many of the songs were in montages (think Hello, Twelve) that propelled the story forward in an encompassing scene. Songs like "Smile" and "Shine" covered periods of time where the choreographer taught the girls how to sing and dance. What started out as a rehearsal ended with a fully costumed production number. Things were happening on the sidelines and behind the scenes (on stage) that you would never get from pulling the songs out of context.

Howard Ashman's staging was key to all the musical numbers, and I thought he did a hell of a good job.

I think its power is in its almost savage examination of white Americans sense of exceptional-ism.

Almira---that's exactly what I got from it when I saw the show. It was biting, satirical, and very funny. God forbid anyone decides to stage this show with a "serious" or "genuine" tone to it as if these girls were "real" or "sincere." That would be horrendous, and horrendously off of what the original intention was (as written and directed by Ashman and Hamlisch).

It would be like a "genuinely sincere" production of How To Succeed or Grease.

I'll even say this ... for those of you who've seen the bootleg DVD, it doesn't do the show justice. A lot of the satire was in the subtleties, which are completely lost on this fuzzy tape/disc.

Updated On: 3/30/12 at 09:30 AM

[sondhead]

Posted: 3/30/12 at 9:42am

Glad some supporters showed up for the show. I heard the Sam French demo years ago and really fell in love with the score. When I got ahold of the [licensed] script and read it, I had never read a script before so compelling. It is IMO expertly written and very tightly constructed, although I would never expect anything less from Howard Ashman. Say what you want about his ability to be a control freak, one should look no further than Little Shop of Horrors to see that he was an incredibly gifted and economic book writer.

I suppose we could agree to disagree about the merits of the book and/or score, but I can tell you the ending definitely makes sense. I can also say that most of the negative comments about the show above are uneducated and uninformed--a High School production is not a good source to judge a work's merits from, and judging the title number for not being a story moving song shows blatant ignorance of that songs context and use within the show.

I will say that I've seen the Lincoln Center Archive of the Broadway version and I quite enjoyed it, though I understand why it flopped. The material is MUCH weaker than what is currently licensed. Interestingly enough, having done quite a bit of background research into Smile, the currently licensed version is almost 99% Howard's first draft. It was changed and changed on the road to Broadway until what played there was not really what he had in mind to begin with, and it showed. I think Producers weren't digging what they were doing and they were pressured to make changes they shouldn't have made, but who knows. For what its worth, I think the "revised" (original) version could play Broadway today and would be much more successful, at least artistically.

The bottom line is--it is not fair to judge a shows materials when you don't actually know them. Not everyone may be as big a fan of me, but it's also very clear that many people have made a snap judgement from knowing the show was a flop and listening to one or two numbers recorded as a low-budget demo.

[Almira]

Posted: 3/30/12 at 4:17pm

The show is hard for a mainstream audience to accept. It really hits hard at how white Americans see themselves and how all Americans have to lie to themselves to keep the illusion up.

SMILE works when we can see the ugliness and savagery behind each "smile".

As our position in the world changes and our understanding of ourselves changes, SMILE is looking painfully prophetic

Anne Bobby reflects -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2pegPxvBYD8

Updated On: 3/30/12 at 04:17 PM

[TxTwoStep]

Posted: 3/30/12 at 6:33pm

did NOT know it was at Lincoln Center...next trip to NYC i'm all over that. Thanks for the tip.