NBC's SMASH - Series & Broadway Adaptation Thread — Page 16

double post.

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Updated On: 2/14/12 at 09:56 PM

Owen...wasn't RAGTIME based on a book? There would have already been a story. Here, they are writing songs to have "a baseball number" etc. I'm surprised that there is not a character as the book writer, or is that supposed to be Messing?

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Erinrebecca and randomperson, I went to Brandeis... we had specific tracks within the general theater arts major, so Messing was probably on the musical theater track.

bwaylvsong, she wasn't on an MT track at Brandeis. Although she'd participated in musicals in high school, she has always said that she was interested in acting first and foremost. This is what she focussed on in undergrad and then in an MFA at Tisch.

somethingwicked, thank you for your remarks on the producers and their divorce. I have a sense the show is throwing everything at the wall to see what sticks.

Maybe that's why those who have seen future episodes say the show picks up in episode 4.

I do. But not for that.

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Namo, you're right. It just rubbed me the wrong way I guess.

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[skip if you hate long posts]
I wanna love this! Not just be amused by the (well done) production numbers and good acting. It really is playing it too safe--it should have been on cable (but really--this is 10pm drama...)

For a 10pm drama, it honestly doesn't have any bite (the mean characters--Anjelica's husband who seems to exist just so he acan say something cliche and she can throw a drink on him and we applaud--and the smarmy director, who actually now doesn't even seem all that mean or all that complex). While backstage sagas usually are rife with bitchiness, there's always SOME of that in the theatre but so far all we seem to get is a few people being only kinda nice to the new girl (That's NOT a diss in the theatre world even in my limited experience). I don't know Theresa Rebeck's theatre and TV work at all from the past, but I know she's well regarded--so far her first two scripts make me wonder if she's ever met a line of cliched dialogue she didn't like.

Rebeck recently spoke about how they had to soften a lot of it when they changed it from a show aimed at Showtime to one for network TV. But surely it didn't have to feel quite this "nice" for a ten pm drama.

As cliched as it is I do enjoy the musical bits and some of the rehearsal/"making a musical" stuff (yes All That Jazz, amonst others, did it better, but). And I think the character combos and stories have potential but so far they seem to be dealing with cliche storylines, with cliche dialogue and most of these dilemnas get wrapped up in one episode (the husband decides he doesn't want to adopt if he has to wiat two more years, same episode he comes around, etc). But with all the faultsd, for me it goes by quickly and is enjoyable. I just wish it was more.

It's like the show can't decide if it wants to be Parenthood (an underated Herskovitz/Zwick style family drama with touches of soap by their protoge Jason Katims who handled Friday Night Lights, but as the New Yorker critic pointed out well that seemed to get cool cred for being in a sports milieu that the other shows don't), or if it wants to be a campy All About Eve soap. I think i should just go whole hog and do that--because between the fun, camp numbers, and the over the top caricature characters, stories about chinese adoption (unless there's a kidnapping) just fall flat.

New York Magazine's Vulture blog, which did the hysterical recap Bobster posted, also had their stage critic write about the pilot's musical numbers. The full post is HERE, but I found his comments on the Baseball Number spot on (and yes, I did love it--it was "absolutely perfect without being any good at all" which in itself is something I could celebrate, if the characters didn't then fawn and cry about wanting to make a musical that showed the world the person Marilyn truly was)

2. “The National Pastime”
Ivy, a curvaceous striver who’s survived innumerable chorus lines, is the bombshell; she’s competing to play Marilyn on the basis of her raw carnal drive. Which, the show seems to be subliminally telling us, also means she’s a Broadway-belt soprano, in marked contrast to her slender brunette rival Karen Cartwright (Katharine McPhee), who represents “love” (i.e., pop melisma soprano). To drive home that precious (and oh-so-American) sex-love divide, we’re given the only full original number of the pilot: an homage to, among other things, “Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Friend.” Athletically choreographed by Joshua Bergasse, this massive musical gangbang (no exaggeration) features moves ranging from the Cunnilingus Lift-Spin to the Double Rumpy-Pumpy. Brilliantly filmed and edited, indefatigably hoofed by an incredible ensemble, “National Pastime” — where Marilyn apparently celebrates her first date with Joe DiMaggio by getting double-entendre-teamed by the entire Yankee squad — is, in the immortal words of Spice World, “absolutely perfect without really being any good at all.” After so many decades of camp, numbers like this (funny! sexy!) are increasingly hard for a Broadway show to bring off: The point, it seems, is not sex but a parody of sex. Which isn’t sexy. But it is impressive! Again, I’d love to know how it works within the show. When, like, there is a show. As for the studio execs no doubt quaking in their wingtips over whether all those bats and balls add up to something inescapably homoerotic, well, that I wouldn’t lose sleep over: All great American rituals are inescapably homoerotic, after all.

[skip if you hate long posts]
I wanna love this! Not just be amused by the (well done) production numbers and good acting. It really is playing it too safe--it should have been on cable (but really--this is 10pm drama...)

For a 10pm drama, it honestly doesn't have any bite (the mean characters--Anjelica's husband who seems to exist just so he acan say something cliche and she can throw a drink on him and we applaud--and the smarmy director, who actually now doesn't even seem all that mean or all that complex). While backstage sagas usually are rife with bitchiness, there's always SOME of that in the theatre but so far all we seem to get is a few people being only kinda nice to the new girl (That's NOT a diss in the theatre world even in my limited experience). I don't know Theresa Rebeck's theatre and TV work at all from the past, but I know she's well regarded--so far her first two scripts make me wonder if she's ever met a line of cliched dialogue she didn't like.

Rebeck recently spoke about how they had to soften a lot of it when they changed it from a show aimed at Showtime to one for network TV. But surely it didn't have to feel quite this "nice" for a ten pm drama.

As cliched as it is I do enjoy the musical bits and some of the rehearsal/"making a musical" stuff (yes All That Jazz, amonst others, did it better, but). And I think the character combos and stories have potential but so far they seem to be dealing with cliche storylines, with cliche dialogue and most of these dilemnas get wrapped up in one episode (the husband decides he doesn't want to adopt if he has to wiat two more years, same episode he comes around, etc). But with all the faultsd, for me it goes by quickly and is enjoyable. I just wish it was more.

It's like the show can't decide if it wants to be Parenthood (an underated Herskovitz/Zwick style family drama with touches of soap by their protoge Jason Katims who handled Friday Night Lights, but as the New Yorker critic pointed out well that seemed to get cool cred for being in a sports milieu that the other shows don't), or if it wants to be a campy All About Eve soap. I think i should just go whole hog and do that--because between the fun, camp numbers, and the over the top caricature characters, stories about chinese adoption (unless there's a kidnapping) just fall flat.

New York Magazine's Vulture blog, which did the hysterical recap Bobster posted, also had their stage critic write about the pilot's musical numbers. The full post is HERE, but I found his comments on the Baseball Number spot on (and yes, I did love it--it was "absolutely perfect without being any good at all" which in itself is something I could celebrate, if the characters didn't then fawn and cry about wanting to make a musical that showed the world the person Marilyn truly was)

2. “The National Pastime”
Ivy, a curvaceous striver who’s survived innumerable chorus lines, is the bombshell; she’s competing to play Marilyn on the basis of her raw carnal drive. Which, the show seems to be subliminally telling us, also means she’s a Broadway-belt soprano, in marked contrast to her slender brunette rival Karen Cartwright (Katharine McPhee), who represents “love” (i.e., pop melisma soprano). To drive home that precious (and oh-so-American) sex-love divide, we’re given the only full original number of the pilot: an homage to, among other things, “Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Friend.” Athletically choreographed by Joshua Bergasse, this massive musical gangbang (no exaggeration) features moves ranging from the Cunnilingus Lift-Spin to the Double Rumpy-Pumpy. Brilliantly filmed and edited, indefatigably hoofed by an incredible ensemble, “National Pastime” — where Marilyn apparently celebrates her first date with Joe DiMaggio by getting double-entendre-teamed by the entire Yankee squad — is, in the immortal words of Spice World, “absolutely perfect without really being any good at all.” After so many decades of camp, numbers like this (funny! sexy!) are increasingly hard for a Broadway show to bring off: The point, it seems, is not sex but a parody of sex. Which isn’t sexy. But it is impressive! Again, I’d love to know how it works within the show. When, like, there is a show. As for the studio execs no doubt quaking in their wingtips over whether all those bats and balls add up to something inescapably homoerotic, well, that I wouldn’t lose sleep over: All great American rituals are inescapably homoerotic, after all.

It wouldn't have been that long a post if you hadn't posted it 4 times.

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I've read most of the posts since the show began, and I eagerly watched the pilot, then less eagerly this week's episode, and I still have to ask: who is this show supposed to be aimed at? Bad soap opera writing and mediocre song-and-dance routines don't do it for me, and I've loved theatre (and especially music theatre) all my life.

This show is not A CHORUS LINE, where the characters get into your heart and under your skin, while dazzling you with their talents. We have Lloyd Webber and AMERICAN IDOL to thank for the typical stand-and-scream type of singing, and it is tiresome. I thought all the soap operas were being cancelled by now. Sorry, Ms. Rebeck and company, but this just won't cut it, and the ratings in week two dropped by 29%...

At this point in their process there is no understudy part to offer Karen, as understudies are not hired for a workshop. And of course, in a show where a lot of people seem to be complaining about the amount of cliches being thrown around do we really want to see the "understudy waiting in the wings" added in to the mix?

I do understand about the director being worried that somebody is too polished/experienced. Sometimes they lose the freshness and vitality required for a role because they get bogged down or caught up in their own process.

I want to like it, I'm just.... not. I watched the pilot when it aired, then I started to watch this week's but stopped half way through and went to bed (I have it tivo'd and will finish this weekend). It just doesn't grab me yet. I do not like Messing's character so far. I actually really dislike Karen and although I'm not a fan of Ivy I prefer her to win. And if I hear "Marilyn was a saint" or "that's so marilyn" I may throw something. You need to give the audience more time to connect to why you are so passionate, in my opinion at least.

of course I will keep watching it to support the bigger goal of Broadway featured in a network show, but for months they advertised "we are not Glee - we are nothing like Glee. Other than a few songs in the show, no other singing". Yet, we have had several pop songs already, and I keep seeing others pop up (just on BWW TV right now "Smash to take on Adele".

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