NBC's SMASH - Series & Broadway Adaptation Thread- Page 20

[Gaveston2]

Posted: 2/21/12 at 6:06pm

I think Jack Davenport is totally dreamy, but he's never been one to live at the gym. I've been assuming that is why Ivy is always on top.

Yes, the writing team did make a reference to MARILYN: A MUSICAL FABLE, which closed in two weeks in 1983, losing its entire investment after some of the biggest hype of its season.

http://www.ibdb.com/production.php?id=4239




Updated On: 2/21/12 at 06:06 PM

[CockeyedOptimist2]

Posted: 2/21/12 at 6:38pm

Got it- I misunderstood in the Pilot then and thought it was something that team had already tried. Regardless, clearly Ellis wasn't the first to think of doing Marilyn as a musical.

[beautywickedlover]

Posted: 2/21/12 at 6:40pm

If this show were on FOX I'm sure it would've been easy for McPhee to return to 'Idol' and sing on a results show to promote the show. However, FOX and NBC might have to work some deal out since they are two different networks.

[ucjrdude902]

Posted: 2/21/12 at 6:56pm

I don't see McPhee returning to Idol. Apparently since NBC wants to mention that she is from Idol there is some bad blood between the 2. Even when Mark Ballas was the in audience Seacrest wouldn't say DWTS he called it "some dance show next door".

[broadwaybabywannabe2]

Posted: 2/21/12 at 6:59pm

Jayinchelsea...AMEN! to you fellow theatre queen...why show us gays in the audience, and i am sure we are in the majority, all this str8 sex...i turn down the sound during these god awful moments and wait patiently for the music to reappear...i thought the duet Mr & Mrs Smith was cute...show me more show...less sex!

[erinrebecca]

Posted: 2/21/12 at 7:45pm

Have to echo Gaveston here, Ray. Parenthood's ensemble shouldn't be characterized in that way. Have a look at the credits for the actors on the show. Even some of the youngest, like Mae Whitman, has an abundance of professional experience, and they're certainly not all unknowns.

[ucjrdude902]

Posted: 2/21/12 at 7:58pm

I read an article once (I'll see if I can find it) that listed what scripted show stars make and they pointed our Graham only makes 75K an episode and she was the highest paid of the cast. Then again that was a year ago and she might make more now.

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 2/21/12 at 8:08pm

I didn't mean to insult any fans of the PARENTHOOD cast. SIX FEET UNDER and ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT are my favorite drama/comedy shows respectively so I know very well who's part of the cast. But realistically speaking, in terms of audience and salary, I can't imagine anyone in the PARENTHOOD ensemble commanding the kind of salary that Angelica Houston or Debra Messing must command. Again, this is all speculative, who knows if maybe Peter Krause or Craig T. Nelson have the same kind of publicity/attention and salary, but I doubt it. And yes, by "no-name" I meant relatively, I'm perfectly aware of the screen credits of most of the PARENTHOOD ensemble.

[Gaveston2]

Posted: 2/21/12 at 9:13pm

I think the salaries of the PARENTHOOD stars are determined in part by the lower workload, because it is an ensemble show and no one is in every scene. (Also, the show has an overall budget to make and can't afford to pay any one star hundreds of thousands of dollars per episode.)

That's not the same thing as not being "names".

I'll be very surprised in Angelica Houston, as famous as she may be, makes any more than Graham. Not for two scenes and eight or nine lines per episode. (I'm assuming they don't deduct anything for giving her the SAME eight or nine lines every week, since that isn't her fault.)

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 2/21/12 at 9:32pm

...I think she has a deal to get a pay bonus everytime she throws a drink in someone's face.

[Broadway Joe]

Posted: 2/21/12 at 9:36pm

The last episode was awful.

[uncageg]

Posted: 2/21/12 at 9:47pm

I Played catch-up and watched all of the episodes back to back. By the end of the 3rd one, I realized that I may not invest any more time in the show. It feels like it is just going to go down that familiar nighttime soap road.

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 2/21/12 at 9:56pm

Actually from what everyone's said, and the new promos, it looks like they've already pulled a Dynasty/Melrose and given up on trying to do a "real" drama (which often has led to the worst moments) and next week are going full primetime soap--which... could work.

Posted: 2/21/12 at 10:11pm

episode 3: meh


losing interest quickly.

[Gaveston2]

Posted: 2/21/12 at 10:25pm

Actually from what everyone's said, and the new promos, it looks like they've already pulled a Dynasty/Melrose and given up on trying to do a "real" drama (which often has led to the worst moments) and next week are going full primetime soap--which... could work.

I agree and I hope so. Nobody wants to watch the smelly reality of used rehearsal clothes and musty costumes.

For the general public, theater stops being fun as soon as it becomes too "real".

Let's see McPhee and Hilty fight it out in a fountain pool! Winner gets to play Marilyn!

[masterwolfie]

Posted: 2/22/12 at 2:14pm

I feel like Megan Hilty and Katharine Mcphee should switch roles...

[TheSeafarer]

Posted: 2/22/12 at 2:34pm

Maggie Furlong of Huffington Post last week urged fans of the show to skip episode three of Smash because it was cheesy and very weak. It was pretty bad, the kareoke scene I felt was really try to appeal to a broader non-Broadway crowd.

Furlong said that next week's episode it terrific, so we'll see.

[broadwaybabytn]

Posted: 2/22/12 at 2:40pm

The Iowa scenes were embarrassing. From the sepia fuzz filter at the edges of the screen to the karaoke bar with signage that said "Iowa" in two places, while no one ever mentioned the name of the town or city... Wow.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 2/22/12 at 2:49pm

They need to recast the Marilyn actresses. McPhee is too boring and Hilty is too butch.

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 2/22/12 at 3:54pm

The Iowa scenes were the worst kind of filler. They didn't show us ANYTHING we didn't know (her parents love her but are worried, Karen is more than ready not to stay in Iowa), her friends with annoying cardboard cut outs (why cast a Broadway star known for her voice as one anyway?), and yes, it was shown as the worst kind of "middle America" cliche down to the white house with the huge American flag. (You can't smoke inside bars anywhere in Canada anymore--can you still in the US? Just curious since she mentioned her dad smelt of cigarettes which I thought was meant to show us he had taken up smoking due to his daughter worries but actually apparently ti was because he snuck into the bar to hear her--nevermind that it didn't look like a smoky enough bar to have him reeking of them the next day...)

It could have been completely cut out with no damage to the story. I get that they want to have covers of "real" songs each episode--partly because I assume Shaiman and crew can't really handle more than one or maybe two new show songs an episode, and partly to appeal to non theatre fans, and they've been done relatively decently I guess (we've had two bla karaoke covers so far, as well as the dream Somewhere Over the |rainbow, dream Call me, and Beautiful as a weird audition song), but that bizarre rock cover of Bruno mars doing Grenade was just too much. I hope it was meant to be camp outrageous.

I mean I've never been to New York but I know of LaMaMa, would they really be putting on a straightforward rock show celebrating Bruno Mars (who has had one album?) Would producers really go see that well sung, but ridiculously cheezy dance performance of Grenade and think "THIS has to be our Joe DiMaggio!"

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 2/22/12 at 3:57pm

Yeah, it depends on where you are in the US. There are swaths of the Midwest where you can still smoke in bars and restaurants.

I liked when her dad asked if her friends were picking her up and she said they were taking her to the airport - like she was just sitting out on the porch with her bags for her health?

AMAZING.

[bwaylvsong]

Posted: 2/22/12 at 4:00pm

Eric, who was the broadway star playing the friend? (I watch it on my tiny TV and don't recognize anybody)

[Taryn]

Posted: 2/22/12 at 4:49pm

Nadia Quinn played one of the friends, but I wouldn't call her a Broadway star.

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 2/22/12 at 4:54pm

Rebecca Naomi Jones (maybe not a *star* but certainly a Broadway name) was her black friend with the horrible clothes...

(And dancer and Tony nom Karine Plantadit-Bageot was the female dancer in that ridiculous Bruno Mars at LaMaMa! performance).

Phyllis--that was a hysterical piece of dialogue that shouldn't have survived a re-write, but the show seems to have a lot of "let's state or ask the obvious" lines.

[Kalimba]

Posted: 2/22/12 at 5:06pm

I rewatched the episode last night and the entire Iowa sequence was totally unnecessary. Any dialogue with her parents could have been done over the phone in split screen.

Will Chase and the Bruno Mars number was embarassing and hideous.