NBC's SMASH - Series & Broadway Adaptation Thread — Page 34

Have any of these writers ever worked in theater? Will Chase's wife and kid would not be able to just run into a workshop rehearsal. And Ellis would not be sitting at the table like he's an important contributor to the show.

What's up with the heat storyline? Just to get the bartender to see the workshop? A better writer could have gotten him there without that stupid storyline.

And even though Bernadette did a good job, I was disappointed in her storyline. Nobody knew that Ivy had a Tony Award winning actress for a mother? Really? Really??

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Cousin Debbie's Annoying Younger Brother needs to pick "If I Ran the Zoo" for his next bedtime story. I make up plenty of my own character nicknames, for example, "Replacement Roger," which is some of my best work. I loved his Dimaggio number, btw, which is saying something since they worked so hard to make his character (not Dimaggio) so unlikeable. Also, do NOT do a broken heat scene if shirts are going to stay on.

Also, not for nothing, but I haven't seen anybody "complain" or even mention Nathan Lane this week.

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I think it's a thinly veiled "ripped from the headlines" plot based on Bono and The Edge completely selling out Julie Taymor with their secret Plan X.

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He looks like he's walked right out of an AR Gurney play. Even someone like Christian Hoff would be me appropriately cast as DiMaggio.

Oh...right...Spiderman drama. It's so SVU.

I adored the DiMaggio number. I read a Marylin Monroe bio years ago and remember reading that he was there when that iconic scene was shot and he was livid. Maybe it was my knowledge that heightened my enjoyment but I thought it was the best song yet.

And Bernie...well Bernie. She's just amazing. Loved her Rose's turn and count myself lucky that I got to see it live when she did it on Broadway. I also loved how she struggled between wanting to tell her daughter how proud she was and wanting her to choose a different career.

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"That being said: many fewer comments..."

Then my work here is done.

Updated On: 3/20/12 at 02:12 PM

I'm sure Tom was well-intentioned when he was trying reassure Ivy before the workshop. But did anyone else question the wisdom of reassuring an actress that she has "ice water in her veins" when she is about to go on as Marilyn Monroe?

I just thought of something that stuck out like a sore thumb: the backstage chit chat about the agent representing three stars who would love the role of Marilyn. Like THAT'S the first thing those chorines would think! Not, "Oh my god, I hope he notices me! Maybe if I fall off the riser he will!!!!" But of course, whatever Uma wants... Uma gets.

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I too think putting on a musical is really interesting, but I'd rather read a book like Ted Chapin's or watch a documentary on the subject.

Thanks to the miracle of modern technology, I happened to watch SMASH and GCB back-to-back last night and I'd like to propose a writers' exchange for a few weeks. Shaiman can write new songs for Chenowith and the writers of GBC can boost the camp and soap opera quotients on SMASH.

Not that GCB is so brilliant, mind you, and it is set in a milieu (Dallas) that lost any interest it held for me back when J.R. was shot. But at least its writers know how to turn up the volume. They'd have not only had "Mama Rose" sing a song from GYPSY, they'd have had her competing for the director's sexual attention and trying to get the writers to create her a part as "Marilyn's mother". Leaving the episode far less time for Ellis and Debra Messing's son.

Haven't read the Shukert yet, but I had to weigh in.

Last night was PREPOSTEROUS! But, still it was lively at least. It was nice to see the focus shifted away from That Damned Karen for a while. I love how the chorines ran to the SM and asked her if TDK could go see the superstar producer for an hour and Ann Harada was like, "Oh, without letting us know anything in advance? Sure! We don't need you!" Frankly, nothing in this looked like a professional rehearsal with everyone's whole fam-damily running in and out at will. And Cousin Debbie running out of a rehearsal to mope about Will Chase....? Oh, come on! That's professionalism! Don't you just hate it when women in shows and movies have marital, sexual, or boyfriend problems and they....throw up!! Or, in this case, feel like they're going to throw up? Do women really do this when they're upset? In my experience they just get really really pissed. Good thing Morally McHandpatter was there to do his thing right there in the street!

I have decided I don't much like the songs in the show. Too poppy/facile.

I couldn't help but snort when Cousin Debbie snarls to her son's friend as he squirms out of their apartment, "Get out of here, you DRUG ADDICT!" Who is the "chemical use adviser" on this show, Nancy Reagan?

When the previews showed Anjelica Huston snarling to the assistant something to the effect of "You'll never work in this town again", I got really excited. Like maybe he was going to be an informant to M*****l R****l or something and that would lead to controversy, but no one would know it was him, and Anjelica's character couldn't decide if the bad publicity was good for the show and she's getting pressure from the creatives and.... But no. Turns out he's just an everyday gossip who is snapped shut like a coin purse. What a waste.

Still, it was livelier than other episodes.

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This is better than Henry James:


They are behaving like a couple of hormone-crazed, acne-scarred grotesques on the band bus, moistly holding hands and gnashing their damp pelvises together frantically before springing apart ostentatiously whenever a door opens, lest Derek or Anjelica Huston see what they’re up to, forgetting that Derek barely knows either of their names, let alone their marital statuses, and just wants Cousin Debbie to keep her legs closed long enough to, I don’t know, finish writing the goddamn show in time for the workshop tomorrow, and Anjelica Huston just wants the goddamn liberal crypto-Islamofascist Socialist Saul Alinsky–reading,William Ayers–butt-sniffing labor union to let the maintenance crew to turn the f**king heat down in the building before Manny Azenberg has a stroke and his heirs decide to sink their inheritance into a major Broadway revival of Emanuel Azenberg’s Jerome Robbins’s Broadway instead.

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I love Rachel's Cole Escola reference.
Check out his Bernadette on the tube.

Side note; Where can I watch a full episode I missed?