NBC's SMASH - Series & Broadway Adaptation Thread- Page 40

[Jane2]

Posted: 3/27/12 at 10:01am

hyperbole-right on-I agree with everything you wrote.

I had never seen Megan Hilty before and I love watching her. She's a triple threat IMO.

[Tom1071]

Posted: 3/27/12 at 10:17am

I'm with Jordan...I enjoy seeing Ivy get kicked in the teeth again and again. What a brat! I hope Karen has a moment where she gets to let her have it.

[somethingwicked]

Posted: 3/27/12 at 10:21am

What's most jarring to me about the show is the logic they're asking us to buy into in the midst of the ridiculous and contradictory narrative.

We were clearly supposed to feel sorry for Ivy when she was told they were going with a star this week, but why? She had her chance to lead the show and she completely cracked under the pressure. She stopped a rehearsal (and eventually stormed out of it) to insult the director in front of the entire cast and crew, she complained that other actors in the ensemble were upstaging her, and she stomped around the rehearsal room huffing and puffing about how she should have gotten another actor fired for daring to rub her the wrong way, as if she had the power to do so. Sure, she's talented. Sure, her mother has been hard on her. But she's also an adult, not a child. Get over it. She'd graduated from the chorus for the first time in ten years and, in ten seconds, was acting like the biggest star (with the biggest accompanying ego) in the entire world. Each week, Karen is nothing but professional and encouraging to Ivy, and each week, Ivy acts like a sociopath, claiming Karen is constantly threatening her when we've seen nothing even close to resembling that. This is someone we're supposed to get behind? Someone needs to remind Ivy that Karen cannot, in fact, take her part away. Only the creative team can do that, so she should redirect her maniacal paranoia in the appropriate direction. For someone who's been in the industry for ten years, according to the script, she sure has no clue how the business works.

Karen is equally problematic. The members of the creative team are tiptoeing around like she's some musical theater savant, and yet we've yet to see her step up to the plate and show us that she has "it." She's knocked some numbers out of the park in a karaoke bar, yes, but when are they going to show us she really wants it? I've yet to be convinced. The "Touch Me" number this week was the first time I've felt like she really had an opportunity to wow us with genuine star quality, which she did (for me,) but then it was diminished by that horrible scene with Ivy afterward where she just let herself be insulted yet again. I get that she's supposed to be green, but is she also supposed to be completely devoid of a spine? I'd like to see a moment like the scene with the Savannah Wise character at the beginning of the workshop where she points out just how full of crap Ivy is, because the audience sure sees it. I have a feeling we may just get that moment next week, but it's too little too late.

I elect to just throw both women into the Hunger Games and use Savannah Wise for Marilyn. We've seen our options, and I like neither. Bring on Uma Thurman.

Updated On: 3/27/12 at 10:21 AM

[E.Davis]

Posted: 3/27/12 at 10:21am

Actually Hilty can't really dance, she is very good at creating the illusion that she can. They have worked around that pretty well on the show.

[Jon]

Posted: 3/27/12 at 10:37am

So far, Christian Borle is the one actor who comes away from this thing looking good.

And to quote a meme from another discussion board, "Brian D'Arcy James has no neck!"

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 3/27/12 at 10:40am

The show feels like it had the germ of a great premise at its center, but then got compromised and compromised and compromised.

I wonder what it would have been like if Showtime had actually picked it up.

[DottieD'Luscia]

Posted: 3/27/12 at 10:54am

Borstalboy, I was thinking the same thing!

I tend to watch each episode twice, just to see what I missed, but for some reason last night's episode seemed like it skipped past a few.

I like Megan Hilty as Ivy, and certainly see her as Marilyn way more than Katherine McPhee does.

The brief scene between Tom and Ivy was the only thing I really liked last night.

I don't mind the character of Ellis, but it just needs to be a bit more focused. I thought his calling Tom a loser was out of line, especially since Julia is the one who has always shown a dislike towards him. Get rid of his girlfriend, as the character doesn't add anything to the proceedings.

I will continue to watch, but have to say last night's was probably the worst of the bunch. Don't even get me started on the Marilyn number out in Brooklyn.

[E.Davis]

Posted: 3/27/12 at 10:57am

I kinda secretly love that they did it in Brooklyn, because Brooklyn is where one goes to do edgy out there material........................

[SonofRobbieJ]

Posted: 3/27/12 at 11:01am

I'm sorry...but this show is mad F*CKing genius!

Mahatma Katie?? I mean...someone got paid to come up with that. Why???? Cause she travels the world and saves salmon? I hope there's a homemade bestial porn tape to be revealed on some later episode.

The whole 'CRITIC SLEPT WITH YOUR FATHER' thing was pure, unadulterated 'Ted Casablanca is NOT A FAG' camp. If only they ended in a kiss, I would have stood up and cheered.

Chocolatta Hummel being the creepiest non-gay gay assistant in the history of everything that has ever happened from the Big Bang on? BRILLIANCE.

I can't stop watching it. I cannot stop. They even gave Grease 2 realness with a 'Score Tonight' redux!

I, like Dr. Strangelove, have learned to love this bomb.

[Jane2]

Posted: 3/27/12 at 11:09am

Hasn't anyone else here seen the film FAME? I swear that bowling alley number was cloned from Hot Lunch!

[SonofRobbieJ]

Posted: 3/27/12 at 11:14am

Woman...HOT LUNCH is a model of economic storytelling, choreographic genius and inspired musicality compared to what happened on my screen last night.

If that black girl who auditioned with Leroy heard you say that about HOT LUNCH, she'd say, 'F*CK you, Jane...I don't wanna go to this school anyway!'



(all of that, of course, was said a little and a lotta love)

[DottieD'Luscia]

Posted: 3/27/12 at 11:18am

Jane2, I've seen the movie Fame, but I was reminded of "Score Tonight" from Gease 2.

On a side note, I barely made it through one episode of Glee.

[hyperbole_and_a_half]

Posted: 3/27/12 at 11:25am

I'm so glad everyone else can see that Ellis is Five-Alarm Gay. The kid dresses like Alex P Keaton and looks like he stepped out of a Neutrogena ad. I haven't seen a queen rock a bowtie that hard since I bumped into Ken Mehlman at Therapy during the 2004 Republican National Convention.

[Jane2]

Posted: 3/27/12 at 11:30am

Robbie, don't get me wrong- I LEEEERVE every frame of the movie FAME. Genius all around. (and I'm in it to boot!)

I saw Grease 2 but don't remember the number, and I never saw Glee. I'm going to take the words of youse experts on the bowling number. I trust you!

Oh-and WAIT JUST ONE MINUTE!!!! LEROY JOHNSON!!!! Don't even start me. His un-audition number is the main reason to watch this film. OMG.

Updated On: 3/27/12 at 11:30 AM

[MrMidwest]

Posted: 3/27/12 at 11:38am

I'm your kingpin, honey, and I'm gettin' in gear..

[Jane2]

Posted: 3/27/12 at 11:43am

Thank you, Mr. Midwest-of course it was blatantly taken from Grease 2!

[BroadwayBen]

Posted: 3/27/12 at 11:50am

That bowling alley sequence was ridiculous. Felt like an episode of "Fame" from the 80s.

[Eris0303]

Posted: 3/27/12 at 12:00pm

Having seen both Fame and Grease 2 I was more reminded of Grease 2. I was waiting for some voice to come over the loud speaker "Will the crazy people in Lane 10 please stop dancing in the lane? Your high heels are scratching the wood".

[ACL2006]

Posted: 3/27/12 at 12:04pm

also, did anyone else notice the strings attached to the bowling pins during that number??

[DottieD'Luscia]

Posted: 3/27/12 at 12:07pm

^I certainly did, and wondered what was up with that.

[Taryn]

Posted: 3/27/12 at 12:19pm

also, did anyone else notice the strings attached to the bowling pins during that number??

I wondered if that was just how it is at Brooklyn Bowl. I've been there for concerts, but never actually bowled there, so I don't know, but maybe that's just how they reset the pins?

[Gothampc]

Posted: 3/27/12 at 12:30pm

"If that black girl who auditioned with Leroy heard you say that about HOT LUNCH, she'd say, 'F*CK you, Jane...I don't wanna go to this school anyway!"

Shirley Mulholland is the most unappreciated character in films. Funny and sad at the same time.

Fvck you, Leroy! This was my audition, remember? You're not into high school. We were rehearsing to get me into this school, not you, you fvcker! It's not fair! I didn't want to come here anyway. This school sucks. You've done me a favor, sh*thead. You saved me four fvcking years from this ass-licking school! You looking at one happy lady! Who wants to go to a fvcking school to learn to dance, anyway?

Updated On: 3/27/12 at 12:30 PM

[mklindstrom]

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

Christian Borle is one of the best parts of Smash, he comes in at a close second to Anjelica Huston. I watch it to see them and what they'll do next. Also, I will be crushed if Will Chase doesn't continue to be on the show, his performance of "Lexington and 52nd Street" was pretty incredible. I just love him and his voice!

[Jane2]

Posted: 3/27/12 at 12:39pm

I just can't help being distracted by Angelica Huston's face. It has become a grotesque looking cartoon-not unlike that of The Joker.

[Jane2]

Posted: 3/27/12 at 12:51pm

http://www.flickr.com/photos/therealjaney/7021302785/

Updated On: 3/27/12 at 12:51 PM