NBC's SMASH - Series & Broadway Adaptation Thread- Page 87

[Gothampc]

Posted: 5/16/12 at 11:26am

I still have not seen any sign of:

Shelley Winters
Truman Capote
a Kennedy

All had just as much, if not more, influence over Marilyn as Joe, Arthur and Lee who we have seen.

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 5/16/12 at 11:29am

As Marilyn, McPhee is a wonderful Sandra Dee.

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 5/16/12 at 11:29am

I frankly hope next season focuses primarily on the creation of another musical; I don't know how much more mileage they can get out of countless new Marilyn Monroe musical numbers -- I think they wrapped it all up nicely in the finale and should move on to some other new focus

[Wynbish]

Posted: 5/16/12 at 11:56am

"I still have not seen any sign of:

Shelley Winters
Truman Capote
a Kennedy

All had just as much, if not more, influence over Marilyn as Joe, Arthur and Lee who we have seen."

That would be a crowded musical. A Ragtime-ly crowded musical.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 5/16/12 at 12:05pm

"That would be a crowded musical. A Ragtime-ly crowded musical."

Perfect. Bombshell could have the same opening as Ragtime with the three groups circling each other.

Group 1 will be husbands/lovers

Group 2 will be studio execs/various exploiters

Group 3 will be Shelley Winters & Truman Capote

[SporkGoddess]

Posted: 5/16/12 at 12:06pm

That point also relates to another source of my annoyance: there were plenty of women who were influential in Marilyn Monroe's life, but Bombshell only has the one female role. I guess if Ivy or Karen were playing Shelley Winters or Marilyn's mother it would take away from the "lead or chorus" drama. Still, it's not realistic.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 5/16/12 at 12:15pm

^^^They need a Bette Davis character for All About Eve

Davis:

That Miss Casswell
is all ass, well
I didn't get into this biz
To work with a shiz

[nygrl232]

Posted: 5/16/12 at 12:48pm

Ivy has all this training, experience and chops and no, she is not thick. Her body type is her body type. If she were under or overweight or unhealthy in whatever way, then that'd be cause for concern. But she's fine as she is. Karen's body has obviously been toned by trainers. A body by committee. That's fine, as long as she's healthy.

Ivy keeps getting let down really badly, whether she's professional or not, whether she's kind or not. She can't even tell her troubles to her fair-weather mom. Seems a little too much misery to heap onto one character.

[MrMidwest]

Posted: 5/16/12 at 2:07pm

"Ha I kind of like that, I wonder about some of your choices though"

Heh, I thought about including Farrah Fawcett, but I thought people would quibble because she died of cancer. She still lived almost twice as long a life as Marilyn.

I guess what doesn't work for me about the last song is that, ultimately, Marilyn's "story" might have ended happily because people still remember and love her, but her life just plain did not end happily. All of her marriages failed. She didn't get to have children like she wanted. She got good notices for playing a few serious roles, but I doubt she played as many as she wanted. The abuse and neglect that Marilyn is said to have suffered in her childhood left her insecure and wanting for love. She was ambitious, but she didn't have the benefit of living in a time when there were examples of women who were strong and independent the same way as, say, Gloria Steinem and those who came after her. You could almost look at Marilyn as example of where women were at as far as receiving respect and being treated as equals. That's why I feel like the new last song feels false. If this musical is supposed to really delve into who Marilyn was and not just be about the more shallow iconic image that many people associate with her, then the last song kind of doesn't fit.

Updated On: 5/16/12 at 02:07 PM

[Wee Thomas2]

Posted: 5/16/12 at 2:20pm

"You know what the real crime about the SMASH finale was? Those G.D. pop-up ads for G.D. "Battleship." That ish went too damn far."

Craziest part of this is that the SMASH audience is already in line holding their places for the premier presentation of Battleship, so it was a waste of ad space.

[MrMidwest]

Posted: 5/16/12 at 2:50pm

Some interesting personal stories about Marilyn:
http://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/marilyn-monroe-later-career.htm

[Gaveston2]

Posted: 5/16/12 at 6:14pm

Thanks, Mr. M. For whatever reason I've always been more interested in Monroe's work than her biography, so that was very informative.

I think the biggest problem with BOMBSHELL, the fictional musical, is that Marilyn never DOES anything. She simply hangs out, being an "icon." Even when the characters talk about her, it's always in terms of some static state: "Marilyn understood love"; "Marilyn knew unhappiness"; etc.

They never seem to talk about what Marilyn actually did, which may be why their musical seems like a musical revue of pastiche numbers rather than a musical dramatization of the person.

I suppose the paltry references to her actual work may be due to copyright issues. Surely a creative team of lawyers or writers could get around them!

Updated On: 5/16/12 at 06:14 PM

[Owen22]

Posted: 5/16/12 at 6:17pm

"Bombshell" is obviously based on the "Evita" paradigm, more of a pageant than a real musical. Except for some basic "relationship" numbers and scenes, the show musicalizes the big events in her life, as opposed to a serious study or biography.

[MrMidwest]

Posted: 5/16/12 at 6:19pm

Is it wrong that I kind of wish they would test out an ending where they rewrite history Inglorious Basterds style?

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 5/16/12 at 8:11pm

Where Marilyn takes a machine gun to Hitler's face?

[Gaveston2]

Posted: 5/16/12 at 10:23pm

"Bombshell" is obviously based on the "Evita" paradigm, more of a pageant than a real musical. Except for some basic "relationship" numbers and scenes, the show musicalizes the big events in her life, as opposed to a serious study or biography.

You may well be right, Owen. But as historically superficial as it can be at times, the EVITA score is a lot more than a pastiche of pop song styles from Eva Peron's life.

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 5/16/12 at 10:29pm

It's interesting, because that seemed to be one of the big problems with Marilyn: AN American Fable as well as the Canadian 70s musical, Hey Marilyn (which you can hear the original CBC radio version online), as well.

[Marlothom]

Posted: 5/16/12 at 10:37pm

One of my main problems with the finale was that there is NO WAY Ivy would not be in the closing number (there were random chorus girls on stage) or at the very least, at the wings, getting ready for bows. Yet she is apparently, the only cast member in the dressing room.

[Bwaydide92]

Posted: 5/16/12 at 10:44pm

When they started staging the finale, Ivy had just walked on as Marilyn expecting to get the part, but then Derek walked out with Karen and Ivy left the stage. They would have let her cool off instead of putting her into the number. I'm sure her absence, if she did take the pills, at the curtain call will be addressed next season. The entire cast was probably too concentrated on Karen to notice that Ivy wasn't waiting in the wings. I think it was realistic enough.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 5/16/12 at 11:07pm

But Ivy has proven herself to be more than just a little flakey when she doesn't get her way. I mean, she was giving Norbert raspberries onstage, so it's not too hard to believe she might skip the bows.

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 5/16/12 at 11:11pm

Besides we never really saw the aftermath of the bows, simply that they were all excited and pleased that the audience actually applauded.

[Ejm105989]

Posted: 5/17/12 at 3:49am

I just finished watching the last 2 episodes and I have to say that I enjoyed McPhee's version of "Never Met a Wolf." Thought the choreography for that number was great! And "Don't Forget Me"? Wow. I'm not on Team Ivy or Team Karen, because I think they both have qualities that make them good for Marilyn (and qualities that make them not so good for the role.)

[MrMidwest]

Posted: 5/17/12 at 9:28am

Lovely interview with Michelle Williams about what she learned about Marilyn from doing research:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rpzoE_we-jA

Catherine Hicks as Marilyn in a 1980 tv movie:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2-aTBXRxJI

http://themarilynmonroecollection.blogspot.com/2011/11/happy-birthday-jfk-marilyn-planned-to.html

[Gaveston2]

Posted: 5/17/12 at 3:32pm

"It's interesting, because that seemed to be one of the big problems with Marilyn: AN American Fable as well as the Canadian 70s musical, Hey Marilyn (which you can hear the original CBC radio version online), as well."

That doesn't surprise me. Marilyn Monroe was a complicated lady who made a few great films and died young. She was married to two famous men. Unfortunately, it's mostly her image that remains famous (along with sentimentality about her death), not even her work.

(ETA Mr. Midwest's links suggest her greatest accomplishment was in helping to break the power of the big movie studios, but she did that largely by refusing to work until 20th Century gave in and renegotiated her contract. Not much to sing or dance about there.)

She didn't teach the royal children of Thailand or bring interracial dancing to Baltimore.

That's not to say a play (musical or otherwise) can't be made from her life, but somebody needs to decide what the action (factual or invented) will be. I saw nothing to suggest anyone connected with SMASH had made that decision.

Updated On: 5/17/12 at 03:32 PM

[StageManager2]

Posted: 5/17/12 at 4:31pm

They should've done a chapter in her life, like "My Week with Marilyn." In that film, you get a glimpse of her life, and who she was privately and publicly and on the set. In fact, I think the story told in "My Week with Marilyn" is ripe for musicalization. The movie is told through the eyes of Colin Clark, a gofer on set who becomes smitten with Marilyn and eventually protective of her. [This is one thing many people who met her confirm, and Marilyn herself often took advantage of this.]

Anyway, a lot of musicals require a narrator of sorts, and Colin Clark fits the bill. Through him we get an inside look not only into the making of "The Prince and the Showgirl," but also into Marilyn herself: her personal struggles, insecurities, stage fright, neediness. The story also has a cast of great supporting characters, like Laurence Olivier (director and co-star, who becomes exasperated with Marilyn's tardiness/absences and overall lack of professionalism), Dame Sybil Thorndike (legendary British actress and Marilyn's champion on set; comic relief), Paula Strasberg (Marilyn's meddling acting coach and sycophant, who causes further conflict between Olivier and Marilyn), and Arthur Miller (Marilyn's distant and regretful 3rd husband, who is not and does not want to be the rock Marilyn so desperately wanted and needed).

And of course at the center of it all we have Marilyn -- at times flirtatious and seemingly happy-go-lucky, and at other times desolate and forlorn, but all the time luminous. The part of Marilyn would be a great part for any actress 'cause she's not one-note. Her emotions run the gamut.