FINALLY! Some loopy fun! When Karen stumbled into that woozy ballad with that Fisher/Eisenhauer lighting I started to applaud!
That act of putting together a musical is just problem-solving writ large. But because it doesn't involve murder or cancer, it can be campy, pulpy fun. Which is what last night was. People problem solving like it's the end of the world, but it's just about a musical. The cliffhanger at the end actually made me want to know the decision about which book to use. Brava, Smash!
After a dazzler of an opening with "Public Relations", it just turned into a watery soup last night. Jeremy Jordan's character went from irritating to boring. At least they're filming him flatteringly.
Those hoping for a season three are quite the Jiminy Cricket types.
"Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they've been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It's an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It's a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.”
~ Muhammad Ali
anyone get the feeling that Liaisons won't open(or bombs) and thus we see Hilty back into the lead with Bombshell. Karen clearly picks Hit List over Bombshell next week. I still think the Hudson-led The Wiz revival also happens, thus come the Tony nominations we have Hilty-McPhee-Hudson going up against each other.
A Chorus Line revival played its final Broadway performance on August 17, 2008. The tour played its final performance on August 21, 2011. A new non-equity tour started in October 2012 played its final performance on March 23, 2013. Another non-equity tour launched on January 20, 2018. The tour ended its US run in Kansas City and then toured throughout Japan August & September 2018.
A few months ago they turned the Barrymore into the opening night of HIT LIST starring Karen Cartwright (I posted pictures that a friend had taken), so unless that's a dream sequence, then Karen chooses HIT LIST and they just decide to skip the Fringe festival and move right to Broadway.
The ratings are out, and Smash has hit a series low with a 0.7 ratings share. (This is also the rating Do No Harm had when it was pulled from the line-up.)
Marie: Don't be in such a hurry about that pretty little chippy in Frisco.
Tony: Eh, she's a no chip!
I enjoyed this episode as well as the opening number. But this May it looks like we will definitely by saying goodbye to this show and these characters unless a cable network picks it up.
OK, boys and girls, let's recap. In the course of a few months, Karen has gone from an unknown praying to get a callback for an ensemble role in Bombshell to a virtual producer/star, choosing to forego a starring role in big new Broadway show in which the famous director tells her she'd be a likely Tony winner as best actress in a musical, for a show with no book written by two unknowns.
I guess they forgot to tell us about her multi million dollar trust fund while she was working as a waitress struggling to make ends meet.
CZJ at opening night party for A Little Night Music, Dec 13, 2009.
RaisedOnMusicals, are you by any chance referencing Sartre's existential masterpiece NO EXIT? They have a character named "Conductor" that puts the three main characters into the same room. He is more or less just a bellboy like figure. It's a really awesome show!
As far as Season 2 goes... I'm liking it. I think Season 1 was better. I loved the entire season, and I know I'm alone there. The only character I'm happy with leaving the show is Ellis. Dev's plot pretty much ended, so his exit was tolerable as well. But whatever...
The cliffhanger from last night was great. I'm looking forward to next weeks show.
I hope this show gets a season 3, but it looks like NBC is heading their bets on the show. Last night seemed like one long add for Chicago Fire. Or, was I the only one who thought the ads for that show were entirely too obvious throughout the episode?
"Smash" actually had higher ratings last night than it's lead-in, "The New Normal." I'm not sure why "Normal" is still on the air. Maybe NBC wants to develop programming to air in endless repeats on Bravo, which it also owns. Both "The New Normal" and "Smash" would fit on that network. It's clearly an NBC problem as much as a "Smash" problem. As much as I've disliked the 2nd season, it's on a terrible network with programs that most of America doesn't watch any night of the week. If it were a great show, it wouldn't be doing much in the ratings.
One of the NBC affiliates (in Cleveland) aired a rerun of "Matlock" last week or so as a protest against the Academy Awards snubbing Andy Griffith in the "In Memoriam" segment of the show, pre-empting a two hour block of NBC network programming. Considering that the Academy Awards were on ABC and not on NBC, an NBC affiliate doing that made no sense. Except for the fact that their network gets terrible ratings for all their programs, 7 nights a week. They did that on a Thursday night and pre-empted "The Office" and "1600 Penn" and got comparable ratings with those NBC network programs. So, I would think they could replace "Smash" with old "Matlock" reruns and not do any worse. And it would be far cheaper.
Entertainment Weekly does not think it's likely that NBC will even let the program finish airing its season, but who knows. The network is not really in such great shape right now.
Trixigold, sadly, Matlock aired on NBC when it was on the air. So to have it air on ABC, legally, could not happen. They should not have pre-empted anything, as it does not make sense.
"Smash" actually had higher ratings last night than it's lead-in, "The New Normal."
At least The New Normal was a repeat (Halloween episode!!!)
"Wasn't SMASH originally pitched to Showtime or HBO?"
It was for Showtime where Greenblatt was the head. I wish Showtime makes backstage drama/musical about Smash.I would love to see Spielberg pushing for McPhee and trying to get Megan fired, or Rebeck screaming at everyone in writers' meetings.
In season 1, as much as people disliked Julia's husband and son, it was an angle to get people to watch the show as a human interest story. This season lacks much screen time for the human side of the characters and too much time on backstage machinations. The backstage stuff is ridiculously unrealistic, even for people who would be interested in watching it for that angle. It has too many shows within the show and confusing subplots. I'm not sure who this season's show is designed to appeal to. I think anyone tuning in for the first time would be both confused and completely bored. I find it more boring this season and have a hard time watching it.
"I can not recall a show that has had such a sudden drop in quality between season one and two."
I am not as into the program this season.
It seems that 'Smash' is going what 'Pushing Daisies' went through during its second season in terms of ratings and viewership. Viewers had to wait a year for the program to return and it unfortunately was cancelled not long after. The Writer's Strike was to blame for that though.