SMASH Reviews- Page 7

[ACL2006]

Posted: 4/26/25 at 5:10pm

I just got out of the matinee and thoroughly enjoyed it. Loved parts of it and Chloe didn't annoy me like I thought she would. Honestly shocked that this wasn't trimmed down more as there's bits here and there that aren't needed. The big numbers come off well received as does any time "Let Me Be Your Star" is sung plus "Don't Forget Me" and "They Just Keep Moving the Line". Loved the placements of "Second Hand White Baby Grand". Curious to see what Tony nominations it might get. It's such a crowded year.

 

FYI, show started around 2:10 and I was on the street by 4:45. However, this had to be the longest intermission I've ever been at. Nearly 30 minutes. Today's matinee was also soldout.

[ACL2006]

Posted: 4/26/25 at 5:13pm

Also, the audience seemed to enjoy it. This is such an old school setup musical comedy. Brooks is doing his thing but the audience loved him.

[MezzA101]

Posted: 4/28/25 at 11:32am

‘Smash’ Writers on Going Meta for Their Broadway Musical, Honoring Marilyn Monroe’s ‘Difficult’ Legacy and Their ‘The Princess Bride’ Adaptation

 

https://variety.com/2025/legit/news/smash-broadway-writers-meta-princess-bride-1236377413/

[GiantsInTheSky2]

Posted: 5/23/25 at 2:14pm

It seems like both performances featured on Kelly Clarkson and Jennifer Hudson’s talk shows were not performed in-studio, but filmed onstage at the Imperial (and is from the same footage previously shared on the show’s YouTube page). 

Does anyone know why that isn’t the standard method of TV performances? This way you actually get the performance as it exists in the show, without having to do extra rehearsals for reblocking/adjustments, moving props and cast to another location, etc. Maybe I’m missing something, but it seems to me like it would be much easier, and possibly more cost effective, for everyone involved.

[ACL2006]

Posted: 6/7/25 at 10:34pm

Libby Loyd made her Ivy debut tonight. Brooks was out a few shows last week. I don't think Caroline has missed a performance yet.

[ACL2006]

Posted: 6/8/25 at 10:01am

Libby Loyd is on again today as Ivy.

[BentleyB]

Posted: 6/9/25 at 10:02pm

ACL2006 said: "Libby Loyd is on again today as Ivy."

We saw her Saturday night along with Brooks understudy. She seemed unable to get thru the first number.  Her breathing was labored. As a side note: I truly didn’t believe the majority of the opinions on here about how truly bad this show is.  I have to say it is one of the five worst shows I have seen on Broadway over the past 50 years.  At the Tony’s sitting next to my friend was someone that identified himself as one of the co-producers.  I wanted to grab him by the lapels and demand my money back but I assumed they used that full amount on the awful sets. 

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 6/10/25 at 3:41pm

Would probably be a good idea to go see this soon, if you had been wanting to check it out. 

[ACL2006]

Posted: 6/10/25 at 3:51pm

Jordan Catalano said: "Would probably be a good idea to go see this soon, if you had been wanting to check it out."

This, BOOP and Real Women all closing on June 29?

[JSquared2]

Posted: 6/10/25 at 3:52pm

ACL2006 said: "Jordan Catalano said: "Would probably be a good idea to go see this soon, if you had been wanting to check it out."

This, BOOP and Real Women all closing on June 29?"

 

Nope.

 

[rburton66]

Posted: 6/10/25 at 4:12pm

I have a ticket for June 30 when I'll be in town, so I'm in such suspense!

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 6/10/25 at 4:18pm

You might want to move that up a week

[BentleyB]

Posted: 6/10/25 at 4:33pm

rburton66 said: "I have a ticket for June 30 when I'll be in town, so I'm in such suspense!"

I would let them refund my money and see something better.  

[TellZ]

Posted: 6/10/25 at 4:35pm

Jordan Catalano said: "You might want to move that up a week"

Its grosses have been decent up until the past few weeks, so things must be dire. I would have thought they'd wait for Boop to fold first and see if they picked up any business with one less show competing.

[Phil B]

Posted: 6/10/25 at 4:45pm

ACL2006 said: "Jordan Catalano said: "Would probably be a good idea to go see this soon, if you had been wanting to check it out."

This, BOOP and Real Women all closing on June 29?"

Is this just speculation, or based on something concrete?

[Fordham2015]

Posted: 6/10/25 at 6:18pm

Closing June 22

https://playbill.com/article/smash-announces-abrupt-closing-on-broadway

[Call_me_jorge]

Posted: 6/10/25 at 6:26pm

I guess the new made up ending raisedonmusicals took from ChatGPT didn’t work out. Hopefully they can use ChatGPT to fix it for licensing!

[gibsons2]

Posted: 6/10/25 at 6:27pm

Another "critic pick" crashes and burns. Makes me think Jesse Green's onto something...

[mshalo18]

Posted: 6/10/25 at 6:30pm

Could this mean that Chess is going into the Imperial and not the Broadhurst? 

[Call_me_jorge]

Posted: 6/10/25 at 6:30pm

gibsons2 said: "Another "critic pick" crashes and burns. Makes me think Jesse Green's onto something..."

Oddly, both at the imperial! I wonder if there is mold? They better hurry on up with those renovations!

[gibsons2]

Posted: 6/10/25 at 6:36pm

Call_me_jorge said: "gibsons2 said: "Another "critic pick" crashes and burns. Makes me think Jesse Green's onto something..."

Oddly, both at the imperial! I wonder if there is mold? They better hurry on up with those renovations!"

If there's mold, it's in Jesse's apartment.  Because he's been stamping "critic pick" on some of the worst shows of this season.  

[Robbie2]

Posted: 6/10/25 at 6:55pm

Call_me_jorge said: "gibsons2 said: "Another "critic pick" crashes and burns. Makes me think Jesse Green's onto something..."

Oddly, both at the imperial! I wonder if there is mold? They better hurry on up with those renovations!"

 

Smart to start the renovations now as the TORCH broke ground! https://www.newyorkyimby.com/2025/06/the-torch-resumes-construction-at-740-eighth-avenue-in-times-square-manhattan.html

[ChairinMain]

Posted: 6/10/25 at 7:43pm

Would renovations take the Imperial out of commission for the rest of the season? Or would they be theoretically available in the spring if they started Renovations this summer?

[Call_me_jorge]

Posted: 6/10/25 at 10:08pm

ChairinMain said: "Would renovations take the Imperial out of commission for the rest of the season? Or would they be theoretically available in the spring if they started Renovations this summer?"

The expected renovations would be pretty extensive. Sort of akin to the Cort/Jones theatre. They’re building a whole annex to include additional restrooms and an elevator. It would likely be offline for, at least, a full season or two. The Corts renovation lasted through the entirety of the covid shutdown and over a full year after the theatres reopened.

[Charley Kringas Inc]

Posted: 6/20/25 at 7:46pm

Not to kick a show right before it's taken off life support, but this was an absolutely bizarre misfire. I have to admit that I'm not at all familiar with the TV show, and I'd kind of hoped that that would make it more appealing, because a lot of the criticism seemed to revolve around the changes that were made. The fact that it's advertised as a "comedy about a musical" also lurked at the back of my mind.

Unfortunately, I don't think there was any salvaging this without massive rewrites, which is ironic given the plot. The bones of a decent farce are in there somewhere, but Bob Martin's book is just an endless string of tired sitcom jokes and it was kind of hard to watch this cast trying to soup them up into something palatable. Ivy's business with the witchy method acting coach would've been old hat thirty years ago, so why is she the show's primary antagonist? This is the kind of material that turns up in a late-season Will & Grace b-plot.

The songs being almost completely unintegrated was also a huge mistake. It's not that they're all diagetic rehearsal/production numbers, but that they have almost no bearing at all on the plot of the show or the state of mind of the characters. If they'd been reshaped to more clearly reflect the action, it would make sense in a Cabaret/Kiss Me Kate way, but the connections are tenuous at best. Outside of the fact that they're mostly pretty good songs, there's no compelling reason to pay attention to them because they're not saying much.

One thing this show helped me appreciate is the degree to which Shaiman and Wittman were clearly hamstrung by Smash's score when writing Some Like It Hot. They'd already pumped out almost 40 Marilyn-adjacent songs for the TV show, and hearing the Smash score in the theatre it was impossible to deny that these are far superior to what they wrote for SLIH. The lyrics are tighter, funnier, and there's remarkably little of the syllabic torturing that plagues their worst work.

Let Me Be Your Star gets sung multiple times so of course it sticks in your ear, but Don't Say Yes was terrific (and not just because of the gyrating hunks of man meat), and I really loved the mounting, menacing chaos during 20th Century Fox Mambo - that whole sequence could've carried on for another ten minutes and I would've been happy. They Just Keep Moving The Line is also probably the closest the show comes to successfully synchronizing a song to the plot itself.

I will admit to laughing a lot during the diarrhea muffin sequence ("Ivy's in Utica and Karen's EXPLODING" got me) but three Marilyns is ridiculous. I was almost hoping there would eventually be like twelve Marilyns running around or something, but Chloe doesn't even want the part and she barely has an impact on the plot.

Just a bizarre experience. I liked the matzo ball joke, though.