Smile the musical

[JohnyBroadway]

Posted: 4/19/13 at 12:17am

I just came up on this old 60 minutes spot on Smile. It's a shame that it was a flop. Ashman's lyrics were so clever and witty. But I guess without it, would Ashman have ended up landing a project at Disney? Or would Benson have voiced Ariel for Mermaid. Hamlisch and Ashman seemed like such an odd pairing.


Smile on 60 minutes! Updated On: 4/19/13 at 12:17 AM

[darquegk]

Posted: 4/19/13 at 12:24am

The show had its problems on Broadway. Most of them are fixed in the licensed version of the show, but a few years back Hamlisch authorized a small-scale revisal at a regional theatre, and even worked somewhat closely with the production to fix the remaining flaws in the show. Unfortunately, I don't think this second revision was ever documented.

One of my issues with the show is how it seems to have a crisis of purpose: is it an overall critique of the American "youth and beauty complex," or a topical up-to-the-minute satire on the Miss America scandals of the 80s? Any time the show dips deeply into Eighties references and trivia, the topical jokes and references seem dated, because they were so specific then, but did not age well. (Hence, post-topical jokes in period pieces always play better than topical jokes in the original period: references to "Nancy," Geraldine Ferraro, and a truly awful pun related to Jane Fonda as workout guru fly by faster than you can put the pieces together.)

[rosscoe(au)]

Posted: 4/19/13 at 3:28am

I think Encores need to take a look at this show.

[~tiny~]

Posted: 4/19/13 at 5:06am

The film, however, is fantastic!!

[goldenboy]

Posted: 4/21/13 at 12:19am

I saw the show and it was a mess. The problem seemed to be that the creators were trying to make us root for one of the girls as opposed to satirizing beauty contests as the film did. For example, one girl was so American that she dreamed of "Disneyland" and sang this insipid song about Disneyland. That doesn't satirize beauty contests; its was trying to get us root for that perky all American Contestant who loved Disneyland. I remember rolling my eyes a lot.

[Scarywarhol]

Posted: 4/21/13 at 1:26am

I only know Disneyland as a song outside of the context of the show, and it is certainly a very self-aware song. Ironic and sincere at once, which is what Ashman was so wonderful at. It's about the artificiality of a dream, and choosing to ignore it. And I think it's one of his best lyrics. But maybe it did not work so well within the framework of the show.

[JohnyBroadway]

Posted: 4/21/13 at 1:30am

Ashman was the best at expressing I want numbers.

[sondhead]

Posted: 4/21/13 at 2:22pm

"For example, one girl was so American that she dreamed of "Disneyland" and sang this insipid song about Disneyland. That doesn't satirize beauty contests; its was trying to get us root for that perky all American Contestant who loved Disneyland."

If you think that's the point of "Disneyland," you should look at it and the show as a whole again. That's not what's going on with that song.

I saw the Broadway production (via the Lincoln Center Archive Taping) and, while enjoyable, there's a fair amount of it that doesn't work. From most accounts, it seems like the production process was plagued by... well a lot of stuff. I won't speculate publicly, but suffice it to say the Broadway production was pretty far from what Ashman and Hamlisch had intended when setting out to write the show. If you look at the progression of drafts of the show (in the Ashman papers at the Library of Congress), you find that the currently-licensed "revision" of the show is actually very nearly Ashman's very first draft. I don't know that even that version on Broadway would have been a big hit, but I don't think it would have been quite the flop that the version that played Broadway was. It's a sound work with a lot of interesting and compelling material, in my opinion at least, and I sure wish it would get produced regionally by a first rate theatre. People should see it!

[darquegk]

Posted: 4/21/13 at 4:50pm

With the recent death of Marvin Hamlisch, I wonder if the "revised revised production" will get produced again, or if it will be shelved forever.

[goldenboy]

Posted: 4/21/13 at 5:41pm

You mean if I went to the library of Congress and researched all of the drafts (what 17? 1700? 17,000?) I would see what a great show it was? As much as I would like to do that (Not) , I have a life and I can only judge by what I saw.

Disneyland was sentimental schlock trying to make us care for a character while the tone of "Smile" the movie was satire. They are in total opposite arenas.

[best12bars]

Posted: 4/21/13 at 6:56pm

I saw the original production on Broadway, and I disagree with everything goldenboy has said so far.

Disneyland nearly stopped the show when Benson sang it, and I remember thinking, "Who the f*cK is that??" when she sang it. It was a star-making number, in a show that was quickly forgotten. Benson managed to make her mark regardless.

The big problem with "Smile" isn't even the '80s references, which definitely are dated. I loved them at at the time, and thought Ashman was a modern-day Ira Gershwin (who also used many current references in his lyrics, as did Lorenz Hart and Cole Porter).

The problem is that beauty pageants in general don't hold the place they used to in the public eye. They were mainstream pop culture back then.

Not at all today.

That alone makes the show irrelevant to a modern audience.

[Scarywarhol]

Posted: 4/21/13 at 8:04pm

It's fine not to like the song, but if you think that Disneyland is only sentimental schlock, you just aren't listening very hard.

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 4/21/13 at 8:09pm

The problem is that beauty pageants in general don't hold the place they used to in the public eye. They were mainstream pop culture back then.

That makes sense. Sort of like dance marathons. I find them fascinating, but I realize the general public doesn't care.

[darquegk]

Posted: 4/21/13 at 8:47pm

I honestly believe that Smile has been essentially usurped by Spelling Bee. The shows are extremely similar in subject matter, tone and execution, but each one deals with a different cultural ritual/rite of passage/painful experience.

[Wilmingtom]

Posted: 4/22/13 at 6:57pm

I really believe it's all in the execution. No, beauty pageants don't have the cultural currency they used to, but I'll bet more people are invested in the Miss America Pageant than in the National Spelling Bee, and of course Spelling Bee was a much bigger hit. I saw the original production and felt the problem was that it eschewed the scathing satire that made the movie so much fun, and that the authors originally intended. The licensed version restored that. And btw, Disneyland stopped the show.

[jv92]

Posted: 4/22/13 at 9:05pm

I know that Howard's sister has been trying for years to get a new production on, along with the first Menken-Ashman show, GOD BLESS YOU MR. ROSEWATER, which has a great score-- yet no cast album.

sondhead, Are Ashman's papers available to view? I mean, obviously they must be since you've seen them, but I thought they were still being catalogued.

[JohnyBroadway]

Posted: 4/22/13 at 11:15pm

Speaking of Disneyland!
Jodi Benson (1986) live

[Scarywarhol]

Posted: 4/23/13 at 12:48am

GOD BLESS YOU MR. ROSEWATER really deserves another look. The score is as good as anything that Ashman or Menken ever wrote. Clever, smart, funny, sincere, deeply moving, and hummable. A true precursor to LITTLE SHOP. I do hope it gets more attention someday, even though much of it is dated, if only by being tied to the source material (no disrespect to Mr. Vonnegut!) and its era.

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 4/23/13 at 1:11am

I love (from the live recording and the demo) God Bless You Mr Rosewater, too. I'm glad to see others on here do--I know at least one poster always picks it in his "worst musicals ever" lists, so I was beginning to think I was alone (there is a rather awful community production with clips on youtube...)

About ten years back there was talk of doing a studio recording of the score (it may have even been 15 years back, I believe Menken was planning it,) but nothing happened. I doubt the show could ever have huge success, but it deserves another look and has some real gems. (Funny, a friend of mine a couple of years back was reading Vonnegut's novel and said, out of the blue, he thought it would make a great, little quirky musical--having no idea that it had been, although he is a huge Little Shop fan.)

As for Smile--I love Disneyland and to call it sentimental schlock IMHO does miss the point entirely. You don't have to like it, and I could see it being argued that it doesn't work in the context of the show (again is it meant to be full on satire or not?) but the lyrics obviously are going for something more than just sentimentality. I watched the Marvin Hamlisch PBS special last New Years with my mom, and she had never heard the song before but when it was over went on about how great it was. (Not that I think Goldenboy should like it cuz my mom did :P )

PS Classics on their website for their Howard Ashman demos CD has a fascinating transcription of a meeting the writers had with Bob Fosse trying to get him to do Smile back in '85. http://www.psclassics.com/cd_ashman_transcript.html

JohnyBroadway--thanks for the great video link! However, I think Ashman got offered the job with Disney based almost entirely on Little Shop (I'm sure I've read that many times.) But I bet Smile is how Jodi got chosen for Ariel.

[sondhead]

Posted: 4/23/13 at 9:58am

I think comparing Spelling Bee and Smile is not really fair. Smile has comedic elements, but its source material is a pretty dark satire. Ashman made it a little more hopeful with the character journey that Robin goes through, but I think the way he chose to end the piece speaks a great deal to the fact that Ashman considered his take on it to be a satirically biting commentary on what people are willing to do to win, be it a beauty pageant, a promotion, the American dream etc. etc.

The Ashman papers are, I believe, still being catalogued, but they are available for viewing, or at least were as of Spring 2011. There is a typed out list that Howard's sister made that broadly describes what is in each of the many boxes of materials, and using that you can request specific boxes. It's got everything from his preliminary plot sketch for Little Shop of Horrors (in which Seymour was to kill Orin by stabbing him with his drill and later knowingly let Audrey II kill and eat Audrey) to letters and cards that were sent to him during his final hospital stay, some delivered after his death. Fascinating heartbreaking stuff. He was a real genius in my opinion, and I'm beyond elated that these things ended up in the Library of Congress.

I think that Ashman already had the Disney gig by the time he was working on Smile, at least the beginnings of it. And yes, I think it was primarily Little Shop and then his love of the genre of animation that got him the job. I've always found the fact that he went to Disney after writing "Disneyland" to be fairly ironic. There are multiple ways to look at that song, but to me, in the context of the show, it's not really a pro-Disney song, at least from the dramatist's perspective.

[Kad]

Posted: 4/23/13 at 10:40am

Ashman was a master of a sort of sincere irony, which is how he can makes references to "big, enormous 12-inch screens" work without nudging the audience in the ribs and winking. And it's that quality that makes people misread the sincerity and go for the irony.

[newintown]

Posted: 4/23/13 at 11:27am

God, that was a long time ago. I remember seeing the original, as I knew a couple of the girls in it, excitedly making their Broadway debuts, sure they were on the first step to stardom.

I remember sitting there aghast, watching this corporate-sponsored show (I forget now - was it Nike or Reebok?); the movie was a dark satire about the ridiculousness of all beauty pageants. The musical toothlessly and timidly mocked pageants a bit, but spent most of its time on endless pounding and repetitious inspirational group numbers, which appeared actually to glorify pageants.

It felt like money (or love of money) had sabotaged the show, leaving it as glossy and meaningless as a real pageant.

[newintown]

Posted: 4/23/13 at 11:33am

And about "Disneyland" - yes, the audience loved it, but I think that was more because Hamlisch knows how to write a good ol' power ballad, and Benson had the voice to knock it out. But the song doesn't say much - "My childhood was boring, but I saw Disneyland on TV, and it looked beautiful - I know it's all fake, but I don't care." Not really what you'd call an "inspirational" statement, but the music builds, and the sound guy turns her mic up for the last phrase, and everyone goes nuts. That's all that's there.

[darquegk]

Posted: 4/23/13 at 11:51am

I can't help but wonder if "Smile" is one of the bits of musical-theatre ephemera that "Smash" has pulled for its mythology: the evolution, de-evolution and then re-evolution of Smile's libretto from the darker and more ironic original book to a shinier but critically panned book at the actual premiere, back to the original book instead with its rough edges.

[JohnyBroadway]

Posted: 4/23/13 at 1:22pm

I meant to say had Smile been a hit, do you think Ashman would've continued to work on more Broadway project Vs. at Disney. Either way he ended up at where he belonged reviving Broadway in animation.