Thoughts on the NBC show "Smash"?

[nicthediva]

Posted: 7/29/12 at 12:35am

Most of my other 13 year old theatre-obsessed friends *cough* competition *cough* seem to love this show, I love it too. But, we're not on Broadway, and we're not professional actors. From someone who has experienced thee audition-rehearsel-performance process for Broadway shows, or someone who just knows a great deal about the process, is it accurate? Obviously I know a director would never highly consider casting a no-name, green, never-on-Broadway actress for a lead, but besides from that, is it all similar to a typical show on Broadway?




Updated On: 7/29/12 at 12:35 AM

[dramamama611]

Posted: 7/29/12 at 9:19am

No. Think of it as a nighttime soap opera with a backdrop of a b'way show.


If you search, there is a very long thread discussing this show. I've linked the main one below. It's almost 100 pages -- it is NOT all love.


Read Me

Updated On: 7/29/12 at 09:19 AM

[tazber]

Posted: 7/29/12 at 9:26am

It's total fantasy. Read the thread dramamama linked for two reasons:

It's the main thread on the show and it will be the most active for thread for seasons to come.

Welcome to the boards, btw!

[NewYorkYankee2006]

Posted: 7/29/12 at 10:01am

awsome! on edge now about what happens to poor ivy. her life on the show, is mirroring marilyn's. ivy was having affairs just like marilyn and now she was last seen with a bottle of pills just like what happened to marilyn monroe in real life. the lead, should have definately been ivy's. she looks and sounds like marilyn.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 7/29/12 at 12:53pm

"I know a director would never highly consider casting a no-name, green, never-on-Broadway actress for a lead"

It would never happen. All actresses must start in the chorus or playing bit parts on Broadway and then move to the star spot only when they are deemed ready.
--Carol Burnett, Once Upon A Mattress
--Julie Andrews, The Boy Friend
--Ethel Merman, Girl Crazy

[dramamama611]

Posted: 7/29/12 at 1:05pm

You have to admit, those are pretty dated examples.

[yankeefan7]

Posted: 7/29/12 at 1:33pm

dramamama611 - yep, that is show in a nutshell which is not a bad thing IMO. I did not expect it to be a 100% accurate description of life on bringing a show to Broadway.

[Jon]

Posted: 7/29/12 at 2:28pm

Modern example - Sutton Foster as Millie. She had basically been an ensemble member until then, like Ivy.

[TheatreDiva90016]

Posted: 7/29/12 at 3:39pm

She was not originally cast in the role.

[TheHappyPhantom]

Posted: 7/29/12 at 3:50pm

it's really bad. It plays like something written by a bunch of playwriting 101 students who wanted to force all their frustrations with broadway into flat, stock characters. If you can get past the awful cliche' dialogue, the acting will ruin it for you. And I cant stand the forced reactions of the people who watch auditions on the show. Gasping and smiling like idiots, as if they've never seen a performance before. It's not as bad as Glee, but it's on its way.

[TheEnchantedHunter]

Posted: 7/29/12 at 10:00pm

I'm watching The Band Wagon and there is more truth about mounting a show in any one of its scenes of comic farce than in the entire lame season of Smash....put together.

[JulesReverie]

Posted: 7/30/12 at 12:46am

Smash is about as accurate to Broadway as Secret Life of the American Teenager is to high school

[Neverandy]

Posted: 7/30/12 at 10:36am

I think the comparison of Sutton Foster to McPhee's character (in terms of an unknown actress being cast as the lead in a broadway musical) is quite a stretch. Millie opened on Broadway 6 years after her Broadway Debut in 1996. In that show (Grease)she was the Understudy to the lead. She then was in the OBC of The Scarlett Pimpernell, another high profile gig. Her next show, the following year was Annie in which she played the Star To Be-a pretty decent featured role. After that she went into Les Mis as an ensemble member covering Eponine. Maybe Audiences might have thought of her as a "No-Name" but she certainly wasn't an unknown quantity within the business ( casting directors, etc). And in comparison to Erin Dilly (who she famously replaced) her "q rating" would pretty much have been the same with audiences.
4 broadway shows at the top of her resume- 1 of them with a big feature and 2 of them covering major characters is a lot different than McPhee's "fresh off the bus" character on Smash. If anything, Sutton Foster circa 2001 is more akin to Hilty's character.

Updated On: 7/30/12 at 10:36 AM

[adamgreer]

Posted: 7/30/12 at 11:06am

I would share my thoughts on the show, but I can't. I'm in tech!

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 7/30/12 at 1:21pm

I wish we had talked about the show while it was on the air!

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 7/30/12 at 5:16pm

--Carol Burnett, Once Upon A Mattress
--Julie Andrews, The Boy Friend
--Ethel Merman, Girl Crazy

Not only are these examples dated, as dramamama points out, all three women had extensive professional experience elsewhere. Carol Burnett had done several TV shows in NYC as well as night clubs; Julie Andrews had been performing since she was a child, Merman was a well-known night club singer in Manhattan.

Yes, all three had great success at early ages, but SMASH would have us believe that Kat McPhee just got off the bus from Iowa. Apparently, she never even sang at a private party before the LI bar mitzvah!

I'm not sure why the writers thought the interesting choice was to make Karen such a dewy-eyed naif. Actually, the early bios of the women above, Foster and even McPhee herself make for better stories. Imagine if Karen had done well on a "TV talent show" only to discover she wasn't taken seriously in New York! Already more interesting than what we saw and with actual conflict.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 7/30/12 at 5:23pm

Was Karen non-Equity?

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 7/30/12 at 11:22pm

Was Karen non-Equity?

Lord knows, she acted as if she'd never been on stage before, much less in a union production. But at this point, I've forgotten how she got her audition.

[E.Davis]

Posted: 7/30/12 at 11:25pm

We never found out.

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 7/30/12 at 11:28pm

^^^No wonder I don't recall!

[E.Davis]

Posted: 7/30/12 at 11:38pm

She just had it, then she got a call from her...wait for it....AGENT!

[adamgreer]

Posted: 7/31/12 at 12:46am

The only example I can think of is Betty Buckley, who says she arrived in New York and went straight from either the airport or bus station to her audition for 1776 and was hired almost immediately.

Of course, that's her version of the story. Who knows how much embellishment there is.

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 7/31/12 at 3:52am

Well, even assuming her version is literally accurate, there has to be more to the story. How did she even HAVE an audition scheduled on the day she arrived? Obviously, her agent had made arrangements in advance.

Wiki claims she sang at the Miss America pageant a few years before (where she was discovered by her agent) and then toured Vietnam, performing for the troops. So maybe her agent got her an audition with a tape.

Yet another story more interesting than SMASH. LOL.

[JakePinckes]

Posted: 7/31/12 at 9:19am

Maybe it was an open call...?

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 7/31/12 at 6:20pm

I thought open calls for principal roles were rare on Broadway, except when a role is difficult to cast because it requires a certain ethnicity, special skills, etc. (This is as opposed to the union-required interviews, of course.) That's why all my actor-singer friends were so desperate to get agents: not because they needed contracts negotiated, but because it was the entree into the world of agent submissions and principal auditions.

Of course, I'm sure there were exceptions and, being so extraordinary, Buckley might even have been cast out of an open chorus call. But since she HAD an agent (per Wiki), I think it's more likely the audition was scheduled in advance.

Which makes getting a principal Broadway role on your first day in NYC no less unlikely!