Smash
About the only thing that will hold Smash from being a smash will be if it doesn’t find an audience. And that’s big "if." While "Glee" may have made popular the format of integrating musical numbers into a mainstream narrative, it is still something of an anomaly on the television landscape. For every "Glee," there was a "Viva Laughlin" or a "Cop Rock" - similar attempts that failed miserably.
What may make "Smash" the exception is how it is simply a variation on a well-tuned formula: the backstage drama, which has been part of the movie landscape since the early days of film musicals ("42nd Street") and been integral to some well-worn soaps ("Imitation of Life," "Valley of the Dolls"). In the case of "Smash," it is a dramatic soap well-rooted in the Broadway experience. Anyone who has seen "Show Business," Dori Bernstein’s documentary that followed four Broadway musicals through their production pains, knows that there’s enough drama behind the scenes for a half-dozen television series. "Smash" hopes to capitalize on that drama.
It does have the good fortune of being shepherded by a number of insiders, primarily Theresa Rebeck, a Broadway playwright equally at home on network television. Rebeck is a sharp writer of plays that invite comparison to David Mamet ("Mauritius," "The Understudy") in her often-cynical outlook and pointed dialogue. Her television work includes "NYPD Blue," "Law & Order: Criminal Intent" and the innovative HBO series "Dream On." In short, she has chops and knows her stuff.
Her concept is to chronicle a Broadway musical about Marilyn Monroe from inception through production. What makes "Smash" unique is the "reality" element: the musical that is being written will -- if "Smash" catches on -- find its way to Broadway at some future date. To that end, the team of Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman (from ’Hairspray") were brought on to write the songs that, presumably, will be used in the musical, with Rebeck supplying the libretto.
So even before it premieres, ’Smash" is a franchise-in-the-making. This may be why the pilot (which premieres on Monday, February 6 on NBC) has such high gloss. (The 43-minute film was said to have cost $7.5 million.) It was initially pitched to Showtime (by Steven Spielberg, no less, who is on hand as its executive producer); the cable network passed and a somewhat scrubbed "Smash" was sold to NBC, which has it pegged for Monday night broadcasts in conjunction with the singing competition "The Voice" over thirteen weeks.
Will their expensive gamble pay off? Judging from the pilot, the only thing that will hold "Smash" back is whether audiences will take to its healthy mix of soap opera and musical theater. What Rebeck and her collaborators (who include Shaiman, Wittman and Broadway director Michael Mayer, who staged "Spring Awakening" and "American Idiot") have done is create a slick look at the contemporary musical theater. Things may have changed since Margo Channing stormed the boards with "All About Eve" (note the sophisticated keyboards and use of the Internet), but the volatile emotions remain the same.
Rebeck even includes an Eve Harrington-like character: Ellis Tancharoen (Jaime Cepero), assistant to composer Tom Levitt (Christian Borle) - who in the first episode shows that he’s not the sweet, naïve show-biz newbie that he initially appears to be. He even has an Eve Harrington-like speech about his love of the musical theater that melts Levitt’s heart, but not that of Julia Houston (Debra Messing, his wary collaborator. Ellis is also the catalyst for the Marilyn musical’s initial conception. As he points out, if "Wicked" and "Jersey Boys" can be subjects for a musical, why not Marilyn Monroe?
There are, of course, complications. Julia has told her husband Frank (Brian d’Arcy James ) that she is taking a year off so they adopt a child. Eileen Rand (a terrific Anjelica Huston), the show’s producer, may have her considerable funds tied up in a divorce proceedings with a spiteful tycoon (Michael Cristofer), and Tom and the show’s director-choreographer Derek Wills (Jack Davenport) loathe each other.
There’s also the question of the subject matter itself, which was tried once before in a splashy 1983 flop: "Marilyn: A Musical Fable" that ran 17 performances and brought this withering comment from the New York Times’ Frank Rich: "On top of its many other failings, ’Marilyn’ is incoherent to the point of being loony. I defy anyone to explain - just for starters - why 10 chorus boys dressed in pink plumbers’ costumes sing a song about bubble baths at the climax of Act II."
There are no chorus boys dressed in pink plumbers’ costumes (yet) in the Marilyn musical being created in this series, but there are chorus boys dressed as baseball players waving phallic bats in a sexually-suggestive number about baseball as seen in an audition sequence. That song, entitled "The National Pasttime," along with a ballad "Never Give All the Heart," and the anthemic "Let Me Be Your Star" are the additions by Shaiman and Wittman. There are also standards ("Over the Rainbow") and pop songs ("Beautiful") that are nicely integrated into the narrative.
The numbers are given "Chicago"-like treatment; that is, naturalism gives way to a heightened musical reality as the songs are performed as if they were on a Broadway stage. It’s a clever hook that gets you from the onset: this a story about the nitty-gritty of putting a show together that never loses sight of the great dream these talents collaborate to bring to life. Whether this "Marilyn" will follow in the footsteps of its predecessor remains to be seen, but - at least judging from this pilot - it’s a journey well worth following.
What may be key to "Smash’s" success is the "American Idol"-like competition at its center: that, is, who will play Marilyn? Sweet newcomer Karen Cartwright (former "Idol" finalist Katherine McPhee) and seasoned veteran Ivy Lynn (Megan Hilty) compete for the role. (At one point Scarlett Johansson’s name was bandied about, but apparently Scar Jo was not available. )
The first episode sets up this dynamic as both actresses make convincing cases as to why they should be chosen. Over the next few months audiences have the opportunity to be caught up in the drama. Whether they will or not, remains to be seen; but let’s hope they do. "Smash" is smartly conceived, cannily executed and, best of all, true to the tradition of the backstage musical - it’s "Moneyball" for the Broadway theater.
Smash can be seen Mondays at 10pm on NBC. To stream the pilot episode, visit the show’s website.
