Smash: "The Workshop"
Tuesday, March 20, 2012 at 9:43PM We cover Smash each week. Are you watching?
Bernadette dreams of stardom for Megan Hilty... sort of.
In last night's episode Eileen (Anjelica Huston) presented her workshop of "Marilyn The Musical" to potential investors but though no one literally broke a leg, things went wrong. The building had major heat problems souring the mood. Ivy (Megan Hilty) was plagued by her insecurity and distracted by her legendary showbiz mother Lee Conroy (very special guest star Bernadette Peters. Yes!), Karen (Katharine McPhee) fell during a big number distracting focus from Ivy. Julia (Debra Messing) and Michael's (Will Chase) affair came to a tearful end after Julia realized her son knew.
The building heat made the investors uncomfortable and immediately we're smelling blood. Who gets blamed? The show dangled more "star" rivals for Hilty (Uma Thurman will appear in 5 upcoming episodes) including Sutton Foster and Scarlett Johansson. And in a sharply acted gutpunch moment, the episode's most interesting beat, unspoken discomfort with Julia's affair resulted in Michael being blamed for the workshop's failure. Overall an uneven episode that felt more like a pivot point than a peak. What comes next? Besides new love affairs for Eileen and Tom, that is, which are being super-telegraphed in advance for some reason.
Set List: Originals - Medley of all the tunes we've heard thus far (company), "Lexington and 52nd Street" (Chase); Jukebox Tunes - "Brighter than the Sun" (McPhee); Showtunes: "Everything's Coming Up Roses" (Bernadette Peters),
Best ? Moment: Bernadette's uncomfortable exit. This showbiz mom has trouble with feelings but gives it a go anyway. Someone is gunning for a Best Guest Actress Emmy.
Gay Gay Gay: The chorus boys total delight watching Bernadette Peters perform. I relate.
Anjelica Awesomeness: "That's enough. I won't pretend this isn't useful information but if I hear that you've repeated this..." Eileen is willing to use sneaky evil Ellis, but she knows when to show him who's boss.
Curtain Call: I've already forgotten exactly how this episode ended. It petered out? But speaking of curtains... Loved that bit when Sam moved the curtain to show the ensemble that Ivy could hear them. Ouch.
Grade: B
-Guys you wanna maybe shut up? She can hear you."
-Sorry."
Previous Episodes
1 Pilot 2-3 The Callback and Enter Joe DiMaggio 4-6 The Cost of Art, Let's Be Bad, and Chemistry
Bernadette Peters, Smash, TV
Reader Comments (11)
Bernadette Peters really sold that last heart-to-heart moment with Ivy - I completely bought it when I was watching. On reflection, though, I'm having some buyer's remorse. Here's my problem: if her feelings about her daughter and showbiz were genuine, I'd have expected her to use her fame and connections to help her daughter's career, so she *wouldn't* have such a hard time. I could buy a storyline where (1) Mom did try to help, but Ivy refused, or (2) she *didn't* help because she's so used to being the center of attention that she didn't want her daughter to upstage her. But neither of these seems to be the case. Also, on a more trivial note, I'm not buying that she would squeeze into Ivy's apartment for a visit. I know Broadway stars generally don't make movie-star money, but surely someone who's clearly the fictional equivalent of, well, Bernadette Peters, would be able to swing for a hotel!
Michael Swift is exiting, right? I'm glad. Dude can sang but his character was *so* poorly written I couldn't stand it any time he did anything other than sing. Debra Messing deserves better. Have to say I can't remember the last time I liked a character so much and disliked every single one of her storylines so much.
I liked the episode, and I liked the show, but the whole "Leo knows" thing seemed kind of false to me. If I knew my Mom was having an affair when I was sixteen, I would have said something, screamed, clung to my dad, or something. Leo did what? Smoked weed? Made cryptic references? Cried when Mom said it was over. There's something about that that seems too...contrived? I wish they would write the Leo character a little more competely, give him some dimensions. I know people think the guy playing Leo is a bad actor, and maybe he is, but I don't think he's being given enough to work with. His character is thrown into this really volatile situation, but he's only given the most stereotypical and cursory ways to react. Still, the show is compelling, even on an off-night. I really hope it doesn't get cancelled because I am hooked.
I love this show so much a lot of people seem to have an issue with the affair stirrings but I think it works mainly because these characters are performers and writers working in a supercharged environment it rang as totally realistic that Michael would act so stupidly and in your face. Oh and Anjelica must win an Emmy
Darn autocorrect stirrings = storyline
I hope Bernie gets an Emmy nom for this. She holds an audience like NO ONE else can...her performance of "Everything's Coming Up Roses" made all the previous pop karaoke stylings from the show seem like a joke. She sounded amazing, acted wonderfully (the final scene with her daughter was quite poignant in spite of the stereotypes her character embodies), and she entertained as only the best can. Cheers to one of our Broadway greats! That said, for a show that is supposedly a tribute to Broadway, why is this the first Broadway standard we've heard from the show? Please please please do more. There's a reason why these songs are iconic.
am i alone in thinking that this whole episode was undone by peter's bad eye job?
@Lylee: Ditto everything you said about Ivy's mother. Either she's an attention whore who can't stand sharing the spotlight or a concerned parent who doesn't want her daughter facing the heartbreak of a brutal industry. It's a testament to Peters's abilities that it somehow worked (to an extent), but none of it really made sense.
I, as well, am glad to see Michael Swift go. I understand that human desire is a potent thing, but making the character so blatant and uncompromising in his pursuit of Julia was just so...distasteful to me, maybe because it read kind of false. Would someone with as much to lose as he be that unrepentant?
My main issue with the show as it stands are Karen and Ivy -- both singularly and as rivals. Karen needs more bite, more fire, more self-interest. Nobody who moves halfway across the country with visions of stardom in her eyes would blow off a meeting with a record producer to hangout in the ensemble of a workshop. It's as if the show runners want the audience to root for her at the expensive of making her interesting. Though Ivy is more multi-dimensional, I still get the sense that they want us to root against her, just because she's the more experienced New York type. If were are to believe this rivalry, there needs to be a lot more deliberate give and take between the two.
I loved the medley. All of the original songs are just so great! like Julia and Tom, i totally agree that the heat did not help things at all.
I have to wonder if that's the last we'll see of Michael Swift though. I mean, the man was just relentless and i'm sure he won't be like "well, that's ok" when he hears that his ass has been fired.
I still have issues with Karen. Oh man, she is just so bland. You could have cut her parts out completely and not made a hint of a difference. Plus, i can see why Ivy would be so irritated with her. Everything DOES fall in her lap with Karen giving the least amount of effort. Ivy's "friends" have completely bonded with her, that contract with the dude who (non-suprisingly) "loves" her voice, etc. Somehow, Ivy is going to get incapacitated enough for Karen to get the lead role (maybe an art imitating life thing with Marilyn and pills) and at this point, Karen does not deserve it. As the lead character who the audience is supposed to root for, she falls flat.
If Smash is a success and is on for several + years, then the writers have time to flesh out Karen's character and give her more colors and dimensions.
My love/hate relationship with this show continues. Part of the problem - for me - is the Karen character. I find it impossible to believe that someone would ever advance as far as she has while acting like a total simpleton. The chorus members giving dance lessons to her ? Helping her with her pages ? Nothing rings true with her character or storyline.
Thank goodness for DV-R. I usually speed thru her songs ... simply painful.
While watching this episode I started thinking that I have no idea of how it'll fare with award groups. It's not well-written or critically acclaimed enough to sweep, but neithher is Glee and that show has done pretty well. But Glee competes as a Comedy, will Smash be a Drama at the Emmys? And acting-wise? Who could benefit from playing this oddly-behaving characters? I guess Messing has the best shot, and she's great, but as someone else pointed out, her character is completely unbelievable.