Smash: Mommy Dearest

Last week on “Smash”: Ivy rejoined Bombshell! Sam’s back! Jimmy and Derek don’t get along! Julia screwed Scott over a decade and a half ago! Everybody danced in Tom’s apartment! Eileen worked to get publicity for Bombshell! Jamey Sheridan! Ana singing! Sam and Tom fighting! JIMMY KISSING KAREN!

Smash!


Ana and Karen’s apartment. Clothing is strewn everywhere as Karen comes out of a bedroom clad in an oversized purple t-shirt. She starts making coffee as Jimmy comes out wrapped in a fugly blanket. He hugs her from behind and they talk about the time. And then decide to go have more sexytimes before rehearsals began. But the buzzer interrupts them; it’s Karen’s dad—Dylan Baker—and he’s in town for a business trip! So Karen lets Dad up while tossing Jimmy his clothing. And sends him out the window, like a college kid and not a grown woman.

She opens the door and Dad’s like, “Did you forget I was coming?” Karen says she had wanted to clean but girl isn’t even in real clothing. She hurries to change while Dad spies a leather jacket clad man running down the fire escape. He’s probably thinking, “She really needs to hide her boyfriend? Really?” Karen invites her father to see some of “Hit List” at rehearsal and he agrees.

Uptown, Linda meets Ivy and Sam before they enter the building and tells Ivy the creatives want to see her. Tom admits to Julia he hasn’t told Ivy about Bernadette yet and she asks why. He says he didn’t want to tell her over the phone. As another poster said, why couldn’t he have invited her out for coffee? Given her the heads up that way? Because ambushes are not cool, Tom. And ambush Ivy, they do. She’s worried she’s being fired but they assure it is not.

Eileen tells Ivy they’ve found their Gladys (AKA Marilyn’s mother). “Patti Lupone?” Ivy asks hopefully. Nope and she realizes who it is as Bernadette calls for her. Bernadette hugs her daughter and Eileen says it was a great story: the legendary Leigh Conroy stepping out of retirement to star opposite of her daughter. It’s the role of a lifetime, though Sam notes under his breath “she already has that role” as he walks past. Oh, Leslie Odom, Jr., I missed you! But Bernadette says she won’t take the role unless Ivy approves. With everyone staring at her, Ivy has no choice but to do so.

Downtown, Karen performs “Broadway, Here I Come.” Oh. Boy. Look, you know I am generally a fan of Katharine McPhee but man that was a poor rendition of the song. Especially compared to Jeremy Jordan’s from the pilot. It was missing the same emotional umph Jordan instinctively put in which shows the difference between someone with more of a pop background (like McPhee) and someone with more of a theater background (like Jordon, Rodriquez, Mientus, Borle, Hilty, etc). Fortunately for us, it’s short but unfortunately for Karen, Dad doesn’t seem impressed. He doesn’t understand why she left “Bombshell” for this. Karen tries to explain why while everyone tries to find Jimmy.

Where is Jimmy? He’s around the corner and will be there shortly…until he spots Some Guy. Apparently, he played Some Guy on Gossip Girl as well. Jimmy hangs up on Kyle while trying to get away from Some Guy. But Some Guy wants his money and will go all Stewie Griffin on Jimmy. Jimmy argues that he doesn’t have but Some Guy isn’t having it. He says he knows he’s a big musical artist now. Well, not really. And how much does Some Guy think the theater pays?

Scott talks to Derek about the New York Manhattan Theater Workshop’s annual fundraiser that night. Karen is going to sing “Broadway, Here I Come” at it (maybe Jimmy should instead?) but Scott wants Ana to perform a song. Derek is afraid he’s cutting Karen but Scott assures him Ana is the second performance. Meanwhile, Dad still doesn’t know why Karen left Bombshell until he sees Derek’s leather jacket. Then he starts to get a sneaking suspicion. Which is correct—Karen left Bombshell for a man—but wrong about which man she left it for.

In rehearsals, Bobby says it best when he utters our quote of the episode: Where’s the catfight? Bernadette and Ivy are acting like two people who hate each other but have been told to be on their best behavior. The problem is the scene is supposed to be a tense one between Gladys and Norma Jean. Norma Jean wants to go live with the neighbors because of Gladys’ mental instability. Tom wants them to have tension. But Bernadette argues that it’s a mother who just wants to do right by her daughter. Everyone realizes they are just being way too sweet. Julia tells Tom to get them to be tense soon. Tech is looming! If that’s the case, why did you wait so long to cast Gladys? I know it was decided late in the game to include her but once the decision was made, she should’ve been cast ASAP!

Jimmy finally shows up after being threatened by Some Guy. Everyone’s like “FINALLY!” But then they just continue on. Karen and Jimmy have a talk. He asks her if she told anyone about them and she replies she didn’t. Jimmy thinks they shouldn’t talk about it because of them being colleagues and all. Karen hesitantly agrees. Don’t ignore the red flags, Karen!

Outside, Karen asks her dad to come to the benefit that night. He agrees before making a snide comment to Derek about boys sneaking around on the fire escape. Derek is confused.

Uptown, Sam talks with Bernadette about why she took the role of Gladys. She tells him that she didn’t really want to do it but Tom begged her. And since Tom is persona-non-grata in Sam’s book, he believes it. Most viewers, though, take it with a grain of salt. After all, this is Bernadette as Leigh—she’s bound to make herself sound better.

Bernadette returns as Tom asks her and Ivy to tackle the scene again. As they start, Tom stops them. He asks Ivy about being the daughter of Leigh Conroy. Bernadette jumps in and says she was pregnant with Ivy when doing “Anything Goes.” Which she won a Tony for! And before she was thirty! Ivy tells her to check her math. And then she launches into how bad it was to be Leigh’s daughter. Like going to Theater Camp and performing as Little Red in “Into the Woods.” (Nice shout out—Bernadette was the original Witch). What did Bernadette say? That the girl playing Cinderella had real star potential and if Ivy worked harder, she could be as talented as the girl. Bernadette argues that she was just pushing Ivy to be better and look at where Ivy is now. Look at where Ivy was at the end of last season. Oh, wait, I think we’re supposed to ignore that now. Never mind then.

Bernadette doesn’t stop there. She tells about when she was Maria in “The Sound of Music.” Ivy was 8 and fat but wanted a chance to be in the show. So the casting director auditioned her for the role of Kurt! And it is on! Bobby may get his catfight after all. Though rehearsals have stopped to watch the drama unfold.

Let’s go see how the New York Manhattan Theater Workshop benefit is going! We come in to the tail end of “Broadway, Here I Come” and things get ready for Ana’s performance. Jimmy approaches Scott to see if he can get an advance on his money. Scott’s like “Do you need me to explain the concept of nonprofit to you?” and refuses. He does ask if Jimmy’s in some kind of trouble. Jimmy, though, doesn’t confide in Scott and walks off.

Julia and Eileen are there as Julia chases Scott down. She apologizes again and he’s like “I get it. You’re sorry. Thanks for bidding on all those baskets, though.” Meanwhile, Jamey Sheridan shows up for the benefit. Just as Ana performs “Reach for Me.” If you haven’t seen it, I suggest you view it here. The aerial work is stunning though it does stretch the willing suspension of disbelief that it was put together in only a few hours. But hey, just remember the Bollywood scene.

As Ana is singing, Jimmy tricks the coat check person and starts snooping around people’s pockets. Rich people keep a lot of things in their pockets apparently, like gold watches. Derek catches him though and gets him to spill. Jimmy used to sell drugs (no way, really?) but got out of the life. But before he did, get took some money to get himself started. Derek looks ready to slap him but calmly asks him how much he owes Some Guy. Turns out it’s 8 grand. Derek offers to float him the money because he remembers what Tom said last week—that Derek and Jimmy were a lot alike. And he got into trouble himself. They don their matching leather jackets and walk past the pissed off coat check guy. As well as Dylan Baker, who notes they have the same jacket.

Jamey Sheridan praises Ana’s performance and says he hopes to see more out of her. And I feel like an idiot because I’m only now realizing I saw Krysta Rodriguez live—in the original cast of “Spring Awakening.” She wasn’t a main character—she was part of the ensemble who was seated amongst the people who got to sit on stage. They popped up during song numbers. So, let’s remedy it:

Cast Members AB Has Seen Live
Christian Borle
The dancer from “Grenade”
Will Chase
Michelle Federer
Ann Harada
Nick Jonas
Norbert Leo Butz
Terrence Mann
Marc Kudish
Annaleigh Ashford
Krysta Rodriguez

Okay, anyway, Kyle tellls Jamey that the Diva is a big part of Act II while Jimmy’s like “No, she’s not.” Kyle hits him as Jamey walks away. Scott tells him that whatever Jamey wants, Jamey gets. Does it…Does it work that way? Does a major theatrical production kowtow to a journalist? If Ben Brantley came in and said he liked an aspect, would the creatives bend over backward to change the show to increase his favored aspect?

So, it’s finally the next day. Ivy and Bernadette run through the Marilyn and Gladys song “Hang the Moon.” It should come with a tissue warning because it is a tearjerker. Tom sees the scene in his head but all you will do is stare at Hilty and Bernadette. They are true stars.

Downtown, Derek gives Jimmy money to pay back Some Drug Dealer Guy. Karen and Dylan Baker say their goodbyes, though Dylan still thinks Karen was insane for leaving “Bombshell.” She’s really more suited for “Hit List,” Dylan. Before he gets into the cab, he apologizes to Derek, saying he mistook him for someone else who was exiting Karen’s apartment via the fire escape. As he gets in the cab, Derek eyes Karen and Jimmy.

Inside the New York Manhattan Theater Workshop, Scott and Julia have a talk. He hands her a copy of “Hit List” and asks her to read it. He wants her opinions on it. Did anyone consult Kyle? Anyone? Bueller? Meanwhile, Jimmy goes to the Place That Shall Not Be Mentioned to pay back Some Drug Dealer Guy. Some Drug Dealer Guy thanks him and then tells us that “Jimmy Collins” isn’t Jimmy’s real name. Did the writers realize they contradicted themselves in the same episode? Earlier, Some Drug Dealer Guy says that he found Jimmy because his name is everywhere but now he’s saying that isn’t Jimmy’s real name. So how did he track him down?

Anyway, Some Drug Dealer Guy gives Jimmy some cocaine and Jimmy walks away.

Uptown, Ivy approaches Tom. She lashes into him about hiring Bernadette without her knowledge and then declares they are no longer friends. And so we end this episode with sad Tom.

I give up. I feel like I’ll never get back on track. So now I hope you all just enjoy reading my opinions and occasional rants.

Read Playbill's "Smash" report here