It’s Tech Week!

Last week, Rebecca and Karen became BFFs! Nights on the town, free swag, dinner with Dev, the works! And that dinner comes with an awesome if yet odd Bollywood number. Meanwhile, Ivy works with Ellis and manages to sing the new song “Second Hand White Baby Grand.” Which Rebecca promptly decides should be hers and not some ensemble member’s. Anjelica Huston gets sexy time with Thorsten Kaye. And Julia and Frank reunited when Leo ran away.


This week, it’s tech week. Say those words to anyone who is involved or was ever involved with theater and you’re bound to get a treasure trove of horror stories. I was running the sound board for a production when I was in college and we lost an actor during tech week (not sure what happened, the best I could gather was that she just stopped showing up). The assistant stage manager stepped in, learned the role in under a week and killed it. And to top it off, the communication system that allowed the stage manager to talk to the booth failed. And that’s just one production I did in college.


So before we continue with this episode, there is one thing to understand: This is a very stressful time for everyone involved in the show.


The show opens with Christian Borle and Leslie Odom, Jr. singing “Another Opening, Another Show” from Cole Porter’s “Kiss Me, Kate.” This is cut with scenes of everyone leaving New York to travel to Boston. And while Grand Central is a beautiful and well-know New York landmark, you can’t catch a train to Boston from there. Amtrak departs from Penn Station while MetroNorth leaves from Grand Central.
But everyone arrives in Boston as Derek continues tech. He’s running through light cues. Ugh, been there, done that. I only ran the board, I never designed lights (mostly due to a fear of heights keeping me off the catwalk). Running sound cues was no better. While running cues, there is one scene he is trying to make work. Ivy offers a suggestion that he realizes will work. He tells her he loves her. She sits there, shell-shocked.


Meanwhile, Rebecca is a nervous wreck. She talks with Karen, who is trying on the Marilyn wig. Rebecca says Karen looks better in it than she does. Karen disagrees. So do I. McPhee spent some time as a blonde and did not look good. Anyway, Karen says that she thought the nerves would go away over time. Rebecca says they don’t.


And they are about to become worse. Ted, Replacement DiMaggio, got a pilot and has to leave. Derek and Tom are like “What just happened?” Derek recovers first, yelling for Michael Swift. Tom is now “I’m not telling Julia.” And he doesn’t, much to Eileen and Derek’s annoyance. “It’s called a spine, Tom,” Derek snarls. Eileen intervenes and says she’ll talk to Julia.


Julia still refuses to let Michael Swift into the production. At the end of the blog, there will be a link to the Playbill recap, “The Smash Report.” In it, they explain that Julia’s no was enough to kill the idea as the contract most likely would’ve included a clause regarding casting. And this would’ve been argued by her agent. But that’s not dramatic, is it?


Anyway, Julia keeps refusing to let Michael Swift into the production because apparently Julia can’t be adult. Eileen and Derek insist on Michael. Tom agrees in exchange for the insertion of a song for Ivy and Karen (a song previously cut from Heaven on Earth. It happens). The only ones against it are Julia and Frank. She threatens to quit but Eileen pretty much tells her to grow up and remember she is a professional.
Eileen complains to Nick and confesses she’s afraid Bombshell will implode. And that means everyone will be right that she can’t do it without Jerry. Nick tells her to ignore them and to ignore Julia. She agrees and gets him to close up shop for some “quality time” before Eileen needs to return to Boston.


At the Huston household, Frank and Leo come in with Julia’s luggage. They’ve decided that Michael should play DiMaggio and that she needs to go to Boston. Their banana and peanut butter supply relies on it, judging by Julia’s comfort food binge. She asks if they can come. They agree—it’s spring break! Julia will have her family for two weeks.


Before we head back to Boston, let’s wrap up the New York City storylines for this week. Dev has been burning up his sick days because he’s useless at City Hall. And I imagine he’s also enjoying having the apartment to himself. RJ shows up, ready to treat the patient with…bourbon? Was that it? I missed Raza Jaffrey’s line. Anyway, they drink, we learn Dev isn’t discussing things with Karen…blah, blah, I hate this storyline on General Hospital too…Feeling good, the two share a kiss. But Dev then says he can’t do it though RJ feels he can. The two part ways.


Everything else happens in Boston. Tom goes to visit Sam’s family, who live in Boston. His dad seems to be displeased with Sam’s lifestyle—namely, that he’s a dancer. Dad doesn’t think it’s a secure profession, unlike Sam’s brother who is a doctor. And Tom agrees. He even tells some war stories to Sam’s dad in the kitchen. Sam stands there like “My career, my life.” He storms off and Tom follows. They reconcile on the porch after Sam explains he knows the dangers but loves to dance. I’m surprised Tom didn’t mention that either. As they kiss, Sam’s brother exclaims “Two boys kissing!” His wife hits him in a way that suggests this isn’t the first time he’s done so with his brother’s boyfriends.


Rebecca is a nervous wreck. She storms off when she has to do “History is Made at Night” with Dennis, upset that no one told her Ted quit. While she is understandably upset, she needs to suck it up and act. Ivy and Dennis perform the number because it’s really just to get the lighting cue right. Derek gives his Marilyn a pep talk. And she agrees to be more professional. He decides to just humor her.


Namely, he agrees to all her wardrobe choices. Which makes changes more difficult. Tom is forced to write dialogue or musical interludes to cover the delays. When the gloves Rebecca loves so much cause more problems, Derek has to think on his feet. He barks for Ivy and Karen, instructing them to take off Marilyn’s gloves. Karen’s all “Yay, a part!” while Ivy’s all “Umm, I’m your girlfriend. What the hell?”


All during this, Derek has a birthday coming up! Ivy says she has a quiet evening planned for the two of them. Rebecca overhears this and is surprised to learn about Derek’s birthday. On his birthday, the lights all go out to his annoyance. A single spotlight appears and Rebecca shuffles on in full Marilyn regalia—complete with gloves—and sings “Happy Birthday” to him. It’s not as good as Karen’s from the premiere and all through it, I’m hoping they roll out a cake. Tech Week can be survived if there is plenty of food. And there is the cake, lit with sparklers for candles as Ivy glares from the wings.


Derek tries to calm Rebecca down. And for some reason, his best idea is have sex with her. Ivy goes to find Derek, running into Ellis on his way back from an errand. Their eyes go wide and they race upstairs, but Randall blocks them. They hear the sounds and leave.


Karen and Dev talk constantly while Jessica warns her that romances die during tech week when the other person is a “civilian.” Karen doesn’t believe her and is surprised when Dev shows up. She ushers him from the theater before Rebecca’s security team takes him down, promising him dinner that night. And they go. Dev launches into a speech that sounds like a breakup, except NBC already revealed he proposal in the previews. Karen is taken aback and her only response is “It’s tech week.”


Dev thinks it’s a rejection. Karen tries to explain that it’s neither an acceptance nor a rejection. Theater people understand what it meant. Your brain is fried during tech week. All you can think about is your cues. Your nightmares are full of something going wrong. Even if you are the monkey running the light/sound boards. Dev leaves and Karen goes to talk to someone at the hotel.


Unfortunately, they are all too soused to see that both she and Ivy are distressed. Bobby insists on a sing off. Ivy goes first, singing while the screen changes. It goes blue and starts raining. When she finishes the room is silent until Bobby tells Karen to “top that, Iowa.” Ivy tells Karen that Derek is sleeping with Rebecca. Karen had no idea but Ivy doesn’t believe her.


Then Dev shows up and is all “You broke my heart and went to a party?” Karen’s like, “I came to wallow and a party was already in process” but Dev walks away. She chases and they end up fighting outside. He reveals that he kissed RJ and says that cliché line “But I realized then that I loved you!” Because every woman feels so confident in your feelings while you are admitting infidelity. Karen storms off saying, “I can’t choose to get married during tech week, especially not to someone cheating on me!”


Dev ends up at a bar where he meets a blonde named Ivy. And while I can believe Ivy may not realize that this Karen’s Dev—they never met—I find it hard to believe Dev doesn’t realize this is Karen’s competition. He had to have seen her as Karen seemed to constantly watch Ivy’s video of “Never Give All the Heart.”
Anyway, I’m still surprised Derek actually slept with Rebecca. I know he’s been portrayed as a man who will sleep with any…woman…but the way it’s been going, I thought it’d be Karen before Rebecca. But the episode briefly caught the insanity that is tech week and I never had to deal with a lyricist who couldn’t be professional.


So next time a theater person tells you “I’m in tech,” please give them chocolate and/or alcohol. They need it.

Playbill Recap