Smash: Wait, Who is Doing What Again?

Last week on “Smash:” Derek quit Bombshell! Tom became the director! Jerry forbade Karen from performing in Hit List! But she did anyway! And everyone loves it! Including Jesse L. Martin! And Eileen found out about Ellis and Jerry!

SMASH!


Ana and Jimmy sing “Heart Shaped Wreckage” (I think) as Derek and Scott (HI, JESSE L. MARTIN!) watch with some other people from the New York Manhattan Theater Workshop. He discusses it with them while Derek grumbles about how horrible his coffee is. But he is not in a big Broadway production so he can’t have someone just get him coffee. I guess Derek doesn’t have his own personal assistant. The lighting guy, meanwhile, is making eyes at Kyle as he praises “Hit List.”

Tom has been directing Bombshell for three weeks. And he has someone to fetch his coffee. He works with Karen on the “Some Like it Hot” scene but she doesn’t seem to respond to his style of directing. She misses Derek. Tom gives her a line reading, surprising Jessica and Bobby. Some actors have chimed in and said it is common for a director do something like that, but it’s usually best to avoid it. A director should try to guide the actor into performing in a way that is natural to the character as they see it. Linda tells him the new choreographer wants to talk to him, allowing Julia and Eileen some chit-chat time. Lawyers have been going over Jerry’s files but haven’t found any evidence of (legal) wrongdoing. So they are stuck with him for now.
They watch the new version of “The National Pastime” which now features a lot of tap work. Jerry doesn’t like it; he wants Derek’s choreography. But Derek hasn’t signed a rider allowing them to do so.

Tom reminds Karen to be more enticing and “come hither” but she counters that it’s difficult to do so while tap dancing. So he says “Let me be you.” I remember hearing during Legally Blonde the Musical that director/choreographer Jerry Mitchell often said that in rehearsal. I wonder if Christian was channeling his old director there. While he instructs Karen, Julia worries that Jerry will fire Tom, but Eileen says she won’t allow it. They just need to get Karen to respect Tom. Julia is like, “Easier said than done.”

Downtown, Scott talks to Derek, Jimmy and Kyle with a giant poster for “Rent” behind him. (GET IT?) He says that he likes “Hit List” but it isn’t appropriate for their main stage. The little old ladies who subscribe to them wouldn’t like it. Which is odd given this is supposedly based around the New York Theater Workshop (hence all my cross outs). That was the place where Rent was nurtured. It definitely supports the edgy projects. Anyway, back to the episode. Scott can offer “Hit List” the underground theater which seats eighty. Kyle and Jimmy think it’s awesome; Derek thinks its awful. Scott explains that “Hit List” needs to find its theme, make it clear and if it’s successful underground then it can move to the main stage. Derek and Kyle agree but Jimmy has trouble with the “clear theme” note. He insists “Hit List” has a clear theme. Really, Jimmy? Because I still don’t know what it’s about.

Outside, Derek tells Jimmy to find the theme and make it clearer before leaving him and Kyle. Jimmy is still upset.

We are supposed to root for Jimmy, right?

Guess who’s back? No, sadly, it’s not Sam. It’s Mamie Grace Gummer! She’s back as Katie, Eileen and Jerry’s do-gooder daughter. Katie is in town to help her mother take Bombshell back. But they can’t find anything useful. Though Julia, who shows up, finds the rider Jerry was supposed to get Derek to sign so they could use his choreography. She decides to go get him to sign it.

Meanwhile, Derek talks with Karen. She says rehearsal isn’t the same without him. He laps it up before telling her about his problems with Jimmy. So Karen goes to talk to him and Kyle about it.

Over in Liaisons land, Terry still has some suggestions for the show. Thankfully, the director has found his balls and shoots them down. Everyone still is hopeful until a dreadful preview deflates their spirits. So the following day, Ivy and Terry decide to tank the show and just do whatever feels fun. They know Liaisons is going down, but it is going down in a blaze of glory.

Karen stops by to visit Jimmy and Kyle but they see through her caffeinated gift. They know Derek sent her. And Jimmy doesn’t want it. But she talks them through their theme before leaving.

She and Ana go back to their apartment where Tom is waiting for Karen. With flowers. Really, Tom? He apologizes to Karen—REALLY, TOM? And then he invites her to see the opening of Liaisons. She agrees.

Derek and Scott have lunch in some restaurant where they discuss Hit List. Scott explains this needs to be a hit for him or he’ll be back doing regional theater. Like it’s such a punishment. He has to take a call and bumps into Julia, who has tracked Derek there. They seem to know each other. Hmm…Anyway, Julia sits down and asks Derek to sign the rider. But since he’s feeling prickly, he tells her he has to read it carefully and he’ll get back to her. Julia looks ready to smack him.

Everyone then converges at the Liaisons opening. Karen and Tom run into Seth Rudetsky, playing himself. You might remember him from Legally Blonde the Musical: The Search for Elle Woods. He interviews Karen and Tom but they don’t get their stories straight, leaving poor Seth confused! Karen finds Derek and they talk, soon joined by Jerry. Jimmy and Kyle spot this and think it means Derek is going back to Bombshell; Jimmy even tells Tom this. So he runs up to protect his job and as everyone argues in the lobby, an usher flashes the lights and tells them to take their seats.

In Eileen’s office, she continues to comb through papers with Grace Gummer and Julia. They try to find something to get Jerry kicked off of Bombshell. And Julia thinks she has it—a contract between Eileen and the Marilyn estate regarding the licensing of some of Marilyn journals. Which Julia used, estimating it made up 20% of the show. Eileen feels they have got Jerry.

We return to Liaisons, where the audience looks…pretty bored. Terry begins a song called “C’est Ne Pas Ma Faulte” or “It’s Not My Fault.” And I have to echo what others have said about this number: It makes no sense. Terry and Ivy agreed to have as much fun as possible, but did they tell the rest of the cast? But this seems to be how the number was staged—there is no way they could redo the choreography, costumes and orchestrations. Which means Terry’s actions may have been changed and overplayed, but the number was genuine. 

So…Why was it there? Everything we’re told about Liaisons indicate it was a drama. Now, serious and dark musicals do have fun songs to break up the tension. For example, “Les Miserables” has both “Master of the House” (Act One) and “Beggars at the Feast” (Act Two). But they still fit with the overall tone of the musical. “C’est Ne Pas Ma Faulte” does not fit with what we’ve been told about Liaisons. It’s too farcical. I feel like this storyline was put together with no real thought about it and it shows.

But the number is fun and flashy. The audience loves it and Ivy loves it…until Terry falls off a swing. Cast members crowd about him as he asks for a doctor.

So Liaisons ends its performance. Tom and Karen meet Ivy at the stage door where Tom talks to her. Karen watches and realizes something. She tells Tom that Ivy is his Marilyn, not her. And so she quits Bombshell and runs off to find Derek. He is talking with Kyle and Jimmy, who seems more open to Derek’s suggestions. Karen runs up and tells him the theme of Hit List is remaking yourself or something like that. She also reveals she did the stupid thing of quitting a Broadway-bound show for an Off (Off?) Broadway one. Of course, they seem to be setting Hit List up as a “Rent” or “Spring Awakening” type deal. Get big Off Broadway and then jump to Broadway. Though Spring Awakening took a long time to get there from the workshop phase. If I remember correctly, Lea Michele started the workshop at the age of 14. “Spring Awakening” reached Broadway when she was 20.

But anyway, Jerry meets Eileen, Julia and Katie for dinner. Julia mentions the contract with the Marilyn Monroe association but Jerry doesn’t care. So Katie resorts to emotional blackmail—by threatening to cut her father out of her life. It works.

The director meets with the Liaisons cast to announce it will close at the end of the week. Terry makes a brief statement before leaving. Bye, Sean Hayes! Ivy isn’t too torn up about it…probably because she has a job waiting for her. Because Eileen, Tom and Julia have champagne to celebrate Jerry giving Eileen Bombshell back and Tom says Ivy is free. They drink to that!

Downtown at the New York Manhattan Theater Workshop, Jimmy and Karen singing the new song “Rewrite This Story.” I think we see it through the “How will it look when its stage” lens or Derek’s tumor is acting up again because there is a backdrop, elaborate lives, costumes and video screens all going while Jeremy Jordan and Katharine McPhee sing. Afterwards, everyone applauds and Scott tells Derek they have the main stage.

Jimmy and Karen flirt before he invites her out for drinks. As she goes to get her coat, Derek saunters over. He pretty much tells Jimmy “Karen’s mine, back off.” When Karen returns, Derek says Jimmy and Kyle have to go home to work on some notes he gave them and so he’ll take her out for drinks instead. She leaves with him as Kyle comes up, inquiring about Derek’s notes. Jimmy reveals there aren’t any as he glares at the door.

So, let’s recap:

Bombshell

Ivy
Tom
Julia
Eileen
Linda
Bobby
Jessica

Hit List

Karen
Jimmy
Kyle
Derek
Scott
Ana

I’m still confused about the whole Liaisons thing and not just “C’est Ne Pas Ma Faulte.” Why did this storyline even exist? What was it’s purpose, short of “We got Sean Hayes and have to do something with him”? Was it to show Ivy was ready to handle heading a show? Something?

I’m writing a “Smash” fanfiction—I started it last year. This isn’t a plug or anything, just something I was thinking about adding. For context, my story posits that Ivy couldn’t get back into Bombshell after her antics at Heaven on Earth. She still ends up in Boston where Tom hires her to be his assistant to prove she is dependable again. I haven’t written this part yet, but it’s planned: Ivy returns to New York and she’s the one who meets up with Jimmy and Kyle, nurturing Hit List. But she’ll realize she’s not right for the part and Karen is, leading to the swap.

I feel that’s how the beginning of the season should’ve started. The dual shows idea isn’t a bad one, it just could’ve been handled better, in my opinion.

Well, we’ll see what happens.

PS: Tomorrow, the series moves to Saturdays. Don’t forget!

Read Playbill's Smash report here