tv: This begins what will be the first end of the TV season finale runs. We start with a somewhat pleasant surprise in Smash. This is an NBC show about the making of a musical. It was a premise I was hesitant to get on board with but I watched because I am a sucker for a good musical. It did not disappoint.
Smash is the story of the making of a musical about Marilyn Monroe and the people involved in the making of that musical. It sounds like a rather mundane story. It wasn't. There was plenty of drama both about the musical itself, from cast changes to creative problems to love triangles to the sheer difficulty of finishing a large scale production. There was also tons of personal (soap opera) drama. There were budding and broken relationships and affairs and old lovers and stars and newbies stealing spotlight.
All of this, in the case of Smash, revolved around the cast. The show is gifted with stage performers and Broadway stars and Emmy and academy award winners. The main characters of the show are played by Megan Hilty, a Broadway veteran, and Katherine McPhee, formerly known as the hot girl on American Idol, now clearly the real thing. Hilty and McPhee bring realism and legitimacy to their roles as a vet of theater and a newcomer respectively both looking to break into the big time. This is essentially who they are. They are surrounded by a seemingly tyrannical director portrayed elegantly by Jack Davenport, a producer looking to make this musical to prove she can stand on her own after a divorce, played by Angelica Houston, and a composition and lyric writing team dealing with tons of personal baggage that finds its way into their work, played by Debra Messing and the truly charming Christian Borle. The cast delivers time and time again in big and small ways that give nothing but pleasure that hearkens back to when Brian Fuller looked to stage actors during the writers strike to make Pushing Daisies.
On top of this cast, the show was given a legit Broadway musical to work with. All of the music was created in the vain of a true musical and was performed within the context of a real musical trying to get made. The show itself was not a musical. It was actually, as advertised, a show about a musical.
The season finale, was a stunning bringing together of all the personal and professional drama. Everything came to a head at the same time, and in a way that was realistic(somewhat of a surprise) in order to get you to the final moment where either Karen (Mcphee) or Ivy (Hilty) has their star born. The biggest moments being infidelity by Karen's boyfriend with a fellow cast member, the doubt that Karen, as a newcomer to the Broadway scene can pull off the job required of her, which is that of playing Marilyn, and the pressing deadline of getting and actually good show on the stage. All of the drama presses together in a way that builds the question of success to a dramatic boiling point.
The finale was also something of a showcase for its actors. There is a large amount of long single takes in the style of Doug Elin in Entourage in order to give the actors an opportunity to show their true chops. The music was soaring and beautiful to allow the performers to show that they are the real deal.
Smash has been renewed for a second season and deserves it. Its actors are great, the music is fun and enjoyable, and the weird drama is oddly compelling. Watching this show gives an appreciation for the theater community not just because that is where the story is founded, but where the actors in the show come from, and that allows you to see how great that venue is.
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