Monday, April 30, 2012

Smash. Yes. We all watch it.

‎So, a whole bunch of TV shows have changed nights...which I am very aware of leading up to the premiere of Season 2 of Canada Sings on May 15th...I am not sure if you have heard... :)
Anyway...
This week Smash, which was going to be in direct competition with our show (but I think is actually done before we start) has changed to Monday night...tonight.

Yes, I watch it every week.
Yes, I admit it.
Yes, I am always half really happy and half gobsmacked.
(The bed/sex/marilyn number that turned the lady herself in her grave, Ivy leaving the theatre after being drugged up onstage and wearing HER COSTUME through Times Square (yeah...that happens all the time), Debra Messing's weird affair with Will Chase...on and off the camera...eek...that fucking Ellis character...a person all of us know in different forms...oh, we know him/her...Ivy's weird drug induced, mirror- singing, bed-trashing-freak-show number ) 
But I do love the "inside-ness" of it all. So many great moments.
Mostly, I love that there is some fine fine singing...usually by Megan Hilty...damn, that girl can sing...and I love anything that has Angelica Huston in it and that Huston has a younger, hot, pirate-ish boyfriend...and the british dude who plays the director...he takes a good part (as my mother would say)...and the music numbers, as I said before, are sometimes awesome and sometimes just 'what the fuck?'...but it is about music theatre...and THAT is always good.
I love that producers of 'Smash', Craig Zadan and Neil Meron, who came to Canada to produce Hairspray: The Movie, The Music Man for Disney (both of which a bunch of us musical theatre people in Toronto were in)  and Chicago (which I wasn't in and I heard the Canadians were treated like poop)...I love that they love musical theatre. We need people who love it. And if people aren't going to move from the TV to come out to live theatre...well, fuck it, bring it to them...maybe it will encourage them to get out more...maybe.
Anyhow, Deborah Overes (who I did Hairspray with!) suggesting a great article written for the New Yorker Magazine :


VERY interesting article, don't you think?
And here are a couple of things I, myself,  find odd and intriguing.

 1. Dev, Katherine McPhee's boyfriend,  has had one musical number...and it was Bollywood...how did he feel about that? (This was pointed out on twitter by the ever keen eyed Michael Hughes)

 2. Honesty Alert: Katherine McPhee is the gal who keeps getting cast because she is so pretty and all the character gals are saying, "Really?". I mean she sings pretty and all ...but has no substance. Now, is this character lady jealousy or just plain truth?
You be the judge...and remember, she just got off the bus from Idaho or some fucking place and has an amazing apartment in NY, fucking awesome clothes, a cool boyfriend who works for the Mayor's office, rich parents who fund her, she sang at a wedding BADLY and got the card of a big record producer, and was cast in a national commercial almost by accident...and, oh, she is the understudy for a  international star and the star LIKES her and is trying to get the understudy noticed...really? REALLY?
Just sayin'. 

3. Brian Darcy James is one of the best broadway baritones around (Wild Party? Shut the fuck up...he sang the shit out of that...check the clip below) and I heard he is looking for work this fall...so, he played Messing's husband...in a musical TV show...and she sang...and he didn't. 

This clip featuring the shirtless Taye Diggs and the FABU Julia Murney as well...minute 1:34 BDJ starts singing.


4. And speaking of Messing...that sex scene in the rehearsal room was just plain weird, people...as was Will Chase's character leading up to that scene and after...all stalky and shit. Weird.

5. Loves the way Uma (On the TV, people.) is a straight actor cast in a musical role trying to turn a musical into a play, commenting on how the scene just gets started and then all "bust into song" with a certain amount of frustration and judgement...that really never happens. Oh wait....

6. I didn't know that there were so many places in New York with rock and roll bands that you could just get up and sing...whenever you wanted...whatever you wanted...with choreo...rock and roll bands love that...and musical theatre (I know this is a musical thing...but you gotta say....)

7. Sidebar: Why does everyone wanna do "My Fair Lady"?

8. I kinda wish Julia's plot line was gone. Does anyone care? BACK TO THE MUSIC, PEOPLE!!! I also wish that they would stop dressing her like an earthtone Auntie Mame...wait...maybe I am just against Debra Messing in this show...hmm...I will do some inner soul searching...

9.Bernadette Peters  sings 'Gypsy' at her daughter's rehearsal... spontaneously...one of the piano players just knows it...lord...like we ever have enough time in a musical rehearsal for that to happen...I don't give a shit if it is Bernadette.

10. I hope it gets a second season. :)
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