*Smash *really needs to hire whoever writes the Smash: Abridged recaps: SMASH Abridged: Episode 9 - Broadway Abridged
I had the same reaction. That was serious WTF? territory. It’s not like she writes songs for a living or anything :rolleyes:.
So the boyfriend is a Gay Republican - yeah, that really would be a deal breaker for me too. Big shocker that he ran to the black jock for an all-night diner date…who coulda seen that coming?
Ivy’s scene on the Broadway stage coming down the stairs…somehow I started flashing on that episode of I Love Lucy with Lucy coming down the stairs with her showgirl costume. And I doubt the costume department would have let her get off stage, let alone out the building, wearing that costume without tackling her and stripping her right then and there.
Katharine McPhee has turned into such a goody-goody, it is only a matter of time until she walks on water. This is especially odd as I recall she was known as quite the diva on American Idol with her Mama Rose stage mother hovering backstage.
Grace sans Will should consider herself lucky to get rid of wimp hubby who apparently has the personality of a dial tone.
Bombshell! Great title - will you be shell-shocked when sarcastic comments about “bomb” come out in the reviews? And what could be more fun in NYC than have a title of a show that has thousands of people in Times Square saying “bombshell” every day? Homeland Security will be thrilled.
Better than the episode, as always, but I’m surprised he didn’t mention Ellis switching teams. Favorite line:
And to me Jack Davenport is not a Simon Cowell ripoff but Severus Snape, Jr.. Only with a sex life.
And who else thinks the play is ultimately going to be a one man show starring/written by/produced by Ellis? For meta effect, he’ll portray a bisexual biracial wannabe producer who begins to find himself, for good and for ill, while making a musical about Marilyn Monroe.
Every time they were talking about needing a title I kept thinking, Why not just call it “Marilyn” like you’ve been doing?
That was a truly awful hour of television.
And yet, I keep watching.
It’s amazing how often they can make the exact wrong decision. I am willing to suspend my disbelief pretty far - so I could overlook all of the contrivances that got Ivy & Karen to the place where they’re singing a duet in Times Square. However, once they were there, the song should have been stripped down - their voices and an electric keyboard, maybe, maybe a bucket drum. I would have bought it. Autotuning, a full band, and backup singers made the worst of an already bad situation.
This show and GLEE have me appreciating Waldorf and Statler more than I ever did previously. I wonder if its ratings will hold up when GLEE returns or if it’s mainly been serving as a GLEE Replacement Therapy while that “show with terrible writing, too much autotune, goofy to stupid plots, WTF are they thinking characters… and of course I’ll watch it next week” has been on hiatus.
I finally watched it last night, and I agree with all of the above criticisms except:
I’m no Broadway songwriter but I am a lyricist, and I had absolutely no trouble believing that the husband might think something was up after finding that chart. Writing something so emotional that had nothing at all to do with her current project? And finding it next to the bed, instead of with all of her other stuff for the show? Yeah, I’d question her, too. He didn’t really figure it out, though, until he saw her reaction when he confronted her with the sheet music.
What I couldn’t believe was that she’d leave the chart lying around like that.
I don’t know Marilyn’s story well, but I do know that Joe DiMaggio played for the New York Yankees. I also know that she had multiple husbands. It didn’t seem implausible at all to me that a song about being kissed on the Brooklyn Bridge would be out of place for Marilyn in the least.
Maybe & Grace should not have written lyrics like,
“It was wrong to kiss you on the Brooklyn Bridge,
Actor who doesn’t look like Joe DiMaggio even a smidge.
To break off our affair we must make a pact–
I love my stupid husband and my son who can’t act.”
Except that – again – it wasn’t with the rest of her workshop stuff.
I’m not saying that the chart alone was proof of anything, but I can certainly see how it would be suspicious enough to make the husband ask her about it.
LOL! 
She certainly shouldn’t have caved so quickly when the husband confronted her. That was as big a WTF as the husband’s seemingly psychic realization. Later, their son asked, “Why’d you tell him?”, so I guess that’s one thing that came out of the son’s mouth that I could get behind.
A much better episode than last week.
Ivy and Karen’s duet may have been contrived, but it was nice (let’s face it, the ladies can sing) and something had to happen between them. Either Ivy was going to hire a Broadway hit squad to kill Karen, or Karen was going to bash Ivy’s head in, or just maybe they’d actually find some common ground. Yeah, like Ivy said, they aren’t best friends now, but at least there’s some change.
Hurray for Frank decking No DiMaggio and leaving Julia. I felt bad for Leo when he cries “Please don’t leave!”
Can Eileen lay the smackdown or can’t she? Frankly, Ellis is lucky she didn’t bounce him out of the office after that stupid “co-producer” play. And are we really surprised he seduced Miss Starlet’s guy in the expensive apartment?
So Gay Lawyer Guy is actually Gay Lawyer Republican. And here I thought the Log Cabin group was extinct.
Eve, you are so bad. snicker
Well, Abridged Boy may be out after this episode. I’m sticking a little longer.
If I were in a relationship with a songwriter I wouldn’t assume that any of the lyrics in her songs were about her personal life unless it was Taylor Swift.
It’s not impossible to get your Equity card, all it takes is one show sometimes. Maybe she got cast in a regional theatre back in the midwest that automatically granted her the card. Also you do not need an Equity card to audition for Broadway. They do have non-equity calls.
Yeah, I have been at those, they are a cruel joke. “Non-Entity auditions,” they are called.
I’ve been to them too and yes they are awful but they do cast from them. And it’s still very likely that Katherine McPhee’s character auditioned at an Equity call. I can definitely see her being a chorus girl at a regional theatre.
I love her performance by the way. I am usually pretty rough on actresses and I think she friggin’ glows.
Wow. I feel… completely different than you guys. I really liked the episode – I’m not expecting anything more than fluff from this show, so I’m not really disappointed.
-
I liked how the confrontation with the husband happened so quickly, rather than dragging out over the whole season. Particularly, I think he could have forgiven her (after some work) for the affair… it was just when he heard that it had happened BEFORE years ago, and she’d been lying since then that made him go off.
-
I liked the street singing. I know there’s no way in hell she’d get out of the theater with the costume, but it was damn amusing to see the non-plussed reactions of the New Yorkers to the angel walking down the street.
-
I really believe Angelica Houston. Her beat-down of Ellis was just… perfect.
I like fluff. What can I say?
So were they calling Tom about Ivy’s angelic meltdown because he’s her friend or because he’s the show’s co-creator? Would a show’s co-creator ever take that much of an interest after opening?