The Broadway version of “Smash” does in a swift and an engaging 90 minutes what it took the NBC TV series two seasons of episodes to accomplish. The only problem for the stage musical, which opened Thursday at the Imperial Theatre, is what to do with its second act.
There’s a musical called “Bombshell” inside the musical called “Smash,” and there isn’t much story to tell, or suspense to sustain, after the star of “Bombshell” (Robyn Hurder) fails to show up for the invited-dress performance and her understudy (Jacqueline B. Arnold) has ingested a horse-laxative-laced cupcake, meaning the show’s assistant director-choreographer (Bella Coppola) must play Marilyn Monroe in “Bombshell,” the new bio musical.
Book writers Bob Martin and Rick Elice galvanize our attention in the first act by making Hurder’s Ivy Lynn a pleasant no-nonsense singer-actress who very gradually turns into a performer as troubled, neurotic and arrogant as Marilyn herself. Martin and Elice’s best departure from the TV series, created by Theresa Rebeck, is bringing Paula Strasberg into the saga. They’ve done their homework.
When Laurence Olivier directed Monroe in “The Prince and the Showgirl,” he was aghast to find that his female star took directions from the Method guru during a table reading of the screenplay. Martin and Elice take that horror story and put it into their “Smash” book when Ivy Lynn rehearses a scene in the stage musical “Bombshell” where Marilyn visits husband Joe DiMaggio (Casey Garvin) in the Yankee’s locker room. Unbeknownst to everyone is an old woman dressed in black who gives Ivy line readings before her every utterance.
Paula Strasberg has been renamed Susan Proctor and embodied to comic perfection by Kristine Nielsen. In the beatification of Marilyn Monroe, the Strasberg connection (Paula as well as Lee) is the facet that most needs to be atomized, and “Smash” does a brilliant job of trashing the Strasbergs’ reputation. Hurder’s performance takes a sharp pin to the Marilyn balloon. Playing Ivy, she is pleasant and professional. Playing Ivy playing Marilyn, Hurder goes from ditzy and breathless to hard and monstrous. One of the real surprises of “Bombshell” is its skewering of the Marilyn myth, and that includes a sly send-up of the star’s suicide. I was hoping for appearances from Jack and Bobby. Alas, they’re a no-show.
For Act 1, Martin and Elice have written a first-rate musical. The “Smash” ensemble, led by Hurder and Nielsen, make it better than first-rate. Their stellar performances are joined by equally great work from Brooks Ashmanskas, the harried stage director, and Krysta Rodriguez and John Behlmann, the married couple who watch their marriage disintegrate as they try to write the book and songs for “Bombshell.” Susan Stroman directs, and she hasn’t been this good with a cast since she brought “The Producers” to the stage over two decades ago. The “Smash” ensemble is every bit as talented as that legendary cast. A wonderful quirk of the direction and book is that the show’s musical numbers are, for the most part, backstage looks at the rehearsal process. Broadway aficionados will love it.
The second act of “Smash” hinges on which actress will end up playing Marilyn on opening night. Frankly, we don’t care, because the show is loaded with many songs for each of them to sing. Too many. In the second act, the female empowerment anthems become numbing, since each is delivered as a showstopper. How many times can a show be stopped before it actually stops?
Scott Wittman and Marc Shaiman have recycled their songs from the TV series, and at their best, those tunes are ersatz Andrew Lloyd Webber, which, at their best are ersatz Giacomo Puccini.
It’s a wonder that someone didn’t cut the intermission after Coppola sings “Let Me Be Your Star,” the show’s best known song, and wrap things up in a neat 20 minutes.
The post ‘Smash’ Broadway Review: Taking a Sharp Pin to the Marilyn Monroe Balloon appeared first on TheWrap.