Smash

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Smash, A Comedy about a Musical, based on the 2012-13 NBC TV series, is a guilty pleasure: it is a great deal of fun telling its backstage story of Bombshell, a new musical from the life of Marilyn Monroe. However, at the same time its new book by the esteemed Bob Martin (The Prom and The Drowsy Chaperone) and Rick Elice (Jersey Boys and The Addams Family) has subplots made up of silly devices: a poisoned cupcake, a crazed acting coach, a theater assistant who has never heard of Julie Andrews or Harold Prince. Nevertheless, the hard-working cast made up of many well-known featured players give their all in this minor production from five-time Tony Award winning director Susan Stroman, who does not choreograph this time around, but leaves those chores to Joshua Bergasse who also staged the dances in the television series.

Whether fans of the television series will be disappointed by the changes and conflations remains to be seen. The basic story line is the same, an attempt to create a new musical about Marilyn Monroe told from the point of view of the backstage shenanigans. However, the plot is no longer driven by the rivalry of two actresses, star Ivy Lynn (played by Robyn Hurder) and her understudy Karen (Caroline Bowman): by the end of Act I’s invited dress rehearsal they are both out of commission and plus size Chloe (Bella Coppola), the associate director/choreographer has to go on instead. Now there are three possible choices. And Ivy’s interest in Method Acting from a book she borrowed from the songwriters has led her to hire its dogmatic author Susan Proctor (Kristine Nielsen), an acting coach, who turns her into a monster who is hated by the entire cast.

The cast of characters now includes the married and feuding songwriters Tracy and Jerry who becomes an alcoholic (Krysta Rodriguez and John Behlmann), gay American director Nigel, rather than the promiscuous Englishman Derek (Brooks Ashmanskas), who falls in love with one of his chorus boys Terry (Jake Trammel), former chorus woman now turned producer Anita (Jacqueline B. Arnold), her assistant Scott who has been hired because his father has put a million dollars into the show (Nicholas Matos), and the muscular Charlie, married to Karen, and playing Joe DiMaggio, Marilyn’s second husband (Casey Garvin).

At times the show directed by Stroman seems to be a satire or a parody, while the choreography by Bergasse mostly looks like ersatz Bob Fosse which seems inappropriate for the Marilyn Monroe story. As star Ivy Lynn playing Marilyn, Hurder seems to be doing a Megan Hilty impersonation from the TV series, rather than bringing anything new to the role. (Of course, Hilty is appearing around the corner in Death Becomes Her.) Bowman’s Karen is fine as far as she is allowed to go but the role seems underwritten. Nielsen as The Actors Studio coach, (compared to Margaret Hamilton as the Wicked Witch of the West) is so unpleasant that you wonder why her character isn’t fired long before it happens in the story line.

The interplay between Rodriguez and Behlmann as the feuding couple seems to be all clichés while his therapy and later drunkenness comes out of left field. Ashmanskas, seen in Once Upon a Mattress, The Prom and Something Rotten!, seems to get more fey of late in each of his roles. At times here he seems to be over the top as he attempts to pilot what becomes a sinking ship. Arnold as the producer and Coppola as the associate director play it very straight which stands out unfavorably in this context. Somehow it all works in the hothouse environment of rehearsing a Broadway musical.

The score by composer Marc Shaiman and lyricists Scott Wittman and Shaiman (Hairspray, Some Like it Hot) uses 16 of the songs they wrote for the television show plus two new ones. The best songs remain the standouts from the TV series:  the show’s anthem “Let Me Be Your Star,” “Second Hand White Baby Grand” (sung twice) , “Don’t Forget Me,” “Let’s Be Bad” (a Cole Porter pastiche) and “They Just Keep Moving the Line.” The two new songs include Jerry’s “(Let’s Start) Tomorrow Tonight,” which seems unfinished due to its brevity, and a Korean War number for Ivy as Marilyn and the male ensemble, “I Never Met a Wolf Who Didn’t Howl” which turns into a sensational production number that seems entirely gratuitous (did Marilyn do USO shows for the U.S. soldiers in Korea?)

Beowulf Boritt’s sets, like the show, are a bit hampered by not dealing with the cast’s private life, but only shows us backstage and the watering hole they frequent after rehearsals that looks a lot like Sardi’s. The costumes by Alejo Vietti recreate the famous silhouette for Marilyn while the other characters look fairly mundane – but they are mostly in rehearsal clothes. Ken Billington’s lighting often bathes the stage in pink or blue, while the sound design by Brian Ronan allows the lyrics to be distinctly heard. Charles G. LaPointe’s hair and wig design is particularly successful with Ivy’s Marilyn look. S. Katy Tucker’s video and projection design is so traditional that you might feel that you have seen it before. The show is always colorful though the design does not create a memorably new look.

With the top-notch talent involved in Smash, you will be forgiven if you expect something more original and dazzling. The show is fun but not cutting edge or unforgettable. The cast makes the most of their roles and stage business, and the production numbers are eye filling and rousing. However, the changes from the television scripts are of the lesser variety and will leave you pining for the more sober stories depicted on the small screen. Veteran director Susan Stroman’s pacing is smooth and brisk leaving little time for carping while the show is on.

Smash (open run)

Imperial Theatre, 249 W. 45^th Street, in Manhattan

For tickets, call Telecharge at 212-639-6200 or visit http://www.smashbroadway.com

Running time two hours and 35 minutes including one intermission