Smash got all Broadway Insidery this week by calling the episode "The Dramaturg." That's with a "g," not a "d."
It starts off with Little Mary Sunshine (Karen) shaking it in a belly top and falling in a mosh pit. Kat McPhee is just not believable as a sexy rocker chick. She's too much of a carefully crafted product for that.
Turns out Karen was just imagining herself in Jeremy Jordan's brilliant new show.
Eileen thinks Bombshell needs a "fresh edge" so she's hired a professional dramaturg. We learn that a dramaturg is someone who comes into a show that's flailing and rewrites the book and stuff. See? We're all Broadway insiders now!
Meanwhile, Ivy auditions for a new show, Liaisons. She nails it as always.
Next up is JHud in a white shift dress singing "Home" from The Wiz. Fabulous. Then she starts to act and the scene dies. Sitting next to Derek on the sofa, the contrast is stark. You can see her acting. With him it seems natural.
We meet the Dramaturg, Peter, played by Daniel Sunjata who I saw naked in Take Me Out on Broadway. Damn he looks good. Excuse me, I need a moment.
OK, I'm back. It turns out Julia and FrogFace have never heard of the Dramaturg because he never takes credit for his brilliant work, but he's saved all the best shows on Broadway. Apparently dramaturging pays well because he lives in a gigantic apartment oddly decorated with stacks of books on tiny little tables. Julia pays a visit and he's all "where's the heat in Bombshell?" and she's all "You don't think I can bring the heat? I can bring the heat!" She hates him. Clearly they're going to have an affair.
Bombshell is back in rehearsal! Karen shows up to rehearse and reminds Derek that they're supposed to meet Jeremy Jordan and New Gay Kyle to discuss their brilliant material at 5. He says no problem which, of course means they'll never make it. Karen screws up some new material and Ivy imagines herself performing the number. She nails it because she's the right actress for this part, not Karen. Compared to Hilty, McPhee is just a reality show loser.
Too harsh?
Karen was such a fuck-up at rehearsal that she and Derek don't make their date with Jeremy Jordan and New Gay Kyle. Told ya! Somewhere in the outer boroughs, JJ breaks into another guys apartment to get some brilliant notes about his brilliant show that he left there for no reason other than it gives him the opportunity to get into a fight and spend the rest of the show looking tough with a split lip.
OMG! Ivy got the role of Cecile in Liaisons! Every actress in town wanted that part!
Julia in a horribly unflattering dress and boots, clomps past the Times Square TKTS booth with Dramaturg and FrogFace. Nothing really happens, I just wanted to note how terrible she looked. FrogFace doesn't look half bad in red pants and Dramaturg looks dreamy as always.
Let's all rehearse Julia's new song that's supposed to bring the heat! She describes it as "Kennedy and Marilyn, the mating dance at Bing Crosby's house that leads to the first time they have sex." I'd pay to see that show. It doesn't bring the heat mainly because Karen is all wrong for the role of Marilyn. NOW will you listen to Dramaturg, Miss Willful?
Derek turns down drinks with 2-time Tony Winner JHud who wants him to direct her revival of The Wiz because he'd rather go to Brooklyn with Karen to meet with two complete unknowns. Of course. Is JHud really "almost 30"?
Jeremy Jordan and New Gay Kyle sit around their Brooklyn loft that's straight out of a production of La Boheme and JJ bitches about shit because he's an asshole. So far all we know about JJ is he's a brilliant asshole. Derek and Karen show up and JJ's a total bitch to the renowned director who's just schlepped out to his squalid apartment to give him the break of his pathetic fucking life. JJ grudgingly describes his show which is a totally banal boy meets girl story. Derek is amazed at JJ's brilliance because we're all supposed to believe that JJ is brilliant.
The End.
2 comments:
Based solely on your write-up, I would wait on the TKTS line to see Megan Hilty in "Liaisons," knowing full well that she is playing a character and the show is not real.
As always, FABULOUS! You could teach Tom & Lorenzo a thing or ten.
Daniel Sunjata...what is beyond HEAVEN? Absolute perfection!
Though it's been...what?...nearly ten years since DS walked around nude in "Take Me Out," every Broadway Queen continues to kvell over DS's well-hung...ahhhh...performance.
When DS first dropped his trousers and turned to the audience, I swooned to the theater floor and had to revived with smelling salts and a cool cucumber-water compress to my forehead.
Sister Ray and I have seen him on Ninth Avenue near the Westway Diner...though that was at least 5 or 6 years ago. [Once, very sadly, he was with a woman.]
DS probably lives now in LA...? I wish he lived on West 45th. More specifically, I wish he lived at Bergercrest on West 45th. Mrs. Daniel "Doug" Sunjata...has a nice ring to it, yes?
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