Hulu is previewing NBC’s latest addition to the TV-Musical genre – Smash - starring Debra Messing, Jack Davenport (Coupling, Pirates of the Caribbean series), Christian Borle, Megan Hilty and (gag) Katherine McPhee.
I know, it’s the writer’s fault for creating such an unlikable star. Katherine McPhee plays Karen Cartwright, a struggling actress trying to make it on Broadway. The show follows the beginning production of a new musical about Marilyn Monroe, who is dead, has been dead for awhile now, and will never be resurrected. But that does not deter our composers, Julia Houston (Messing) or Tom Levitt (Borle) from writing up a demo and going viral on YouTube (ha, like a Marilyn video would go viral on YouTube).
What else? Davenport plays a really skeezy director, Derek Wills. And Anjelica Houston plays a producer going through a terrible divorce, Eileen Rand. Megan Hilty, who played Glinda in Wicked, is the actual Broadway actress trying to get a damn leg up, Ivy Lynn. Those are the basics…here are my running thoughts as document on Facebook with more exposition.
“Watching new SMASH TV show – and of course, the lead actress is complaining of being TOO SKINNY to her HOT INDIAN BRITISH BOYFRIEND. Fuck you, McPhee.”
Remember what I said about being unlikable? Boo-hoo, really. The rest of America mourns for your bourgeois problems. Except, she’s not even supposed to be bourgeois. She’s supposed to be a struggling actress who’s day job includes pouring coffee and forgetting customers. A single woman who moves to NYC from Middle America manages to capture the heart of a really good-looking British professional who works at the Mayor’s office?
Where’s my piece of this pie?
Oh and the directors didn’t think she was too skinny, as she previously thought in fact…
“Oh Dear God. She confuses “resume light” (i.e. not enough experience) with being too skinny. How self-obsessed can you be???”
With all the Sturm & Drang going on behind her little subplot, these little forays into her idiocy could be completely cut from the show and it will have improved at least 100%. At least.
Why? Because I just don’t buy this girl as the next Marilyn, or Christina or Britney or even Rebecca Black. Sorry, McPhee, but you have no chops. You can sing, but you can’t act your way out of a plastic bag. And the writer’s have written a character so wholly unbelievable. It’s not your fault, so sorry for the haterade.
But some points:
1. Breathe from your goddamn diaphragm not your chest.
2. When you audition, address the directors and composers by introducing yourself and the piece you’ll be singing. Don’t just look at the poor accompanist like…ha, this song needs no introduction! It does. Especially if it’s an Xtina song…at a Broadway audition.
3. Don’t ever sing “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” ever again. Thank you.
It’s a shame because Ivy is the clear dead-ringer for Marilyn – she’s voluptuous, she oozes sex, and she has a voice that could flatten you. This “innocence” thing Derek keeps yammering on about is just inaccurate. Marilyn was calculating, don’t get it twisted.
Anyhow, all the McPhee idiocy aside, it would be a fun show to watch not least because of the NEW SONGS!!! Take that, Glee!
Will I watch? Probably not. Unless there’s nothing else on Hulu.
My Take: Watch a real Broadway musical instead.
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