SMASHED-UP

One of the most anticipated musicals of this Broadway season has been more than 10 years coming. In 2012 , SMASH, a television series about show biz archetypes trying to get a fictional bio-musical based on Marilyn Monroe called “Bombshell” to Broadway, became an overnight sensation in the US, and was licensed globally, including to German TV. Renewed for a second season, the show slumped and was cancelled amidst a whirlwind of corporate shenanigans. The world - at least the Broadway world - has clamored for a full Broadway stage version ever since.

It got what they wanted in a “great, big Broadway shooooow” (to appropriate a phrase from famous ditty by Stephen Sondheim for “Follies”). The new musical relies on Broadway archetypes (more like stereotypes) and a new backstage plot that uses a lot of theatre cliche. And it’s all staged by some of the most accomplished Broadway veterans. It’s not terribly original but that apparently wasn't the goal.

SMASH gets a new book by multiple Tony winners Bob Martin and Rick Elice who know the world of what they write, Martin having written “Drowsy Chaperone, Elf” and, most recently “The Prom”; Eiice having written “Water for Elephants”, “The Cher Show”, “The Addams Family” and, with the late great Marshall Brickman, “Jersey Boys”. The complicated, sometimes chaotic plot, replete with past and present love affairs, back-stabbing jealousies, show-biz ambitions and theatre-grade neurosis - revolves around no less than 8 key characters

Much of the first act is dedicated to character exposition. By the middle of it, we get to the middle of rehearsals of “Bombshell”. Lunatic acting coach Susan (the ever droll Kristine Nielsen) has prevailed upon the actor playing Marilyn, Ivy Lynn (Robyn Hurder), to apply method acting to her role. Director/choreographer Nigel (the ever flamboyant Brooks Ashmanskas) loses control of the very show he created. His associate, an actor by training, Chloe (Bella Coppola), steps up from behind the scenes and maneuvers Ivy’s understudy Karen (Caroline Bowman) out of her job. Writers Tracy (Krysta Rodriguez) and Jerry (John Behlmann) have creative differences that lead to marital problems (or vice versa, doesn’t matter). Producer Anita (Jacqueline B. Arnold) fears financiers will back out of the show, because of all the bad publicity generated by her dim assistant Scott (Nicholas Matos) who has been posting all the show’s problems on TikTok .

A lot of corny (and just plain lame) jokes pepper these plot convolutions. The score fares better. Tony winners Martin Shaiman and Scott Whitman (“Hairspray”, “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” , “Some Like it Hot”, etc), as accomplished as composers and lyricists as Martin and Elice are as writers, remount the score from the television series, with a few new songs. There’s 20 numbers, including 2 reprises. The big hit from the TV series, ”Let Me Be Your Star” opens and closes Act 1.

Veteran, Tony-winning director Susan Stroman (everything from “The Producers” to “The Music Man”) uses every trick in the book to prevent it all from becoming a real mess. All the traditional musical theater conventions (read cliches) get observed. The contorted storyline ends up with two versions of “Bombshell” competing for Tonys for both Best Musical and Best Actress in a Musical. No spoiler here. It doesn’t matter who wins.