This weekend brought the end of one of the few television shows I’ve enjoyed over the past two seasons: “Smash” on NBC. The end wasn’t surprising; the ratings were in the cellar for much of the second season. Still, I’ll miss the show… and so I thought I would share with you (over lunch) what I think went right… and where it all went wrong. Of course, there is the obligatory triple of news chum related to Smash as well.
Smash, if you are unfamiliar with it, is a musical TV drama that purported to tell the story of the mounting of a Broadway musical about Marilyn Monroe, eventually called Bombshell. It started with the idea for the musical; it ended at the Tony awards. When Smash started, I had high hopes for it. It was, after all, on NBC — the network that had given us Fame in the 1980s (the Glee of its era, only with original music, not cover tunes). Smash started off well — we saw the drama of writing the show, the difficult life of actors, the audition and rehearsal process. The problem was that Smash rapidly devolved into a soap opera, focusing more on the love lives and drama of the characters than that drama of the show development process. There’s loads of drama there — much of which was glossed over — such as the set, technical, sound, light, costume designs. As the second season came on, the new show runner tossed some of the problematic subplots that were overly melodramatic… only to replace them with equally melodramatic subplots.
Looking back, what suggestions would I have made if I had been in charge? Here are a few:
- View Smash as a Miniseries. Open-ended dramas work well only if each episode is self-contained (e.g., CSI:), or if one is dealing with a true soap opera (e.g., Dallas). If Smash had been defined as a fixed number of episodes for its particular story, it could have been well plotted out — in advance — and appropriate time allocated to build to the various elements. By the way, this was the same problem Heroes had — it needed to have a fixed number of episodes. Trying to stretch out the story with the same characters in multiple books started to make it implausible.
- Focus on the Broadway. The show development was unrealistic. I have no problem with compressing the schedule, but focusing more on the drama of the process would have been good. Songs going in. Songs going out. Songs being added at the last minute, or to support/not support a particular character. Set issues, lighting issues, sound issues, costume issue. Issues with Broadway unions. Issues with the entire development process, from multiple workshops to non-profit tryouts. These were all glossed over and resolved far too quickly… and far too much time was spent with a focus on the personal lives.
- Understand the Role of the Music. Music in a show needs a context. Within the musical itself, musical numbers don’t exist to just get out a song — they must move the plot forward or illustrate something internal. This is why some of the fantasy numbers of the first season didn’t work. The music that did work was the numbers from the shows under development (and this is why adding the second musical in the second season worked). What was missing was musical numbers about the drama of the show development itself. These numbers (and they do exist — just look at Kiss Me Kate or Me and Juliet) could have provided the needed avenues for the actors to explore their hidden turmoils, or the technical creatives to explore the struggles they deal with.
- Don’t Make Things Too Convenient. Although I know this is TV, things worked out far too easy for Smash, and its internal musicals Bombshell and Hit List. It is unlikely they would have swept the Tonys as they did, or have had such an easy process to get to Broadway. I’ve seen shows languish for years (look at Spiderman or some of the development projects from the Pasadena Playhouse.
There are a number of things about Smash that I did like — starting with the casting. I’ve enjoyed Katherine McPhee since we saw her in Annie Get Your Gun at Cabrillo Music Theatre (what’s this American Idol of which you speak — I know of no such show). As for Megan Hilty, we saw her when she was in 9 to 5 at the Ahmanson. All the other leads were great, and the cameos by other Broadway folk were fun. I enjoyed both shows under development (Bombshell and Hit List), and actually hope that both are further developed into real pieces — it would have been great to have had Smash-specials where they actually presented the full productions. One can dream. The songwriters chosen were good (Todd and Mark are always one, and Joe Iconis is a new songwriter waiting to hit it big).
I promised you some news chum related to Smash, so here are the articles that caught my eye… and actually prompted this post:
- The Death of Kyle. This Buzzfeed article discusses why Kyle, the upcoming book writer for the Hit List musical, had to die. Part of it was an homage to Jonathan Larsen and Rent. However, more of it was a parallel to Carousel and how the death would spur changes in other characters.
- The Story Behind the Music. Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman were the two primary authors behind the Bombshell musical. Marc has written a long article looking at all the music he wrote in Smash, and the context behind each and every song (much of which was not shown in the show). Had this context been explained, the songs would make much more sense. I will say that it makes me want to get the CDs of the show even more (and I hope all songs are one them).
- The Third Season. After filming on the second season had wrapped, Smash learned it wasn’t renewed… however they knew the writing was on the wall as they were filming the final episodes… and so they crafted them to be able to serve as a series finale. In this article, the Executive Producer talks about the end of the 2nd season… and what had been planned for the 3rd season. It is interesting to watch the finale with this in mind — you can see how they were setting things up for the next season.
ETA (for my reference):
Songs by the Smash Cast (Amazon)
Smash – Complete Season Two (Wikia)
