Friday, January 25, 2013

Smash

When it’s good, it’s great. When it’s bad, it’s God-awful. Good or bad, when it’s on, it’s virtually impossible to tear your eyes from the screen. Welcome to the wonderful world of Smash, a behind-the-scenes look at what it take to take an idea and turn it into a Broadway musical. The musical in question is the story of Marilyn Monroe, and over the course of Season 1 you will watch two talented young actresses – newcomer Karen Cartwright (Katharine McPhee) and veteran chorus girl Ivy Lynn (Megan Hilty) -- fight it out for the lead.  That’s the good side because both women are extremely talented and very, very likable so it’s fun to tune in each episode to see who is winning. The bad side comes when the show moves off the stage to drag us into the private life dramas of the other people involved in the show, like the writer (Debra Messing) who is trying to decide if adopting a baby from China really fits into her busy schedule or the rich producer (Anjelica Huston) trying to show she still has what it takes to make a hit after her producer partner/husband dumps her.  Their stories, and most of the other subplots, drag Smash into the world of nighttime soap opera, and not in a good way. Thankfully, each episode has a musical number to make up for the numbness before it sets in.

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