Smash

[Emperor]

The pilot for NBC’s “Smash” has been available online for weeks so one could know by now it follows an effort to mount a Broadway musical about the life of Marilyn Monroe. Aside from “American Idol” icon Katherine McPhee, the most familiar faces in its cast are Anjelica Huston and “Will & Grace” star Debra Messing.

 

Producer Steven Spielberg (“Falling Skies,” “Terra Nova”) is the marquee name behind the scenes. "Smash’s" creator and showrunner is Theresa Rebeck, who used to write for "NYPD Blue" and "Law & Order: Criminal Intent." The pilot reportedly cost something like $7 million and subsequent episodes are reportedly budgeted at $4 million an hour.

 

Noting the participation of composer Marc Shaiman, I found myself wishing the show within the show was more like Broadway’s real smash, “The Book of Mormon,” which comes to us from Shaiman’s “South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut” collaborators.

 

I can’t imagine myself keeping up with “Smash” on a regular basis (or paying a dime to see the fictional Marilyn musical its characters are trying to stage), but I won’t fault McPhee, who sings wonderfully and is as fun to look at now as she was on “Community.”

 

Time says:

 

... relies too much on conventional showbiz plotlines and characters for me to get invested in it. … I’m harping a lot on the show’s negatives here, but that’s partly because I think Smash is being sold as something more groundbreaking and brilliant than it actually is so far. (Flame me, but I would argue that Glee at its best—however unreliably its best manages to show up these days—is more ambitious and original, lack of original music notwithstanding. Where you come down on the two shows probably depends partly on how important consistency is to you; I’ll take occasional brilliance over reliable competence any day.) …

 

HitFix says:

 

… I never felt my pulse begin to race when a production number began, didn't feel my heartstrings tugged at various emotional moments for the characters, didn't get excited about all the backstage conniving, scheming and sabotage. I enjoyed each hour well enough — there are too many ridiculously talented people in front of and behind the camera on "Smash" for it to not be at least a competent entertainment — but felt like I could wait a while before getting to the next episode. …

 

HuffPost TV says:

 

... an astute exploration of big-city aspirations and showbiz dreams from people who very clearly know their chosen topics intimately. If the rich, well-constructed universe these writers have come up with isn't enough of a draw, "Smash" also has music, dancing, lots of entertaining backstage bitchery and a very talented "American Idol" runner-up. …

 

The New York Times says:

 

… you’re expecting to be bowled over by the pilot, but it ends up feeling like a collage of devices from the zillions of previous backstage plays, musicals and movies ...

 

The Los Angeles Times says:

 

... The wonder of "Smash" is not that it's a grown-up "Glee" (it isn't) or that it stars "American Idol" runner-up Katharine McPhee (bringing the modern evolution of musical television full circle) or that the show-within-the-show — "Marilyn: The Musical" — seems prepped and ready for a real Broadway run. It's that creator Theresa Rebeck and her team have managed to capture the grand and sweeping gesture that is musical theater and inject it with the immediate intimacy of television. ...

 

The Chicago Sun-Times says:

 

... The naive, fish-out-of-water Midwesterner is a felony among cliché crimes, which “Smash” is guilty of on more than one occasion. (When Karen’s parents visit her in New York, they literally gasp at the prices on the menu.) The stereotypes slow down in subsequent episodes, which grew more entertaining with each of the four I watched. ...

 

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette says:

 

... viewers with a love of Broadway and good ol' workplace dramas won't regret tuning in for "Smash," an entertaining drama that sucks you in and gets your toes tapping during several musical numbers. …

 

The San Francisco Chronicle says:

 

… So good you can't help wondering why no one thought of it before, a compelling mix of credible real-life melodrama with a fictionalized approximation of what it takes to get a Broadway show from the idea stage to opening night. …

 

The Washington Post says:

 

… has some endearing characters, an instinct for backstage meows and a firm grip on its own sense of camp control, which, if nothing else, sets it apart from Ryan Murphy’s now fully atrocious “Glee.” … this is a show made by and for people with a lifelong case of Broadway’s restless leg syndrome. Breaking out into song and dance (with full accompaniment) is just a matter of course here, and whether you think that’s wonderful or not depends entirely on your predisposition for spotlights. “Smash” won’t convert anyone to the lifestyle, but it will intrigue those who are already deep in it. …

 

The Boston Herald says:

 

... Maybe “The Playboy Club” wasn’t so bad after all. … You’ll be left tapping your feet all right --— wondering impatiently if there’s any sparkle under this drudgery. …

 

The Boston Globe says:

 

You there, the “Smash’’ that’s awash in soapsuds and a tendency toward cliché? Feel free to exit, stage left, and take your glitzy packaging and your plot contrivances and your “Glee’’-style gimmicks with you. But the other “Smash’’? The one that tries to capture the qualities that make theater special and explain why so many talented people devote their lives to it in the face of long odds and short money? Ah, now we’re talking. That “Smash’’ deserves a callback. …

 

USA Today says:

 

... the kind of gloriously entertaining, wildly ambitious network series you hope for each season and seldom get....

 

The Hollywood Reporter says:

 

... Smash is excellent, a bar-raiser for broadcast networks. It may be pigeonholed as Glee for grown-ups, but Smash could be the first series to take America’s fascination with singing shows (one of its main stars is singer-turned-actress Katharine McPhee, the beloved American Idol runner-up in 2006) and mix it with a well-written drama to create something of more substance than Glee. ...

 

Variety says:

 

… Though clunky in places, at its best the series captures the essence of what the movie version of "A Chorus Line" didn't, providing an illuminating window into the creative process. Although everyone might not "get" musicals, most can understand people's need to harbor hopes and dreams. …