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Tara And Adam's Rewatch: Why Couldn't NBC Give Smash That One More Chance?

Primetimer

By Primetimer
in Smash [V]

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springbarb

springbarb

It's not a reality show, but there's a great documentary about the 2003/2004 Broadway season that follows Wicked, Taboo, Avenue Q, and Caroline, or Change from preproduction through the Tonys. It's called ShowBusiness: The Road to Broadway. It's been a while since I saw it, but I enjoyed it a lot.

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swimmyfish

swimmyfish

 

and Daisy for her showy, splashy, flight-including Diva

 

I liked that Daisy won for that role. I understand that we were supposed to be Team Ana, and I was justly appalled at Daisy's temerity or whatever, but I liked the implication here that it was the part of the Diva that was being rewarded. The aerial number that introduced the character was so incredible that the entire story had to be rewritten, and I always thought it was a little strange how much of that was credited to Ana, rather than the show-stopping staging and choreography.

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CDB

CDB

I can find a bootleg script of that HBO pilot somewhere??? Amazing. I will seek it out. (One of my dreams in life is to meet someone who can secretly show me that pilot with its amazing cast.)

Thank you for doing this rewatch, Tara and Adam! It's been a delight to revisit Smash through your eyes and makes me want to rewatch it myself. One day...

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Glade

Glade

Show Business: The Road to Broadway was a great documentary, I wish it could be replicated every year, as a show.

Personally, I think that while Scott's promotion might have been slightly tasteless, it made Julia (and the show) look ridiculous for just walking away from their entire professional partnership over one disagreement. And then we never saw the character again, as apparently he had nothing at all to do with the show once it was moved to Broadway (but I guess he gets royalties or something?) Anyway, I wouldn't want to work with someone as strident and self-righteous as Julia, especially without a binding contract.

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Lisin

Lisin

The last few episodes of Smash were so much better than most of S2 that it really made me sad when we knew it was done. Jimmy KILLS it in Under Pressure. That note is amazing. He is singing his face off and I love it. I hated him for lots of S2 but for some reason that one note redeemed him in my eyes. 

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marceline

marceline

The last few episodes of Smash were so much better than most of S2 that it really made me sad when we knew it was done. Jimmy KILLS it in Under Pressure. That note is amazing. He is singing his face off and I love it. I hated him for lots of S2 but for some reason that one note redeemed him in my eyes. 

 

I know what you mean but at those times I just chose to see Jeremy Jordan instead of Jimmy.

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Zuleikha

Zuleikha

(edited)
but I liked the implication here that it was the part of the Diva that was being rewarded.

Really? I took it as that Daisy was actually talented and good in the role. I actually preferred her version of I'm Not Sorry to Ana's. I loved the fire and contempt Daisy brought to the role. She seemed like a powerful pop diva whereas I thought Ana seemed cowed from the start of the song. Also, Krysta Rodriguez has a great voice, but she didn't seem to be much of a dancer whereas Mara Davi is solid. Although I agree with Adam that Daisy's hair in that number is horrible, but I blame that on the hair and makeup design. I thought both Karen and Daisy should have had the same over-the-top makeup and costuming that Karen and Ana had. They were supposed to be so over the top in their pop star persona that neither are recognized when the're off stage.

 

I hated the discrepancy between the way the show treated Daisy and Derek. Like it disturbs me on a deeply fundamental level that the show writers seemed to think Daisy did something unforgiveably evil but Derek was just a poor oaf victimized by Daisy. No, they both made morally bankrupt choices, but Derek was the one primarily in the wrong. Derek was in the position of power, and if I recall the tape correctly, Derek initiated a quid pro quo arrangement. He did not deserve to be forgiven by the Hit List cast while Daisy was iced out, and he didn't deserve a happy ending with Ivy and the pregnancy. 

 

Also, the show kept trying to convince me that Derek had genuine talent, but everything I saw of Hit List convinced me he didn't. He had moments that I agreed work (like his prologue with the Diva shooting Amanda), but most of the choreography and staging of Hit List seemed so fake edgy.

 

ETA: Ana's Reach For Me came on after I'm Not Sorry and reminded me of the great harness mystery. Ana's clearly not in a harness when she's doing the hammock aerial work. Daisy is putting on a harness when Derek interrupts her in the Tony finale. It doesn't look like there's any extra rigging when Ana's lifted by the microphone (plus we see her walking across the stage to the microphone). So what is the harness for and how does it get removed? 

Edited by Zuleikha
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adam807

adam807

ETA: Ana's Reach For Me came on after I'm Not Sorry and reminded me of the great harness mystery. Ana's clearly not in a harness when she's doing the hammock aerial work. Daisy is putting on a harness when Derek interrupts her in the Tony finale. It doesn't look like there's any extra rigging when Ana's lifted by the microphone (plus we see her walking across the stage to the microphone). So what is the harness for and how does it get removed? 

 

YAY, MORE PEDANTRY!!!! :) 

 

Yes, I noticed this during the original Reach For Me too. I'm 99% sure her original ascent is done with a wire. It wouldn't be impossible for her to just hold on to the mic and have it pull her up, but the way she's holding her arm it doesn't look like that's what's happening. Also I don't think union rules would allow that. But the rest of the sequence is done with the silks and I don't believe she's harnessed in. So a bit of TV editing trickery there.

BUT onstage without editing, that's probably exactly what would happen and an observant audience member would just be able to spot the trick. She'd either start at the piano hooked in and you'd see the wire, or one of the dancers could hook her in while she walked (not what we see at the Tonys), and once she got up there she could unclip and do her thing. So Derek's bit with her backstage tracks with the likely mechanics of her initial ascent.

 

One of my favorite moments in Spider-Man (yes, really) made my jaw drop not because the effect was so great, but because someone flew who I was not at all expecting to fly, and I had no idea how and when he'd gotten harnessed. It wasn't until I saw it a third time (look, they were giving away a lot of free tickets) that I figured it out, and it was actually an amazingly simple bit of sleight of hand.

I was already bummed when Smash ended. Now I am double-bummed since it means no more Pendant commentary. That stuff is fascinating!

 

Thank you! It's been fun to write. Clearly I'm happy to do more. :) Keep it coming! 

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Zuleikha

Zuleikha

Also I don't think union rules would allow that. But the rest of the sequence is done with the silks and I don't believe she's harnessed in. So a bit of TV editing trickery there.

BUT onstage without editing, that's probably exactly what would happen and an observant audience member would just be able to spot the trick.

 

So let me see if I followed that correctly. For TV, they filmed her (in a harness) being lifted into the air but then edited out the part where Krysta Rodriguez removed the harness and entered the hammock, but onstage, she would have had a costume that covered the harness and simply unclipped from the wire when she entered the hammock? I did find an interview where Krysta confirmed that she had no harness when she did her hammock routine (and you typically don't use harness for silks or hammock), but she didn't talk about the mike lift at all. It does look like an intense hang if it's all lift... normally with something like that, you would have your wrist wrapped or through a little hoop so that it's not all strength.

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adam807

adam807

So let me see if I followed that correctly. For TV, they filmed her (in a harness) being lifted into the air but then edited out the part where Krysta Rodriguez removed the harness and entered the hammock, but onstage, she would have had a costume that covered the harness and simply unclipped from the wire when she entered the hammock? I did find an interview where Krysta confirmed that she had no harness when she did her hammock routine (and you typically don't use harness for silks or hammock), but she didn't talk about the mike lift at all. It does look like an intense hang if it's all lift... normally with something like that, you would have your wrist wrapped or through a little hoop so that it's not all strength.

 

I believe so, yes. I don't know for sure, but I think that's how it would have to be done, both on stage if it were real, and on TV. You're right that she wasn't harnessed for the bulk of the number in real life, I do know that, I'm just talking about that initial lift. So I think Derek's bit with Daisy backstage makes sense, even though we the TV audience had never seen a wire before.

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