‘SMASH’: Robyn Hurder (center) & cast. Photo: Matthew Murphy.

SMASH
Book by Bob Martin & Rick Elice
Based on the NBC TV series by Theresa Rebeck
Music by Marc Shaiman
Lyrics by Scott Wittman & Marc Shaiman
Choreography by Joshua Bergasse
Directed by Susan Stroman
Imperial Theatre
249 West 45^th Street
https://smashbroadway.com/

By Scott Harrah

The NBC TV series “Smash” aired for two seasons in 2012 and 2013. Now, the Tony Award-winning team of book writers Bob Martin and Rick Elice, composer Marc Shaiman, lyricist Scott Wittman and director Susan Stroman have adapted the TV series into a splashy, fun, flawed yet sublime Broadway musical, Smash.

The show focuses on the story of a make-believe Marilyn Monroe musical called Bombshell: The Marilyn Monroe Story and the colorful characters all working behind the scenes to get the production off the ground. The fictional Marilyn is established star Ivy Lynn (Robyn Hurder), a gorgeous blonde who looks the part and is so into her character that she hires a “Method”-style acting coach, Susan Proctor (Kristine Nielsen), to help her become Marilyn.

Backstage intrigue

The narrative centers on backstage intrigue at a Broadway musical, with everyone doing anything to shine in the show, with more than one actress coveting the lead role of Marilyn. Ivy hires Susan after the husband-and-wife duo Jerry (John Behlmann) and Tracy (Krysta Rodriguez) give the actress a book by the Method coach. Meanwhile, understudy Karen (Caroline Bowman) is talented indeed but considered too inexperienced to play Marilyn. Ivy and Karen become instant rivals, adding tension.

Bombshell is helmed by veteran director Nigel (Brooks Ashmanskas), with the help of associate director Chloe (Bella Coppola). Chloe is a plus-sized woman who has also memorized all of Ivy’s lines. Everyone involved in the musical must answer to the producer Anita (Jacqueline B. Arnold), a no-nonsense woman who makes sure the show adheres to the guidelines and theme her investors expect.

Insider humor

The story includes all the issues involved with mounting a Broadway musical, from managing talent and budgets to “creative differences” and coping with egos. This is all a nice recipe for a “show-within-a-show.” Does everything work? Not always, but anyone interested in theater will find plenty of insider humor to savor. Joshua Bergasse’s energetic choreography and Scott Wittman and Marc Shaiman’s songs keep everything moving along at a fun, vibrant pace. Fans of the TV series might recognize some of the numbers from the NBC show, including “The 20^th Century Fox Mambo” and “Let Me Be Your Star.”

Shows-within-a-show are nothing new in theater. Shakespeare used this technique in Hamlet (when actors performed for the court), Agatha Christie used it in The Mousetrap (still playing on the West End in London) and so did the recent British comedy The Play That Goes Wrong and the 1982 farce Noises Off.  The French call the concept mise en abyme, or “placed into abyss,” and in English it’s often called “metadrama.”

A hit for director Susan Stroman?

It has been a while since renowned Tony Award-winning director Susan Stroman scored a bona fide hit, but she might just have one here with Smash. Although far from being a perfect musical, the show has so much going for it, including an accomplished cast, many of whom have been working on Broadway for decades.

Fine cast

Robyn Hurder is delightfully imperious as the self-centered Ivy who makes everyone’s life hell in the production with her diva-like behavior. Caroline Bowman is equally top notch as Ivy’s rival and understudy, Karen. Ms. Bowman is exquisite, particularly in her show-stopping number “They Just Keep Moving the Line.”

Longtime Broadway vet Brooks Ashmanskas is always outstanding in any show. However, as the middle-aged, self-deprecating gay director Nigel, Mr. Ashmanskas gives one of his finest performances yet. He has never been funnier, from his quick-witted delivery of dialogue to his dynamic stage presence. He never fails to mine the material for laughs.

Supporting cast members shine

Nearly all of the supporting-cast performances are noteworthy as well. Krysta Rodriguez and John Behlmann are both hilarious as the often-arguing, married book and songwriting duo Tracy and Jerry. Two-time Tony nominee Kristine Nielsen is almost unrecognizable as the black-clad Method coach Susan Proctor. Ms. Nielsen’s Susan is a camp delight. She plays the character (or should I say caricature?) as a pretentious theatrical sorceress, charging big bucks to coach Ivy in the acting “method” used by Konstantin Stanislavsky and Lee Strasberg.

Bella Coppola gives one of the musical’s most magnificent performances as Chloe. Watching her transform herself from a frumpy associate director to a solid replacement for the glamorous Marilyn role is one of the show’s highlights.

This may not be the stage adaptation some fans of the old TV series were expecting, but as a musical comedy loaded with wit and nonstop silliness, Smash is simply splendid.

Published April 12, 2025
Reviewed at press preview performance on April 8, 2025

‘SMASH’: (left to right) Megan Kane, Brooks Ashmanskas, Robyn Hurder, Kristine Nielsen, Krysta Rodriguez & John Behlmann. Photo: Matthew Murphy.

‘SMASH’: (left to right) John Behlmann, Krysta Rodriguez, Jacqueline B. Arnold, Brooks Ashmanskas, Robyn Hurder, Caroline Bowman, Bella Coppola, and Nicholas Matos. Photo: Matthew Murphy.

‘SMASH’: Robyn Hurder & Brooks Ashmanskas. Photo: Paul Kolnik.

‘SMASH’: Bella Coppola. Photo: Matthew Murphy.

‘SMASH’: Krysta Rodriguez & John Behlmann. Photo: Matthew Murphy.

‘SMASH’: Caroline Bowman & cast. Photo: Matthew Murphy.

‘SMASH’: Robyn Hurder & cast. Photo: Matthew Murphy.

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‘CHARLIE & THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY’: (left to right) John Rubinstein, Ben Crawford, Emma Pfaeffle, Jake Ryan Flynn, Christian Borle, Trista Dollison, Alan H. Green, Jackie Hoffman & Michael Wartella. Photo: Joan Marcus

CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY
Based on the novel by Roald Dahl
Book by David Greig
Music by Marc Shaiman
Lyrics by Scott Wittman & Marc Shaiman
Directed by Jack O’Brien
Choreography by Joshua Bergasse
Lunt-Fontanne Theatre
205 W. 46th Street
(877-250-2929), www.charlieonbroadway.com

By Scott Harrah

It’s ironic that a musical best known for the song “Pure Imagination” has been re-conceived for Broadway with so little of it. Director Jack O’Brien, book writer David Greig and composers Scott Wittman and Marc Shaiman have turned what was a flawed but colorful musical in London into a bittersweet curiosity on Broadway. The overall product will likely thrill many, but is mostly cotton candy without the substance or edgy humor of the book and original film on which it is based.

Anyone who saw the 2013 London musical adaptation of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory knows the show’s shortcomings could have been easily “tweaked” for American audiences. There have been four major incarnations of Roald Dahl’s 1964 novel, a whimsical moral fable, from the delightful cult classic 1971 film adaptation with Gene Wilder to the digitally infused, Tim Burton 2005 remake with Johnny Depp, a West End musical adaptation and now this retooled and revamped reboot for Broadway. This “doctored” musical-comedy interpretation of Charlie is the weakest by far of all the adaptations. It lacks the charm of the 1971 movie, and also the sophisticated touches of the West End show.

Of course, there are spectacular production numbers that depict, with high-tech wizardry and Scott Wittman and Mark Shaiman’s effusive songbook, the classic tale of a group of children touring Willy Wonka’s magical chocolate factory.

Charlie closed in January at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane and was a tourist staple. This reviewer saw Charlie in the United Kingdom two years ago and felt at the time that act one was too long for its own good, but the second act made up for it with songs and scenes depicting the dark, twisted fates of Augustus Gloop (F. Michael Haynie), Veruca Salt (Emma Pfaeffle), Mike Teavee (Michael Wartella) and Violet Beauregard (Trista Dollison).

The big change from London is the opening number, “The Candy Man” (the Leslie Bricusse-Anthony Newley song made famous by Sammy Davis, Jr.), which was in the 1971 film but not in the West End version at all. Instead of beginning at a dump, this Broadway edition opens in a candy store with Charlie (rotated by Jake Ryan Flynn, Ryan Foust and Ryan Sell in certain performances) and a surprisingly lackluster Christian Borle as Willy Wonka. He’s all ham and camp because he’s been given such flimsy material with which to work, and his portrayal of Willy suffers as a result.

Jackie Hoffman (fresh from her acclaimed role as Mamacita on “Feud”) is Mrs. Teavee, a pill-popping 1950s-style cartoonish mom, and she gets plenty of laughs. Ms. Hoffman is also less outrageous, in a good way, than she has been in some of her past Broadway work.

Grandpa Joe (John Rubinstein) is featured prominently here. There are the iconic kids who’ve won golden tickets, from spoiled rich brat Veruca Salt (here she’s a Russian girl) and her number “When Veruca Says” to gum-chewing Violet Beauregard’s “The Queen of Pop” (in this version she’s also an African American hip-hop girl, but the song “Double Bubble Duchess” was more fun in the London edition). TV-obsessed Mike Teavee sings “What Could Possibly Go Wrong?” with his mother and the ensemble.

As with the films, the true excitement doesn’t really start until we visit the Chocolate Factory with Willy Wonka. The British stage version was darker, more literal and more technically vivid, but here things are more colorful and—dare I say it? —cheesier. Of course, there are also the winsomely disturbing Oompa-Loompas (represented by actors in special costumes, a clever touch by puppetry designer Basil Twist).

While the London show had marvelously futuristic sets for the Chocolate Factory scenes, the Broadway sets by video and production designer Jeff Sugg and lighting designer Japhy Weideman lack the “wow” factor of the West End production. The song “Vidiots,” featuring various TV sets, had the gleeful, streamlined futurism of a pop music video or live concert in London, but is not as impressive here.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory isn’t as cerebral as that other Roald Dahl musical adaptation, Matilda, but it is still fun, particularly seeing the warped ways that Augustus Gloop, Veruca, Violet and Mike face grisly retribution for being annoying, self-centered children. However, director Jack O’Brien and book writer still David Greig have not solved the main problem that plagued the West End version: The awkward first act. What’s shocking is that, with all the changes made, no one could think of a way to make Act One more enjoyable.

The story of Willy Wonka and Charlie is timeless, but this Charlie and the Chocolate Factory adaptation will be disappointing for fans of the film and the Roald Dahl book. It is truly a shame the people behind the show simply did not come up with fresh ideas to make this a more memorable musical.

Edited by David NouNou
Published April 26, 2017
Reviewed at press performance on April 25, 2017

‘CHARLIE & THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY’: (left to right) Kristy Cates, Madeline Doherty, Paul Slade Smith, Emily Padgett, John Rubinstein & Ryan Sell. Photo: Joan Marcus

“CHARLIE & THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY’: Ryan Foust. Photo: Joan Marcus

‘CHARLIE & THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY’: Jake Ryan Flynn & Christian Borle. Photo: Joan Marcus

‘CHARLIE & THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY’: Ryan Sell. Photo: Joan Marcus

‘CHARLIE & THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY’: Christian Borle. Photo: Joan Marcus

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DISNEY STAR TAKES BROADWAY: Vanessa Hudgens in ‘Gigi.’ Photo: Joan Marcus

GIGI
Book & lyrics by Alan J. Lerner
Music by Frederick Loewe
Adapted by Heidi Thomas
Based on a novel by Colette
Choreographed by Joshua Bergasse
Directed by Eric Schaeffer
Neil Simon Theatre
250 West 42nd Street
(877-250-2929), http://www.GigiOnBroadway.com

By David NouNou

Gigi came alive as a charming novella by Colette, set in Paris around 1900, about a young girl being trained to be a courtesan. A thin story that was turned into a play in 1951 with an unknown Audrey Hepburn as Gigi, and due to the phenomenal success of Lerner and Loewe’s My Fair Lady, M.G.M. commissioned them to write the book and the score to the magnificent and illustrious 1958 movie that won nine well-deserved Oscars, including one for Best Picture, and one for the brilliant direction by Vincent Minnelli. And what a superb movie that was. Then, in 1973, Alan Jay Lerner took it upon himself to do a stage adaption of this once brilliant and delightful movie and turned it into a vapid and disastrous musical flop. Dear readers, I think you know where I am going with this.

Life has been hard on Gigi, and the poor girl hasn’t aged well; not because she was training to be a courtesan, but due to the ill treatment she has gotten in her various incarnations from the hands of the creative teams that have taken it upon themselves to mangle her story. Alan Jay Lerner wounded her in 1973, but Heidi Thomas’ new adaptation has murdered her. This was once a charming lightweight story of a young girl being raised by her grandmother and tutored by her great aunt to get the best things that life and men could offer her. After all, this was Paris, and one didn’t have to worry about puritanical ideas or the politically correct and non-offensive ideologies that this current version proffers.

In this sanitized version, Gigi is a strong-minded girl who learns how to pour coffee into a cup without spilling a drop; she loves to read the gossip columns and doesn’t understand the Parisians in why they always want to make love. Here she isn’t really being trained for anything useful, not even being a good courtesan.

What was once a score that was sheer perfection, and written especially for that particular character, has now been distributed randomly for the sake of avoiding the audience any queasiness. The innocent opening number “Thank Heaven For Little Girls,” which was so charmingly sung by Honore Lachaille/Maurice Chevalier, praising young girls “growing up in the most delightful way,” has been given to Mamita (Victoria Clark), Gigi’s grandmama and Aunt Alicia (Dee Hoty), which makes no sense at all. “The Night They Invented Champagne” is now a full, tacky, tasteless production number; and one of the most expressive solo songs, “I’m Glad I’m Not Young Anymore,” which was Honores’ swan song, is now a love duet with him (Howard McGillin) and Mamita. And the missteps keep piling up. Eric Schaeffer, who in 2011 directed the best revival of Stephen Sondheim’s Follies ever, is totally at a loss here. There is no real justification or motive for what any of the characters are doing, saying or singing.

I can’t really fault any of the performances, for they were given a script to act and do what they were told. Vanessa Hudgens as Gigi starts out too all-American and perky, vestiges of her Disney days still intact, but settles in nicely in Act II. Victoria Clark’s Mamita as usual delivers the goods no matter what she is given. Corey Cott as Gaston, Gigi’s love interest, is in good voice but comes across more as a rich kid than a debonair, bored leading man. Dee Hoty is too shrill as Aunt Alicia and seems more of a caricature than a worldly woman of the world. Howard McGillin as Honore Lachaille has been stripped of any charm the character once possessed.

Poor Gigi, she has not aged in a most delightful way, and the champagne has turned to vinegar. Ending on a positive note, Catherine Zuber’s costumes are beautiful.

GAY PAREE: (left to right) Corey Cott, Vanessa Hudgens, Victoria Clark & ensemble. Photo: Joan Marcus

LA BELLE FRANCE: The ensemble of the Broadway revival ‘Gigi.’ Photo: Joan Marcus

UPDATED ‘GIGI’ MISSES THE MARK: Steffanie Leigh, Howard McGillin, Victoria Clark, Vanessa Hudgens, Corey Cott, Dee Hoty & ensemble. Photo: Joan Marcus

GIGI & GENTLEMAN: Vanessa Hudgens & Corey Cott. Photo: Joan Marcus

STEFFANIE LEIGH: As Liane d’Exelmans, dancing with ensemble in ‘Gigi.’ Photo: Joan Marcus

COLORFUL BUT MISGUIDED: A scene from ‘Gigi.’ Photo: Joan Marcus

SANITIZED ‘GIGI’ REVIVAL (left to right): Victoria Clark, Corey Cott & Vanessa Hudgens. Photo: Joan Marcus

Edited by Scott Harrah
Published April 15, 2015
Reviewed at press performance on April 14, 2015

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SAILORS’ DELIGHT: (left to right) Jay Armstrong Johnson, Tony Yazbeck & Clyde Alves. Photo: Joan Marcus

ON THE TOWN
Music by Leonard Bernstein
Book & lyrics by Betty Comden & Adolph Green
Based on an idea by Jerome Robbins
Directed by John Rando
Choreography by Joshua Bergasse
Lyric Theatre
213 West 42nd Street
(877-250-2929), www.OnTheTownBroadway.com/

By David NouNou

On The Town is a tribute to a New York of yesteryear. Based on Jerome Robbins’ ballet Fancy Free, about three sailors on a 24-hour shore leave and the adventures they encounter on this one memorable day. To say this is the best revival of the dated musical would not seem much of a compliment, considering the two that preceded it. The 1971 version had Phyllis Newman, Bernadette Peters and Donna McKechnie as the female leads; Claire De Loone, the anthropologist; Hildy, the taxi driver; and Ivy Smith, the dancer, respectively.  The males/sailors were forgettable and negligible.  It was somewhat cute and barely ran three months at the Imperial. Then came the hubristic George C. Wolfe 1998 fiasco with Lea DeLaria as Hildy and Jesse Tyler Ferguson (pre “Modern Family” fame) as Chip, one of the sailors; now that was an odd pairing. It lasted less than a month at the Uris Theatre, now named the Gershwin. I am sure the theater has recovered from that ill-fated bomb since Wicked has landed there.

This version has been magnificently orchestrated and makes the score come alive; it is fresh, vibrant and nostalgic. Musical aficionados will recognize the sharp musical notes that later appeared in Leonard Bernstein’s 1957 masterpiece, West Side Story. The same can be said of Jerome Robbins’ choreography and ballet.  You will be able to recognize his signature moves of the leaping dancers, with their arms in the air and ballet steps that were electrifyingly used in West Side Story. Joshua Bergasse has splendidly captured and recreated Robbins’ movements, none better than in the ballet sequences.

We have the three sailors: Gabey (Tony Yazbeck), the shy dreamer; Ozzie (Clyde Alves) the ladies’ man; and Chip (Jay Armstrong Johnson), the tourist who wants to see all of New York in 24 hours. Let me say all three are charmers with great voices and certainly can dance. Their female interests ultimately will be Ivy Smith/Miss Turnstiles for June and Gabey’s Miss Ideal, the beautiful Megan Fairchild, making her Broadway debut.  Elizabeth Stanley is the anthropologist, Clair, who forgets she has a fiancée and goes ape for her Neanderthal man, Ozzie. Last but not least is Hildy, the man-hungry cab driver (Alysha Umphress), who has found her bait in Chip. The three women are lovely, enchanting and know how to belt a song. My favorite couple has to be Gabey and Ivy; their ballet together is simply sublime.

John Rando, the director, and his team have certainly taken a dated dodo of a musical and remastered it to be enjoyed for its dancing and singing merits by contemporary audiences and overlook its wobbly book. He fine-tuned most of his cast except for one. I must question his taste and sense of humor when it comes to Jackie Hoffman and giving her all that free rein on that stage. Ms. Hoffman, in various roles, doesn’t just chew up the scenery; she inhales the wings as well. She has been doing this “hit and miss” shtick since Xanadu and The Addams Family and lately it’s more of a huge, annoying miss than shtick.

Beowulf Borritt, the scenic and projection designer who was such a sensation earlier this year in anchoring LCT’s Act One, for which he won a Tony for its magnificence and intricacy, here has a set that is just representational. Although he uses names and places of the 1944 era by way of projection designs, the time represented might be 1944 but the projections we see are 2014. For this cavernous theater, the show needed a more grounded set to anchor this show instead of just to represent it. However On the Town is represented, it still shows New York as being “One Helluva Town.”

MISS TURNSTILES: Megan Fairchild (center) & the cast of ‘On the Town.’ Photo: Joan Marcus

LADY CAB DRIVER: (left to right) Jay Armstrong Johnson & Alysha Umphress in ‘On the Town.’ Photo: Joan Marcus

GUY ‘ON THE TOWN’: Tony Yazbeck. Photo: Joan Marcus

THEY’LL TAKE MANHATTAN: The cast of ‘On the Town.’ Photo: Joan Marcus

GIRL MAGNETS: (left to right) Clyde Alves, Tony Yazbeck & Jay Armstrong Johnson & the ladies of ‘On the Town.’ Photo: Joan Marcus

Edited by Scott Harrah
Published October 22, 2014
Reviewed at press performance on October 21, 2014

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