‘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.

The post ‘Smash’: Show-within-a-show is sublime appeared first on StageZine.

‘THE COLLABORATION’: Paul Bettany & Jeremy Pope. Photo: © Jeremy Daniel, 2022. Scenic & costume design by Anna Fleischle.

THE COLLABORATION
Written by Anthony McCarten
Directed by Kwame Kwei-Armah
Through February 11, 2023
Samuel J. Friedman Theatre

261 West 47th Street
(212-239-6200), www.manhattantheatreclub.com


By David NouNou

When one sees The Collaboration, keep in mind that, for dramatic purposes, this play is an abbreviated, slightly altered, condensed time frame of two art giants Andy Warhol (Paul Bettany) and Jean-Michel Basquiat (Jeremy Pope) to fit the parameters of a stage play and still make it interesting for the general public, some of whom might not be familiar with art, the artists and their individual or collaborative work.

Warhol and Basquiat were introduced by art dealer, Bruno Bischofberger (Erik Jensen), in 1982 and had a tumultuous friendship with many ups and downs that lasted for many years. They spent a lot of time together, working out, painting and going to parties together and many collaborative art pieces until their 1985 joint exhibition Paintings, shown at the Tony Shafrazi Gallery in New York that was slammed by critics and torn apart by the media. This ultimately was the final rift that practically all but ended their relationship.

As playwright Anthony McCarten writes it, Bischofberger worked with and displayed both artists. He indeed brought the two together because Basquiat was on the rise with his raw-energy paintings and Warhol was on the decline due to his repetitious lithographs. Although the two had nothing in common, Bischofberger thought a collaboration between the two would benefit both and leave a lasting legacy for the art world to enjoy.

McCarten shows the slow argumentative start between the two and a lot of the play centers around them asking each other questions of what art means to each of them. This is displayed by the films and pictures Warhol took of Basquiat’s art process, and Basquiat forcing Warhol to start painting again after 25 years of not touching a brush. With this process, they built a deep and meaningful friendship that intersected with their personal lives. This is where one of Basquiat’s girlfriends, Maya (Krysta Rodriguez), is introduced.

Upon hearing of the death of fellow artist Michael Stewart by police officers for painting graffiti, Basquiat is overwhelmed and is about to resort to heroin use again only to be intervened by Warhol after a fight they had earlier. This is when Warhol returns and becomes the father figure to encourage him to paint together and release their emotions.

The key performance here is Paul Bettany as Andy Warhol. He is iconic, consistent, absorbing, fascinating and intimately raw.

Jeremy Pope has the harder part, that of the rebellious Black artist who has hit it big in the art world because of his unconventional work. He comes across as petulant and, at times, childlike because of his young age. When the two met he was only 22. Mr. Pope has proven his talents in both The Choir Boy and Ain’t Too Proud, earning him two Tony Award nominations in the same year. However, his performance here is gripping at times but mostly inconsistent.

For art connoisseurs, The Collaboration may be a fond remembrance of these two artists. For most theatregoers, it will be an interesting viewing of two formidable, diametrically opposed artists having mutual respect for each other, their works, and their common grounds.

Edited by Scott Harrah
Published January 6, 2023
Reviewed at January 5, 2023 press performance.

‘THE COLLABORATION’: Paul Bettany & Jeremy Pope. Photo: © Jeremy Daniel, 2022. Scenic & costume design by Anna Fleischle.

‘THE COLLABORATION’: Erik Jensen. Photo: © Jeremy Daniel, 2022. Scenic & costume design by Anna Fleischle.

‘THE COLLABORATION’: Paul Bettany & Erik Jensen. Photo: © Jeremy Daniel, 2022. Scenic & costume design by Anna Fleischle.

‘THE COLLABORATION’: Jeremy Pope & Paul Bettany. Photo: © Jeremy Daniel, 2022. Scenic & costume design by Anna Fleischle.

‘THE COLLABORATION’: Krysta Rodriguez & Jeremy Pope. Photo: © Jeremy Daniel, 2022. Scenic & costume design by Anna Fleischle.

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‘SPRING AWAKENING”: Katie Boeck (left) providing vocals for Sandra Mae Frank in the American Sign Language revival of the Tony-winning musical. Photo: Joan Marcus

SPRING AWAKENING
Based on the play by Frank Wedekind
Book & lyrics by Steven Sater
Music by Duncan Sheik
Choreography by Spencer Lift
Directed by Michael Arden
Through January 24, 2016
Brooks Atkinson Theatre
256 West 47th Street
(888-250-2929), http://www.springawakeningthemusical.com/

By Scott Harrah

When Spring Awakening debuted on Broadway nine years ago in 2006, it was a well-crafted, ambitious musical adaptation from Frank Wedekind’s play about misunderstood teens in 1891 Germany and the clashes with their uptight, Victorian-era parents, with an outstanding score by Steven Sater and Duncan Sheik. The show won eight Tony Awards, including one for Best Musical. Fast forward to nearly a decade later. This is no ordinary revival as the show has been completely reinvented by director Michael Arden and Deaf West Theatre, featuring actors using American Sign Language, including Oscar winner Marlee Matlin. It is not really a gimmick, but is a totally new interpretation. However, it would be remiss to not point out that some of the original drama and intensity, performed by both deaf and hearing actors, is lost in translation here.

The plot is emotionally packed indeed, centering on sexually repressed teens in late 19th century Germany and dealing with such then-taboo topics as sex education, teen sex and pregnancy, wet dreams, masturbation, abortion, child abuse, etc.

It can be quite moving to watch American Sign Language in the theater, but also a hindrance when seeing it used in a musical. Changing tempos in a song or trying to enact a dramatic moment—and this piece has plenty of such moments—it breaks up the tension. Although it usually works here, it can be frustrating for mass Broadway audiences trying to understand the structure of the musical while reading projected signs and not knowing American Sign Language symbols. The narrative, even in the 2006 production, was hard to follow at times, and that’s certainly the case here because watching and listening to one actor signing while another speaks or sings takes some getting used to for non-deaf audiences.

We see Wendla (charming and sweetly played by Sandra Mae Frank) interpreting the lyrics in American Sign Language to “Mama Who Bore Me,” while Katie Boeck sings and plays the guitar. Look at the Playbill and you’ll notice that for nearly every deaf actor, there is another listed as “Voice of” who also plays guitar or piano. However, one of the show’s standouts is Austin P. McKenzie as Melchior (Wendla’s boyfriend), and he signs, sings and speaks with conviction.

A few scenes are done solely in American Sign Language, with subtitles projected onto a giant screen. This multimedia effect is innovative, but again dilutes some of the story’s dramatic tension for non-deaf audiences.

The show features two big name actors. Marlee Matlin looks gorgeous and brings a lot of raw intensity to the multiple roles of Frau Gabor, Frau Bessell and Frau Schmidt, but most of her talents seem underutilized here. Camryn Mannheim, who also takes on multiple roles and sometimes acts as Ms. Matlin’s voice, is powerful, but her German accent as Wendla’s mother, among other characters, comes off exaggerated at times and, thus, difficult to understand. A noteworthy performance is given by Krysta Rodriguez as the young outcast Ilse.

Michael Arden’s direction and vision are wonderfully executed. However, in the 2006 production, each character was uniquely distinct and identifiable. In this revival, with so many actors (and others doing their voices), the characters are more undistinguishable and the show’s overall impact is less effective.

‘SPRING AWAKENING’: Marlee Matlin. Photo: Joan Marcus

‘SPRING AWAKENING’ (left to right) Katie Boeck (back), Sandra Mae Frank & Camryn Mannheim. Photo: Joan Marcus

‘SPRING AWAKENING’: Austin P. McKenzie (center) & cast. Photo: Joan Marcus

‘SPRING AWAKENING’: Austin P. McKenzie (center) & cast. Photo: Joan Marcus

‘SPRING AWAKENING’: (seated, left to right) Joshua Castille, Austin P. McKenzie & Daniel N. Durant; (top row, left to right) Alex Wyse, Miles Barbee & Andy Mientus. Photo: Joan Marcus

‘SPRING AWAKENING’: Austin P. McKenzie & Patrick Page. Photo: Joan Marcus

‘SPRING AWAKENING’: Daniel N. Durant, Austin P. McKenzie & Alex Boniello. Photo: Joan Marcus

‘SPRING AWAKENING’: (counter-clockwise from bottom left): Treshelle Edmond, Ali Stroker, Amelia Hensley, Lauren Luiz, Kathryn Gallagher, Krysta Rodriguez & Alexandra Winter. Photo: Joan Marcus

‘SPRING AWAKENING” Daniel N. Durant & Krysta Rodriguez. Photo: Joan Marcus

‘SPRING AWAKENING’: Treshelle Edmond. Photo: Joan Marcus

‘SPRING AWAKENING’: Russell Harvard & Daniel N. Durant. Photo: Joan Marcus

Edited by Scott Harrah
Published October 5, 2015
Reviewed at press performance on October 3, 2015

The post ‘Spring Awakening’ Returns to Broadway appeared first on StageZine.

DATE BAIT: The cast of ‘First Date.’ Photo: Joan Marcus

FIRST DATE
Book by Austin Winsberg
Music & lyrics by Alan Zachary & Michael Weiner
Directed by Bill Berry
Longacre Theatre
220 West 48th Street
(212-239-6200), www.firstdatethemusical.com

By David NouNou

First Date says it all and in the most appealing and relatable of ways. Not only is it the title of this musical but also the event that is taking place at the Longacre Theatre. For who hasn’t been on that terrifying first blind date? Fraught with the unknown and possibly the inevitable mismatch and disappointment, however, let’s be honest here: Who of us (female or male) was ever fortunate enough to have a blind date like Zachary Levi? Making his Broadway debut portraying Aaron the nerdy businessman in a suit, it is hard to fathom that Mr. Levi ever had to go on a blind date. Not familiar with his work in the TV series “Chuck”, Mr. Levi turns out to be one of the most likeable, charismatic, charming, abounding with personality and enough stage presence to fill a stadium let alone an average theatre, and he can radiantly belt out a song. Who knew?

Professional blind dater Casey (Krysta Rodriguez) is another story. She has done it all and has built a hard edge to her veneer. She is a party girl and likes the bad boys; suits are not her forte and what she is used to. She is the one that has to give Aaron pointers on the rituals of the first date. She is the unsympathetic character, which makes it harder for her to be likeable. Ms. Rodriguez is a Broadway pro and has the spunk to have us root for her. Here are two people that are both nice in their respective ways, but romantically as mismatched as any two people ever were.

You now know the premise of the show. Sitcom fare by nature, but Bill Berry’s fast paced finely tuned imaginative direction gives the show its pizzazz. The score by Alan Zachary and Michael Weiner is perky, but the book by Austin Winsberg is predictable and the jokes are unoriginal but still cute. The performance I attended had the audience thoroughly engaged and regaled. These were not claquers who fill seats and laugh or clap at even the worst moments just to propel applause from the rest of the paying public. These were real people who were enjoying seeing themselves in similar situations as the ones shown on the stage.

Adding to the merriment but mostly as fillers are the requisite gay “BFF;” the best guy friend; the sexy ex-girlfriend; the bad boys; the sister; the grandmother; all of course being the voices of reason, among other voices in Aaron and Casey’s heads. Let’s not forget, for what blind date can one go on that doesn’t have the usual all-dancing, all-singing waiter/matchmaker (Blake Hammond)?

Are we talking about great material here? Not particularly. However, it is pleasant entertainment and it aims to please. And fantasizing about Zachary Levi being your next blind date doesn’t hurt, either.  One can only hope.

UNLIKELY LOVERS: Krysta Rodriguez & Zachary Levi in ‘First Date.’ Photo: Joan Marcus

Edited by Scott Harrah
Published August 15, 2013
Reviewed at press performance on August 14, 2013

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