SMASH! The Musical

A few weeks ago I received a too-good-to-be-true email from TeleCharge that was actual true. TeleCharge emailed many of their customers (probably all of their customers), inviting them to sign up for a lottery to win tickets to see a Broadway show while it was still in production. Best of all -- the tickets were FREE. We would see the numbers performed, but, as the show is still in rehearsals, we did not see the finished set or costumes or the finishing touches. All we had to do was answer a few questions at the end. To date, this has been my favorite lottery win.

The musical SMASH is based on a TV show that ran for two seasons from 2012-2014 about the behind-the-scenes work to create a Broadway musical, in this case one about Marilyn Monroe. 

No knowledge of the show is needed to enjoy the musical. After watching the show, though, Don and I got curious about it so we borrowed the DVD from our wonderful library. In hindsight it is fun seeing how they took 32 hour-long episodes and condensed it into a two-and-a-half hour Broadway musical. They are using many of the songs from the show, combined some characters, and cut others. Before the show, and again right after intermission, the director came out and explained how things will be different in the final version (sets will fly, words will appear on a scrim, etc.). 

Many in the audience were invited guests, people from the industry, perhaps friends of the cast. Us regular folk were in the minority. We were seated together towards the back of the 600-seat CUNY Hunter school theater. 

As the show ended, we were each handed a cell phone and instructed to complete a quick survey. They asked us our favorite scenes (I could barely remember any scenes), our opinions on the chemistry between different characters, what we liked, what didn't work (be specific). Then there is the demographic information including how many Broadway musicals do you see in a year, how many Broadway plays, and how many non-Broadway, but still in New York City shows do you see in a year. Tough question. As people keep pointing out, we see A LOT. After that show we had plans to see Night of the Iguana off-Broadway, the week earlier I saw two shows in New York, and we have plans to return in a couple of weeks. Since COVID we have successfully been trying to see more. The harder questions were: what show does this remind you of? and, in the past couple of years, what have been your favorite Broadway shows? 

With the chance to absorb what we saw, I wish I had been given the opportunity to answer the questions again.

We were asked to keep the new plot twists a secret until after the show opens sometime in the 2024-2025 theater year. Since we haven't seen the TV show, I don't know what is a surprise, so I won't share much about the show. I will share Alex Brightman was in the cast as Jerry. We last saw him at Beetlejuice, in the musical of the same name. Completely different role, which made him feel like a completely different character. With Beetlejuice he was larger than life. As Jerry, just about any male actor could fill the role. That is one of the few roles that fell flat.

Actors hanging out after
the show!

We are already planning to see the show after it opens, if only to see if any of our concerns were addressed in the rewriting, as well as to see the flying sets and fancy costumes.

We are both wondering how we get on the mailing list to be invited to see more shows in the pre-production stage. It is exciting seeing how the magic happens.

After the show we walked to our new-favorite theater district restaurant, a Chinese restaurant on 10th Avenue. Last month The Counter closed suddenly forcing us to find a new favorite place.

That morning we tried for the $30 rush tickets to see Night of the Iguana. The day before we tried to win lottery tickets to see Sweeney Todd, Merrily we Roll Along, A Beautiful Noise, and The Notebook and lost each time. The ticket prices without the lottery were starting above $150 each, in one case the cheapest ticket we could have gotten was $319 each. If we hadn't won the rush tickets, we would have paid $42 to see Iguana instead.

Night of the Iguana is by Tennessee Williams. Emily Mann, formerly of McCarter Theatre, is the director. It received decent reviews. A couple of problems. The first was we were in the front row and with the stage elevated on a platform to simulate being on a veranda, our necks were at an awkward angle. The second was I'm not a fan of Tennessee Williams, or at least not of the plot. Rather than listening to the characters whining and repeating themselves, and having the German tourists parading in every now and again to remind us this takes place in the mid-1930s, I could trim the whole thing down from three hours to 30 minutes. It was well done, just not something I'd want to see again no matter who was performing it.

The other winner for the night was I saw on Facebook NJ Transit was having a bring your sweetheart for free deal. Don and I were able to take the train from Princeton Junction for $32 today instead of $32 each. In a couple of years, he'll qualify for the 50% off senior rate. That will be a game changer.

PS: Now that we've seen both seasons of the original TV show, we know what the spoilers are, but we won't spoil it. A lot of the original choreography was kept. Characters were condensed for simplicity, and others were added for storytelling purposes. Overall, we are pleased with how they turned over 30 hourlong episodes into a two-hour musical.