When culture pops, we wipe it up ...
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By NineDaves and Linda Buchwald First thing’s first. As you probably know by now, word came in late Friday night that NBC has indeed cancelled SMASH. This isn’t a surprise to anyone, but it’s still sad. Mostly because we will never fulfill our dream of playing ourselves on an episode. The show’s death actually ties in with the theme death on SMASH lately. You have Kyle’s death, obviously. Then, Julia and Tom’s partnership died. MORE
By NineDaves and Linda Buchwald When SMASH first started, there was a lot of debate as to where the real world theater line and the fake world theater line would be drawn. Back then, the line was pretty blurry. But theater superfans could easily make adjustments in our heads. Heaven on Earth is at the Shubert, meaning Memphis (and now Matilda) doesn’t exist? Sure. Christian Borle doesn’t exist, but Peter and the Starcatcher still happened? MORE
By NineDaves and Linda Buchwald After three good episodes in a row, the momentum was bound to wear off eventually. And it did this week with a mediocre episode, “The Producers.” We’re totally onboard with the fact that this show is still dealing with realistic issues like how to sell tickets to Bombshell and keep it open until the Tonys. And how to get producers to invest in Hit List. But this episode focused a lot on Jimmy. And as much MORE
By NineDaves and Linda Buchwald We may base a big part of our Reality Index on SMASH’s major missteps. But believe it or not, we much prefer the show to make the right choices. Which is why when an episode like tonight’s “Opening Night” comes along, we actually feel pretty damn good. Because there were far more “Totally True” moments than “Oh Hell No!” errors. And when there’s an episode with Leo in it, and we’re not even MORE
By NineDaves and Linda Buchwald It’s really too bad that NBC decided to move SMASH to Saturday nights right when the show was getting good. Last week, we were pleasantly surprised with the direction the show was going, and this week’s episode “The Dress Rehearsal” continued to present us with poignant conflicts and smart creative decisions. The Bombshell crew debated cancelling a first preview after a rough invited dress - and wondered MORE
By NineDaves and Linda Buchwald Every once and awhile, we have to give the SMASH writers props for getting an episode right. And while “The Surprise Party” was by no means perfect, we’ll give them kudos for actually finding a common theme in all the storylines that not only made sense, but was worth exploring. Surprise, indeed! The topic on this week’s agenda? Professionalism. Where do you draw the line between working, dating, and MORE
By NineDaves and Linda Buchwald Well here it is: the last Tuesday episode of SMASH. From now on, NBC is banishing the show to a Saturday night time slot, where Marilyn and company can die a slow, quiet death. It’s sad, really, for a show that had such promise from that first pilot episode all those plot points ago. But if we’re being honest, the true death moment for SMASH wasn’t when NBC banished the show to Saturdays. It wasn’t Ellis MORE
If we’ve learned one thing about Broadway from SMASH, it’s that the creative process requires a lot of collaboration. Producers, directors, choreographers, book-writers, actors, critics, publicists – everyone seems to want a say. The dance is, you have to be able to have a director driving the ship, listening to everyone’s suggestions and making the right choices without pissing off the personalities. It’s a hard thing to do. But MORE
FUN FACT: Ivy wasn’t in this scene in the actual episode, so you’re kind of seeing a deleted scene. Ooooooooh By NineDaves and Linda Buchwald If you can, SMASH fans, set your mind back to last season. We know - the memory can be painful, thinking about those bowling alley/karaoke bar/Times Square musical numbers that came out of nowhere. But don’t think about those. Don’t think about Ellis either. Or Dev. Ignore the pill-popping Ivy MORE
By NineDaves and Linda Buchwald In the previews for next week’s episode of SMASH, we’re told to expect “the moment no one saw coming.” “The moment everyone saw coming” would probably be more accurate, as everything SMASH has done for two seasons now has been entirely predictable. Why, last week, we closed our column laying out the future of SMASH down to the finale. And wouldn’t you know it - in one episode, most of those things MORE
By NineDaves and Linda Buchwald This week on SMASH, we come to yet another crossroads with Bombshell. Julia and Peter finally finish the book - which has been a total disaster up until this point - and the gang gets together to have a good old fashioned read-through. Spoiler alert - the book’s great. But Jerry doesn’t want to produce the new version because he fears it’s “too good” and would therefore, not recoup. Tom somewhat MORE
By NineDaves and Linda Buchwald We’ve seen it happen time and time again. After years of struggling, an actor finally realizes his/her dream of making it to the Broadway stage in a breakout role. Fanboys and fangirls line up outside the theater for autographs, flooding the BroadwayWorld Message Boards and their Twitter feeds with endless praise and dreamcasting possibilities. Critics follow. The New York Times does a profile or two. Then MORE
By NineDaves and Linda Buchwald There’s this very famous episode of Law and Order: Criminal Intent that’s become a cult favorite of theater fans everywhere. The plot centers around the murder of a Broadway actor, and everyone’s a suspect. The director. The understudy. The composer. The producer. You get the picture. In the end, it turns out it’s the dramaturg who did it. The sneaky, meddling, researcher was apparently trying to get a MORE
By NineDaves and Linda Buchwald They called the second episode of SMASH’s two-hour premiere “The Fallout.” We’re guessing that’s more of a commentary towards the reception SMASH received in its first season than it is an explanation of the action we saw throughout the episode. Sure, there was some fallout going on for Bombshell’s cast and creatives. Eileen Rand (Angelica Huston) is doing her best to keep the show alive despite MORE
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