Elisberg Industries
  • Home
  • Blog
  • Products
    • Books
    • Movies
  • About Elisberg Industries
    • Our Corporate Board
    • Information Overstock
    • Elisberg Industries Entertainment Information
    • Elisberg Statistical Center of American Research
    • Consultancy Service
  • Contact
    • How to Find Us
  • Kudos
  • Good Things to Know
    • The BOB Page
    • Sites You Might Actually Like
Decent Quality Since 1847

Smashed...and The Moment

2/6/2013

0 Comments

 
NBC's series about Broadway musicals, Smash, had its second-season premiere this week.  Though I watched the first season, I don't expect to watch Year Two.  I only mention this for two reasons.  The first is because I actually love Broadway musicals.  I have an embarrassingly large number of cast recordings from Broadway and around the world, over 400 (what can I say?  I enjoy staking out used record stores -- it's like a treasure hunt, finding the more obscure at this point, the better ), so I don't snark at the TV show as a non-believer.  But if they can't keep me around, that's an issue for the show.  The other reason to mention Smash (in fact, my main reason) is to bring up my favorite moment of the series last year, something that likely slipped past 99.5% of the audience.  I'll get to that in a moment.

To be clear, there were things I liked in the first season.  For starters, I found it semi-enjoyable -- I say that as someone who finds Glee unwatchable, and have only seen about eight minutes of it.  But that's not enough for me, and there was too much that I found annoying.  But Katherine McPhee was terrific, I liked a few of songs -- "Let Me Be Your Star," in particular (though I wasn't crazy about the full score), it had a joyous send-off of Bali movie musicals where most everyone got to perform, and there were plot lines that worked well for me.

I also got a kick out of the fact that one of the few characters on the show who has no reason to sing -- the husband of Debra Messing's character -- is one of the more notable, actual Broadway musical stars.  Brian D'Arcy James.  (Among other things, he starred in the title role of Shrek.  And was in the Tony-winning Titanic.)  It was fun to see them struggle to find some way to get him to sing.  Eventually, there was a 12-second sequence when he was playing a music video game and joined in.   Somewhat similarly, they figured out a way to get Christian Borle (who plays the composer) to do a full-blown musical production number -- not unreasonable since he won a Tony Award last year in the musical, Peter and the Starcatcher.  They had a character be late for rehearsals, so the composer filled in because he knew the number.  It was sort of a, "Put me, coach, I can do that!" moment.

(By the way, for others who like Katherine McPhee, you might want to check out a film written and directed by a good pal of mine, Rob Hedden.  You May Not Kiss the Bride.  She's the female lead in it, and does a nice job in her fist starring role.  The comedy adventure has a wonderful cast, and is light, fun entertainment.)

But overall, too much was overly soap-opera and stretched credibility of important plot points for me.  I understand them doing it, I hope people enjoy keep enjoying it, but it wasn't enough to my taste.

But I did love one tiny moment.  A moment, as I said, that I'm sure went past nearly the entire audience, even most theater lovers.  But was a touch of theatrical history.

It came near the end of the year.  The production team was gathered in a piano bar -- made all the more fun because the pianist in the scene was played by Tony-wining composer Marc Shaiman who co-wrote all of Smash's songs.  At one point, the character played by Angelica Huston (in real life a decidedly non-singer) is put in the position of singing a song.  But what to sing?  "Do you know 'September Song'?" she's asked.  She does, she says with a smile, and performs a quiet, simple version of it.  "But it's a long, long time, from May to December..."  That's all, nothing special, but pleasant.

But -- what I found such a total joy about it was that there was an inside "joke" to it.  The moment I heard the question, "Do you know 'September Song'?", I smiled wide in appreciation.  That song was not remotely chosen by accident or the whim of the show's music coordinator.  "September Song," you see, is from the very old musical, Knickerbocker Holiday.  It was written in 1938, with music by Kurt Weill (who also wrote "Mack the Knife," among much else) and Maxwell Anderson.  In the musical, the song is sung by an aging 'Peter Stuyvesant,' the Dutch governor of New Amsterdam, which later became New York.  All well and good.  And the actor who played him was...Walter Huston.  The grandfather of Angelica Huston.

As I said, that choice of songs was no accident.

(Walter Huston, incidentally, had a long and distinguished career.  He's probably best-known today for playing the old, crusty prospector opposite Humphrey Bogart in Treasure of Sierra Madre.  A film written and directed by his son, John Huston -- Angelica's father.)
Picture

"Do you know 'September Song'",  Angelica Huston was asked?  You bet she did.  Great TV moment.
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Picture
    Picture
    Elisberg Industries gets a commission if you click here before shopping on Amazon.
    Picture
    Follow @relisberg

    Author

    Robert J. Elisberg is a political commentator, screenwriter, novelist, tech writer and also some other things that I just tend to keep forgetting. 

    Elisberg is a two-time recipient of the Lucille Ball Award for comedy screenwriting. He's written for film, TV, the stage, and two best-selling novels, is a regular columnist for the Writers Guild of America and was for
    the Huffington Post.  Among his other writing, he has a long-time column on technology (which he sometimes understands), and co-wrote a book on world travel.  As a lyricist, he is a member of ASCAP, and has contributed to numerous publications.



    Picture
           Feedspot Badge of Honor

    Archives

    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013

    Categories

    All
    Animals
    Audio
    Audio Land
    Books
    Business
    Chicago
    Consumer Product
    Education
    Email Interview
    Entertainment
    Environment
    Fine Art
    Food
    From The Management
    Health
    History
    Huffery
    Humor
    International
    Internet
    Journalism
    Law
    Los Angeles
    Media
    Morning News Round Up
    Movies
    Music
    Musical
    Personal
    Photograph
    Piano Puzzler
    Politics
    Popular Culture
    Profiles
    Quote Of The Day
    Radio
    Religion
    Restaurants
    Science
    Sports
    Technology
    Tech Tip
    Theater
    The Writers Workbench
    Tidbits
    Travel
    Tv
    Twitter
    Video
    Videology
    Well Worth Reading
    Words-o-wisdom
    Writing

    RSS Feed

© Copyright Robert J. Elisberg 2023
Contact Us    About EI    Chicago Cubs
  • Home
  • Blog
  • Products
    • Books
    • Movies
  • About Elisberg Industries
    • Our Corporate Board
    • Information Overstock
    • Elisberg Industries Entertainment Information
    • Elisberg Statistical Center of American Research
    • Consultancy Service
  • Contact
    • How to Find Us
  • Kudos
  • Good Things to Know
    • The BOB Page
    • Sites You Might Actually Like