PILOT REVIEW: Smash

SMASH

Starring: Debra Messing, Jack Davenport, Katharine McPhee, Christian Borle, Megan Hilty, Raza Jaffrey, Jaime Cepero, and Anjelica Huston

Created by Theresa Rebeck
Written by Theresa Rebeck, Directed by Michael Mayer

Smash is the highly anticipated new drama from NBC that takes a look at the inner workings of putting on a Broadway musical about Marilyn Monroe. The talented ensemble includes writers Julia and Tom (Debra Messing and Christian Borle), producer Eileen Rand (Anjelica Huston), and director Derek Willis (Jack Davenport). Then there are the two starlets vying for the lead - the experienced but non-star Ivy (Megan Hilty) and the undiscovered Karen (Katharine McPhee). Rounding out the main cast is Karen's boyfriend Dev (Raza Jaffrey), who works in the mayor's office and Tom's assistant Ellis (Jaime Cepero). The dynamics within each character's life and with each other were introduced in the pilot.

THE GOOD: This is everything a good pilot should be. It creates intrigue and drama, it nicely defines and creates characters, and it seems like a show that has so many good things in front of it. There is nothing quite like this show on TV right now (and no, it is not anything like Glee). There is a very New York feel to it and it feels very authentic and true to what things might be like, even if it is somewhat glamorized. The cast is good from top to bottom but Katharine McPhee and Jack Davenport are early standouts. All in all, it was an extremely well-produced pilot that lived up to expectations I had.

THE BAD: This will be nitpicking but since I have the section, I do question how fast the pilot moved - I felt like it skipped over some parts that could have been explored deeper and now it's too late. Also while McPhee's performance of "Beautiful" was very good, was it really so amazing that it made all the higher-ups stop and watch? Finally, this is no fault of Smash but NBC's urgent desire to make this work led them to give away too much in the ads in my opinion.

BOTTOM LINE: Shows like Smash deserve to be successful. It is so well produced and thought out. The quality of acting, writing, and production are all top notch and its really presenting something that hasn't been presented before. I don't know if it will be a hit, I question if it's too "inside" to theater people to be a mainstream success. But I sure hope it is, well, a smash.