Smash - Recap: Fade In On A Girl...
Recap and review of Smash - Season 2 Episode 12 - Opening Night:
When Smash explores a singular theme, its personal storylines tend to be more compelling, even despite the fact that those stories never tend to be anywhere near as engaging as the showbiz work behind the curtain. Yet "Opening Night" manages to be a solid episode by keeping things tightly focused. This is an episode that centers on perception, as a number of the characters worry about how they'll be perceived by others, whether individuals or entire groups of critics. But beyond that, it's an exploration of the struggle to overcome how we've been perceived in the past, as past perception is every bit as damaging as a new review. This is an organizing theme for the narrative that gives the episode momentum, yet even if it hadn't worked, I think the episode still would have been okay thanks to the surreal mood of its big development: Bombshell finally opening on Broadway. In a lot of ways, this could have easily served as the series finale, minus a few serialized elements here or there. Ivy (Megan Hilty) taking the stage as Marilyn has been a long time in coming, and her last act performance of "Don't Forget Me" is the kind of showstopper this series could have dimmed the lights on, as was the duet between her and Karen (Katharine McPhee), a performance of Frank Sinatra's "That's Life" at the after party. It felt like the series wrapping things up...yet we have five more episodes to go, as well as, apparently, a Tony campaign to kickstart.
Credit: NBC
So the concerns of perception begin early in the episode, as Ivy peruses message boards in anticipation of what she expects will be negative reviews while Tom (Christian Borle) weighs an offer to direct a revival of City of Angels, provided his reviews by The New York Times aren't awful. Meanwhile, Jimmy (Jeremy Jordan) worries that Karen will judge him harshly if he comes clean about his checkered past. This latter situation is the clearest evocation of the episode's theme, yet it's the weakest on the follow-through, as the option to come clean to Karen is essentially taken out of his hands.
Credit: NBC
Ana (Krysta Rodriguez) brings Jimmy's dealer, Adam, to the Bombshell opening after stooging to Karen that Adam is actually Jimmy's brother. Karen confronts Jimmy, and he has little recourse but to come clean, in that moment. Jimmy confirms that Adam is his brother, and that they came from an abusive family, as their father frequently beat them, along with their mother. Adam then got Jimmy into drugs, at which point Jimmy became a dealer. He enumerates his sins, which include watching people OD without calling 911, and Karen takes it all in with a sort of slack-jawed horror. Recognizing this, Jimmy pleads with her not to judge him by whom he was, since all he's wanted to do since meeting Karen is to become a better person. So Karen gives him a second chance, telling Jimmy to let his actions prove his desire to change. And Jimmy does a pretty good job of remaining on his best behavior, until Kyle (Andy Mientus) confronts Adam and asks him to leave. Adam starts threatening Kyle and Jimmy steps in to help the man who, as he tells Karen, is his "real brother" (Kyle was instrumental in rescuing Jimmy from his destructive, drug-fuelled lifestyle). A brawl ensues, Karen pleads with Jimmy to stop, he briefly considers her pleas, and then punches Adam anyway, getting himself kicked out of the Bombshell after party. Karen breaks things off with Jimmy, and that's the last we see of him this week.
Credit: NBC
Yet Karen has some perception issues of her own. She's having trouble reconciling Ivy in the role of Marilyn. As she explains earlier in the episode, going to the Bombshell opening is like going to an ex's wedding. You don't want to get back together with the ex, necessarily; but you also don't want to see them with anyone else. Thus, Karen begins feeling pangs of regret and jealousy when Ivy bursts into "Don't Forget Me." It's a terrific moment for Megan Hilty, though I strangely found myself preferring Karen's version of that song, despite the fact that I've been Team Ivy since the beginning. Regardless, Karen meets up with Ivy in the bathroom, and the two women bond over the role they once fought over so contentiously, with Karen confessing her jealousy, while Ivy admitted to a certain jealousy of her own, as Karen took an unknown show like Hit List and made it into one of the most buzzed-about new shows in years. It's a lovely little moment that culminates in Karen saying that no one could have done Bombshell better than Ivy, not even Marilyn herself. It's a sentiment that's returned when Ivy invites Karen onstage during the after party to sing "That's Life," in one of my favorite moments of season two -- just a fun, natural moment for both Megan Hilty and Katharine McPhee. It's the kind of moment that's been all too rare for the series, and for the character of Karen, to be honest. These are the moments where she most feels like a real person, and not an abstract construct of what constitutes a "star."
Credit: NBC
As for the other developments of the episode, Julia (Debra Messing) finally secures the rights to The Great Gatsby, a show she and Tom had wanted to do since they first broke into the business, yet Tom doesn't have the heart to tell Julia about his City of Angels offer -- in fact, Julia learns of the offer from Rosie O'Donnell, of all friggin' people, as she congratulates Julia on the show and evinces her enthusiasm for Tom's next project. Julia is furious with Tom, yet he responds by saying that while he's always loved working with Julia, he's at a point in his career where he wants to test the waters by himself, as a director. Julia is understandably heartbroken, yet when The New York Times review comes in, praising Julia's book while slamming Tom's direction, Tom changes his tune and agrees to say no to City of Angels. Julia is rightfully offended at being Tom's second choice, and leaves with Scott (Jesse L. Martin), who convinces her she has the talent to do Gatsby on her own. Tom, meanwhile, gets drunk and goes home with Kyle.
Credit: NBC
And this is hardly the only hookup-related drama this week, as Derek (Jack Davenport) wants to go public with Ivy, yet Ivy eventually gives Derek the cold shoulder upon learning from Karen that he'd asked her out not too long ago. It's a parallel with Julia and Tom's story, somewhat, as Ivy decides she isn't going to be anybody's second choice. After getting some congratulatory praise from her mother, Leigh Conroy (Bernadette Peters), Ivy shoots down Derek's flirting, saying "It's been a long night" but "I'll call you if I need you." Ivy is now the one in control, while Derek is the person left to feel objectified...or is he? As he leaves the theater, he comes across one of the dancers who sued him way back at the start of the season, apologizing for taking advantage of the situation to further her own career. Derek, overruled by his libido, is quick to forgive. Go figure. However, not so quick to forgive is Eileen (Anjelica Huston), who gives Richard (Jamey Sheridan) a hard time over the article he wrote, building up Hit List while blasting Bombshell. Eileen decides she doesn't need the backing of the Times to make Bombshell a megahit that will "run longer than The Lion King." She decides to double the advertising budget to mount a Tony Awards campaign -- not realizing that Scott and Derek have made the decision to move Hit List to Broadway for this season, meaning that the two shows will be in direct awards competition. I've been waiting forever for this show to get to the Tonys already, and to find a way to put Karen and Ivy in competition once again, and it looks like we have our means of getting there.
"Opening Night" is kind of surreal when you consider that, for a while, it seemed like Bombshell was never actually going to make it to Broadway. That mentality certainly added to the gravitas of the episode, in a lot of ways. However, most of what worked was related to how characters reacted to the theme of perception, and either stood to meet the challenge, or fell by the wayside. "Opening Night" wasn't as good as last week's "The Dress Rehearsal," but it contributed to back-to-back weeks of solid episodes. And that's a feat in itself.