SMASH - The show I love to hate

Musical theater has been a rare blip in the history of television series. Of course, Glee changed all that a few years ago – sort of, with its high school equivalency of a theatrical life. The annual, televised Tony Awards have been the closest most Americans get to seeing Broadway performers strut. Then SMASH comes along –  full of convoluted soap opera entanglements with dance numbers, emotional trysts, clashing personalities and work ethics cut up into neat episodes by commercial delays.

There’s some great talent here and, I confess that I’m hooked, so why complain? It’s the dramatic license that purports to turn re-writes into full blown numbers in a matter of hours, that re-directs workshop productions including dozens of dancers and actors into perfection in an afternoon and where egos pump and preen with scant consequence. I love to hate it all.

I’m not a theatrical expert but do have some experience. For ten years I lived an actor’s life in the Northwest. Community plays at the renowned Perseverance Theater led to graduating from Cornish Institute in Seattle with a degree in Theater. For the next 8 years I worked it – plays, voice overs, agents, commercials, more plays, regional film, understudying, summer stock and radio drama until it stopped nourishing me. As a mentor said, “If there’s anything else you want to do, do it. Theater is too demanding, too hard.” I left the spotlight to travel, write and start a family. It was time.

What minimally goes into a production: Most shows may have all the dedication necessary but die without the right mix of experience and direction, timing and publicity. Even a low budget Fringe performance takes months of work. Theatrical schedules are grueling for everyone involved– long days of rehearsals, many nights and weekends.  Average productions take at least 6 weeks to get to preview night. Years before that, an idea germinated into a script, into editing, into consults, readings, re-writes and workshop performances to get the kinks out. If the stars were aligned, and I’m not talking celebrities though that certainly would help, perhaps a local theater would produce it on a ‘main stage’ and years later it may get to regional theater (which was terribly slighted in the last episode of SMASH), where Equity Union actors, lighting, set and costume designers will work their best with directors and production assistants, stage managers and understudies all in the mix.

The point is it takes Time.

That time sucks energy from everything else in life: family, kids, education, parents, mortgages, investments, health insurance, retirement (what?). There’s a multitude of sacrifices done willingly for the art, the excitement and the show – which must go on.

On and on it goes in SMASH, with its Television truncation of what it takes to create a staged piece. Only the series trots out sexual innuendo, splashy dream sequences and career changing decisions in jump cut timing. Fun? Yes and no during this second season of the series, as the ratings show. Truthful about what goes into producing solid, stunning, theater? Not even close.

Photo courtesy of Alan Cleaver