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Daniel Sunjata (left) guest stars in last night's Smash episode "Dramaturg"
Hey y'all, I'm having major computer problems, like total meltdown problems, so this Smash recap is coming to you courtesy of my iPad and a wireless keyboard. So, pretty much the Internet equivalent of two tin cans and a string, operated by half-wit squirrels. So this will be more of a "hitting the highlights" recap as opposed to my usual scintillating and in-depth number.
At Eileen's insistence, Tom and Julia meet with a professional dramaturg, which is fancypants for "ghost writer". Tom is fairly quickly charmed by the dramaturg, Peter (Daniel Sunjata). Julia is less so, mostly because he wastes no time in pronouncing her book for Bombshell a drama-turd (first and last drama-turd joke, I promise).
She and Peter meet again later, and he pretty much wants to rewrite her book from line one. She carps that they got standing ovations every night in Boston, which he counters by noting, it was Boston. Point, Peter. Julia assumes from this exchange that he hasn't seen the show, but Eileen later informs her that he saw it four times. This leads Julia to confront Peter in a restaurant in front of his friends, which is the very thing you want to do when you're concerned that people will find out you're using a dramaturg. He challenges her to write some sex into the show, and she responds by developing with Tom a new number for Marilyn and JFK. He's not impressed, calling into question the entire structure of the show, and in particular dissing the "shadow selves".
Prediction: They'll be banging within three episodes.
We approve.
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Karen continues to try to sell Derek on Kyle and Jimmy Charming's musical. He agrees to meet with them, sending Kyle into a panic trying to get the musical's story straight. He's missing a key scene which Jimmy Charming remembers was left behind somewhere that Kyle insists he not return to.
Return Jimmy Charming does, to some nondescript apartment where he encounters someone he's met before who, like the rest of us, wants to kick the crap out of Jimmy Charming. Jimmy Charming escapes with the pages and a busted lip but an overlong Bombshell rehearsal forces Derek and Karen to miss the meeting.
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Karen cajoles Derek into another meeting at Jimmy Charming and Kyle's apartment. After his initial petulance subsides, Jimmy Charming deigns to tell the Broadway director doing him a favor the story for his musical. It's a mess. There's a boy who everyone hates, but who has musical talent (anyone we know?) who falls for a rich girl who can sing who steals all of his songs and changes her name and makes a career because YouTube and TMZ don't exist.
The boy keeps feeding her material because he's in lurve and in the end everyone dies. Somehow not laughing his ass off, Derek agrees to help with this nonsense, which is to be called Hit List.
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Ivy auditions for the lead role of Cecile in a revival of the (fictional) musical Les Liaisons, based on Les Liaisons Dangereuses. She gets it!
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Veronica (Jennifer Hudson) still believes that Derek is the right choice to direct her in The Wiz so she convinces one of the producers to watch a scene from Bombshell. It's supposed to be "(They Just Keep) Moving the Line" but instead Derek stages the new JFK number. It's far too sexy for the Wiz producer despite featuring the sexless Karen, so Derek is still out.
Ronnie, who has grown sick of her "Broadway baby" image, decides she's out too and asks Derek to stage a one-night-only concert for her, the kind of thing people will be talking about years from now. He agrees, making it the third major project on his plate at the same time.
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In all, an improvement over the ridiculous sitcom shenanigans of the last episode. The plot points and machinations are writ rather large, with the Derek-Karen-Jimmy Charmer triangle looming along with the inevitable Peter-Julia hookup, but then Smash has not been known for its subtlety. The season is going at a good clip and I hope it has the chance to win the skeptics back.
