“Smash” Needs a Workshop for “The Workshop”

By Maggie Siu

NBC’s “Smash” started as a perfect balance of theatrical fulfillment and just enough edge-of-your-seat soap opera drama. However, “Smash” fell short in last Monday’s episode. “The Workshop” suffered from romantic entanglements and its failed attempt to make “Marilyn: the Musical” appear disastrous.

The production team of Derek, Julia, Tom and Eileen host a workshop to showcase “Marilyn” for potential investors. Like most important events on TV, everything can go wrong. The overworked air conditioning breaks down. Julia runs out during rehearsal overwhelmed with her emotions. Ivy stumbles over lines in front of the audience and her own famous Broadway star mother. Following Ivy’s errors, Karen ends the show’s performance with a tumble off her stool. In the end, the investors find “Marilyn” unfit for Broadway and the production team is forced back to the drawing board to improve the show.

Six episodes into the series and we have three females leads to root for. But “The Workshop” truly confused me on how to perceive the first female character we were introduced to, Karen Cartwright. In past episodes, Karen has emerged as the hopeful, young underdog we want to like. She uses the flair of sexuality and independence, all the while maintaining her own personal essence.

However, this episode painted Karen as completely naïve or at least in my opinion, really dumb. She finally reaches a break when she impresses hotshot music producer Bobby Raskin. Raskin calls her for a recording session, but she turns down the offer and commits to staying at the workshop that she “wouldn’t miss for the world” to prove her loyalty to the play. Honestly, why would Karen pass up an opportunity to record with a legendary producer only to sit around in the chorus at a workshop?

As for our other well-known protagonist, Ivy Lynn juggles a toxic relationship with Derek the director and a rocky relationship with her estranged mother. Ivy’s mother Leigh Conroy, a cameo played by Bernadette Peters, waltzes into Ivy’ workshop and instantly steals the spotlight with her rendition of Liza Minelli’s “Roses Turn.” While the show does not fully introduce Leigh, Peters actually nails the role of Ivy’s famous mother who tries to dissuade her daughter from Broadway. Ivy digs deep into her role cast as Marilyn Monroe in “Smash,” and we finally see a new side to her when she stands up to Leigh with an admirable speech.

However, this past episode didn’t focus much on Karen or Ivy. Instead, the screenwriters chose to open and close the episode with Julia’s gut-wrenching affair with Michael. Julia’s affair pulls some emotional investment from me because most audiences can probably relate to having to face a former lover. As for the affair, I would have liked to see more background on the two characters. From the first moment Michael Swift walked onto the set, Julia was already doe-eyed for him. There was never any indication of unhappiness in her current marriage or much history behind her past with Michael. It just seemed to happen quickly and this episode also ends it too soon.

Julia has already cheated on her husband twice. Her son Leo witnesses a goodnight kiss between the two, thus more tension is strained on the Julia and Michael affair. Finally, Julia gains some sense to end the affair after observing Michael with his wife and young son. Julia decides to fire Michael from the show altogether as a definite way to avoid seeing him and to prove to Leo she is serious about ending it. All would seem well, but Julia just fired her Joe DiMaggio, the man who had been the male-lead of her play.

The feel of “The Workshop” seemed to get lost in the relationship drama. The episode framed and centered each character’s subplots rather than the play itself. Apparently, the investors and production team thought “Marilyn” was a disaster, but the episode does a poor job on properly portraying it as so. Sure there were a few line stumbles and hiccups in the choreography but the play didn’t suggest anything was completely off. I thought a talented cast, catchy songs and a well-written script could outdo the minimal negatives. Especially since Ivy’s performance stood out, enough to even impress her disapproving mother. I just wish the episode focused more on the actual workshop instead of the relationship antics. After all, every show is capable of dysfunctional relationships and emotional obstacles, but I am more interested in the original story that began “Smash” as a show representing the New York City Broadway scene.