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[0:00] Mo Brady: You're listening to Smashed from The Ensemblist, the only podcast that shows you Broadway from the inside out. I'm Mo Brady.

[0:13] Aaron Albano: And I'm Aaron Albano.

[0:27] Mo Brady: Welcome back, listeners, to our tongue-in-cheek recap of what is television's most detailed depiction of the theatre industry. And yes, we're still talking about Smash, the NBC series that chronicled the creation of a Broadway musical and all of the drama that ensued along the way.

[0:42] Aaron Albano: We've been going back, episode by episode, to see how this supposed love letter to Broadway has held up over the past decade. In each episode, we're looking to find the answers to these three questions. Did it represent Broadway then? Does it represent Broadway now? Is it any good?

[0:58] Mo Brady: Exactly. So let's dive in and talk about episode one of season two, On Broadway. Aaron, give us the stats.

[1:05] Aaron Albano: On Broadway premiered on February 3rd, 2013. It was written by new showrunner Joshua Safran and directed by Michael Morris, who also directed the season one finale. The episode unfortunately did not premiere to as wide an audience as the season one premiere or even the season one finale. The viewership came in at 4.48 million, about 1.5 million fewer than the finale and almost 7 million fewer than the pilot. Wow. The premiere featured six songs, three original songs by the original team of Marc Shaiman and Scott Whitman, which were the good old "Let Me Be Your Star," a new song from Bombshell called "Cut, Print...Moving On," and a new song from a different musical altogether called "Mama Makes Three" from the show Beautiful.

No, not that Beautiful, starring Jennifer Hudson. The two covers in this episode were the titular song "On Broadway" by The Drifters and "Don't Dream It's Over" by Crowded House. Most notably though, the season two premiere marks the introduction of composer Joe Iconis, who wrote the song "Broadway, Here I Come!" Iconis was the first of many musical theatre composers who were able to feature their work throughout the second season of Smash. And what happens in this episode, Mo?

[2:18] Mo Brady: After closing the pre-Broadway run of Bombshell, producer Eileen Rand assembles her growing team to announce her goal of booking a Broadway theater by the end of the week. She's also planning a soirée for potential investors and invites Karen to pick her three backup singers from the Bombshell ensemble. Her selections do not include the libertine Ivy Lynn, who Karen is still angry with for sleeping with her ex-boyfriend. Derek takes Karen to see his former leading lady, Veronica Moore, tear the roof off of the St. James in a musical called Beautiful. However, this is not the Carole King biomusical, but a rousing gospel show. After the performance, Veronica tells Karen, "Someone's always waiting to take you down, honey.

But if the work is good, they won't be able to." The disdain for Ivy seems to be growing within the production. While other pre-Broadway ensembles have received offers for Broadway, Ms. Lynn is still waiting to hear. At rehearsal for the producer soirée, Ivy asks Julia for advice about this. The lyricist tells her, "Maybe you apologized to Karen, but you were apologizing for the wrong thing." On their way to the investor event, composer Tom congratulates his boyfriend Sam on getting offered the general role in The Book of Mormon tour. Sam says he would rather stay with his ten lines in Bombshell in order to be close to Tom, though. But as they canoodle down Central Park West, they spot Julia's husband caressing a co-worker, effectively the final straw in ending her dissolving marriage.

Covering for a truant Jordan Roth at an investor event, Veronica and Karen duet on an impromptu rendition of "On Broadway." Afterwards, Derek tells Ivy that she won't be joining the Bombshell cast on Broadway. However, the real drama happens after that, where Eileen tells Karen and the creative team that Bombshell is being investigated. While the government is looking into how Eileen received the financing for the show, Bombshell is effectively on hold for the foreseeable future. The next day, Derek commiserates with Karen about how they're both out of work, telling her, "Call me if you hear about anything else." But later that night, while nursing a drink at a Restaurant Row piano bar, Karen meets a team of musical theater songwriters, who may just be Derek's something else.

[4:54] Aaron Albano: Beautiful. Good work. Beautiful, but not the Carole King biopic. How'd you like this episode, Mo?

[5:03] Mo Brady: I liked it. I think it's getting better. I do. I do. I think the show is getting better. There was more music, which I liked, but I also felt like it's solving the problem that we were talking about at the end of season one, which is why can't the drama be about creating a musical instead of all of these things with the people who create a musical? This is drama about creating a musical.

[5:27] Aaron Albano: Mm hmm. I would agree with that. Yeah, I think it's great that they're including more music in this episode, right? You said six songs. That's a lot of songs.

[5:35] Mo Brady: Yeah, that is a lot of songs. All of them sort of had purpose in the storyline of the show, right?

[5:40] Aaron Albano: Yeah, I feel like they figured out, and we talked, we touched on this last season, where they have begun to figure out what works in their use of music for the show. For instance, introducing the new song "Cut, Print...Moving On," it was very clearly serving as an opening number for the episode. It was basically a big recap of what's happened. But it's also telling us, okay, Smash is moving on, and it's also saying, okay, we're going to leave some things behind, like Frank and Dev. We're going to show you Chris Rodriguez for approximately eight seconds. The song did a very good job.

[6:21] Aaron Albano: Yeah. And it's not like it was a song that came out of nowhere. We were watching a song from the closing night performance, which where do you think this happens in the show? By the way, I was thinking about this the entire time, since we've seen the whole show, basically, I'm like, so there's another song we haven't seen, another big ensemble song we haven't seen. But a sweeping ballad. One of our problems with so many of the songs in Bombshell is that they don't move the story along. And you would assume that a song that literally has the word "move" in the title would be about moving on. So that I was like, okay, this song at least has like a trajectory and purpose. It's not like the steam room number or the baseball number.

[7:04] Mo Brady: Yeah, if I had to put money on it, I was like, I bet you this is like the act one closer. That feels good. It feels like this hopeful, propellant into intermission.

[7:15] Aaron Albano: I love that. Moving on, because then you're getting your $17 cocktail at the bar and wondering what's going to happen next. Where is she moving on to literally?

[7:25] Mo Brady: Yeah, I was like, okay, this is a good number in the show and serving the episode. I was like, all right. Okay, I want to ask you about what I know is your favorite song, which is "Broadway, Here I Come."

[7:37] Aaron Albano: Okay, so while we were watching this, listeners, just some behind the scenes news. I was texting with Mo because I have moderate feelings about the song itself. And he was singing and I was watching and Jeremy Jordan, his soaring melodies were carrying me through. But I was like, I don't think I like this song. And texting Mo about it. And Mo's like, well, it's also a suicide song. And me over text thinking he was joking, being like, oh, lol lol lol. And he's like, no, it's actually a suicide song. And I said, no. And he's like, do you think I'm kidding? I'm like, yes, yes. I thought you were kidding until you just asked me if I thought he was kidding. So then he sends me all these links. And apparently, that was the double entendre of the song, which Mo go ahead and explain it now, because I was floored by the layering of this song.

[8:40] Mo Brady: Here's the gag, right? The title of the song is "Broadway, Here I Come," which, when you just hear it, you're thinking it is like a Peggy Sawyer from 42nd Street song. Lives in the same world as "On Broadway," another song we hear in this episode of Smash. But the lyrics are, "I'm high above the city. I'm standing on the edge. The view from here is pretty, and I step off the edge and I'm falling through the sky. It's my calling. Don't you cry toward the street that I'm from? Oh, Broadway, here I come." Okay, so like, if you're half listening to the lyrics, like I did, oh, this person's going to Broadway. But no, this is literally a song about someone who is stepping off the edge of a building.

[9:24] The Ensemblist & Broadway Podcast Network: Welcome to The Ensemblist, where we celebrate the performances and careers of ensemble performers on Broadway.

[9:54] The Ensemblist & Broadway Podcast Network: Today, we're diving into the Season 2 premiere of Smash, titled "On Broadway."

[10:14] The Ensemblist & Broadway Podcast Network: The episode premiered on February 3rd, 2013, and was written by new showrunner Joshua Safran, directed by Michael Morris.

[10:44] The Ensemblist & Broadway Podcast Network: Unfortunately, it didn't premiere to as wide an audience as the Season 1 finale, with viewership coming in at 4.48 million—about 1.5 million fewer than the finale and almost 7 million fewer than the pilot.

[11:04] The Ensemblist & Broadway Podcast Network: The premiere featured six songs, including three original songs by Marc Shaiman and Scott Whitman, the classic "Let Me Be Your Star," a new song from Bombshell called "Cut, Print...Moving On," and a new song from a different musical altogether, "Mama Makes Three" from the show Beautiful, starring Jennifer Hudson.

[11:24] The Ensemblist & Broadway Podcast Network: The two covers in this episode were the titular song "On Broadway" by the Drifters and "Don't Dream It's Over" by Crowded House.

[11:54] The Ensemblist & Broadway Podcast Network: Most notably, the Season 2 premiere marks the introduction of composer Joe Iconis, who wrote the song "Broadway, Here I Come!"

[12:14] The Ensemblist & Broadway Podcast Network: Iconis was the first of many musical theatre composers whose work was featured throughout the second season of Smash.

[12:34] The Ensemblist & Broadway Podcast Network: After closing the pre-Broadway run of Bombshell, producer Eileen Rand assembles her growing team to announce her goal of booking a Broadway theatre by the end of the week.

[12:54] The Ensemblist & Broadway Podcast Network: She’s also planning a soirée for potential investors and invites Karen to pick her three backup singers.

[13:14] The Ensemblist & Broadway Podcast Network: Her selections do not include the libertine Ivy Lynn, who Karen is still angry with for sleeping with her ex-boyfriend.

[13:34] The Ensemblist & Broadway Podcast Network: Derek takes Karen to see his former leading lady, Veronica Moore, tear the roof off of the St. James in a musical called Beautiful.

[13:54] The Ensemblist & Broadway Podcast Network: However, this is not the Carole King biomusical but a rousing gospel show.

[14:14] The Ensemblist & Broadway Podcast Network: After the performance, Veronica tells Karen, "Someone’s always waiting to take you down, honey. But if the work is good, they won’t be able to."

[14:34] The Ensemblist & Broadway Podcast Network: Disdain for Ivy seems to be growing within the production; while other pre-Broadway ensemblists received offers for Broadway, Ms. Lynn is still waiting to hear.

[14:54] The Ensemblist & Broadway Podcast Network: At rehearsal for the producer soirée, Ivy asks Julia for advice.

[15:04] The Ensemblist & Broadway Podcast Network: The lyricist tells her, "Maybe you apologized to Karen, but you were apologizing for the wrong thing."

[15:14] The Ensemblist & Broadway Podcast Network: On their way to the event, composer Tom congratulates his boyfriend Sam on getting offered the General in The Book of Mormon tour.

[15:34] The Ensemblist & Broadway Podcast Network: Sam says he would rather stay with his ten lines in Bombshell in order to be close to Tom.

[15:44] The Ensemblist & Broadway Podcast Network: But as they canoodle down Central Park...

[16:04] The Ensemblist & Broadway Podcast Network: The drama continues to unfold as we explore the complexities of these characters and their relationships.

[16:24] The Ensemblist & Broadway Podcast Network: Stay tuned as we break down more of the episode and discuss the impact of these performances.

[16:44] The Ensemblist & Broadway Podcast Network: We’ll also touch on the music and the themes that resonate throughout this season.

[17:04] The Ensemblist & Broadway Podcast Network: So, let’s dive deeper into the world of Smash and celebrate the ensemble performers who bring these stories to life.

[17:24] The Ensemblist & Broadway Podcast Network: Join us as we continue to explore the magic of Broadway and the unsung heroes behind the scenes.

[17:44] The Ensemblist & Broadway Podcast Network: Thanks for listening, and we hope you enjoy this episode of The Ensemblist.

[18:04] The Ensemblist & Broadway Podcast Network: Let’s get started!

[18:24] The Ensemblist & Broadway Podcast Network: And remember, the stories of ensemble performers are just as important as the leading roles.

[18:34] The Ensemblist & Broadway Podcast Network: Stay with us for more insights and discussions.

[18:44] The Ensemblist & Broadway Podcast Network: We appreciate your support and enthusiasm for the world of theatre.