On March 11, 2020, 457 performers were employed in the ensembles of Broadway musicals. Across the companies of 24 musicals, these artists had come to the Main Stem to pursue their dreams of working on Broadway. One of the last to join these ranks was Tony Neidenbach, who made his Broadway debut just ten days earlier. We asked Tony to share the story of his Broadway debut as well as his experience moving out of the St. James Theatre last week. Here, in his own words, is Tony Neidenbach.

Whether its your first Broadway show or your sixth, closing a show is an emotional experience. You’re saying goodbye to a creative journey, a community of artists as well as stability and a paycheck. When the company of Broadway’s Frozen was asked to move out of the St. James Theatre after the show closed during the Coronavirus pandemic, we reached out to members of the cast to tell us about visiting the theatre for the last time. Here’s what Nina Lafarga and Robin Masella had to say…

“The Read-Through” premiered on March 5, 2013. It was written by Liz Tuccillo, and directed by David Petrarca, both in their Smash debuts. The episode premiered to a viewership of 2.68 million this week, down .36 mil from the previous episode. We didn’t have a whole lot of music this week, despite hearing the read-throughs of two different shows. We saw a Bombshell fantasy Act 2 opener, complete with tap break, called “Public Relations” by Marc Shaiman and Scott Whitman, and a snippet of Hit List’s “Caught in the Storm” by Pasek and Paul, Jeremy Jordan rendition. We also saw a fantasy sequence to a cover of “Some Boys” originally by Death Cab For Cutie. Bombshell has booked the Belasco! In a walkthrough of their new home, Tom imagines a new second act opener for Bombshell called “Public Relations” which looks remarkably like a song from Catch Me If You Can, down to the plane set and stewardess. Now finishing each other’s sandwiches, Julia and Peter stroll in late to the walkthrough late but thrilled with the new script draft they’ve created together. Despite multiple sexual misconduct allegations, Derek has friends in high enough places to get Hit List a spot in the “Winter Fringe Festival.” But with the Festival in just two weeks, Karen and Ana rally Bobby, Jessica and the rest of their ensemblist cohorts join for a read through where they learn that while Jimmy's music is great, Kyle’s dialogue and the characters… aren’t. But after their failed reading, Jimmy, Kyle, Ana and Karen crack the code that could turn into a success: scrap the book scenes and make the show sung through. A week into rehearsal for the Broadway revival of Liaisons, Ivy finally meets her co-star Terry Falls. But Terry doesn’t even know his stage left from his stage right, turning “a real drama into Spamalot!” However, Ivy will have none of it - refusing to stoop to conquer and teaching Terry how to act in the process. Ahead of a reading of the new Bombshell script, Julia hears rumors that Peter has purposefully upended other shows by feeding the writers ideas bad enough to be fired. But despite those rumors, the reading goes off swimmingly with all parties impressed by the rewrites. So much so that Derek halts his plans to take Hit List to the fringe after all. It’s an artistic triumph, but their new producer Jerry Rand says it’s not commercial enough to be a financial hit. With a hung jury of creatives, Jerry, Derek, Tom and Julia leave it up to Eileen to make the decision about which Marilyn musical to bring to Broadway: a sexy, provocative insightful musical or a lush, dazzling spectacle...

For many theatre artists, there’s the show that changed everything. A musical that - for the first time - reflected a part of the artist that they had never seen before. A show that gave that young artist a glimpse into their future - into an industry and community they would inevitably be a part of. And while that experience is by no means unique, it is often the kernel of why they’ve made the theatre their life’s work. So for The Ensemblist’s 300th episode, we are turning the tables. Today, I’ll be interviewing The Ensemblist’s co-creator and host, Mo Brady, about his favorite musical: the 1996 Broadway phenomenon Rent. Here’s our conversation…

On May 4, 2020, A Strange Loop made history as the 10th musical ever to receive the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. And not only that, A Strange Loop is both the first musical written by a black artist, Michael R. Jackson, and the first musical without an announced Broadway run to be bestowed with this honor. A Strange Loop follows a black, queer writer creating an original musical as he faces a host of demons. When it premiered Off-Broadway at Playwrights Horizons in May 2019, it resonated with both audiences and critics alike, making a lasting impression on the New York theatre scene. Here to discuss his experience as an original cast member of A Strange Loop is John-Michael Lyles. Most recently, John-Michael played the role of Toby in the world premiere of Bliss at Seattle’s 5th Avenue Theatre. He contributed additional music to Second Stage Theatre’s We’re Gonna Die and has performed Off-Broadway in Sweeney Todd, This Ain’t No Disco, and The Flick, among others. Here’s our conversation…

Today we bring you three stories of unlikely success in the audition room. Tales of booking the role, of not booking the roles, and somehow stories that are both. First up in a story from Josh Lamon. Host of “Josh Swallows Broadway” on the Broadway Podcast Network, he shares with us the story of his very first New York audition. Next up is a story from Ellyn Marie Marsh about how she almost made her Broadway debut… almost. Finally, here is Syndee Winters, a recent Nala in Broadway’s The Lion King, about when she first auditioned for a role more than a decade ago. Special thanks to Josh Lamon, Ellyn Marie Marsh and Syndee Winters for sharing their stories with us this week.

“The Song” premiered on February 26th, 2013. It was written by Bathsheba Doran, and directed by Michael Morris, whose work we last saw in the season two premiere. The viewership was down a quarter-million from last week, amounting to 3.04 million viewers tuning in on premiere night. We had five featured songs in this episode, with only one pop cover this week! Yay! That cover was Billy Joel’s “Everybody Loves You Now” sung by Andy Mientus and Jennifer Hudson. The only other non-original song was “I Got Love” from the musical Purlie, featured both in its original arrangement and it’s more Derek Wills-Esque risqué arrangement. Lastly we had three Shaiman/Whitman originals, “I’m Not Lost,” “Chest of Broken Hearts,” and the titular song itself, “I Can’t Let Go.” Veronica Moore has got love for her new one-night-only concert, but with a song list of her greatest hits, Derek is afraid the showcase is just “another good girl role for Broadway’s Sweetheart.” As if by kismet, Kyle and Jimmy are looking to get noticed by trying out their material somewhere that counts. That place just happens to be Veronica’s concert, when Derek challenges the duo to present him with a new song for her to debut. As the concert’s music director, Tom tells Kyle and Jimmy that while their trunk songs are good, they aren’t right for the concert. Kyle says that they’ll write “Something Ronnie and Derek, Broadway and them” in the next 24 hours (the same time it took Sondheim to write “Send in the Clowns.” But then Veronica’s “Momager” threatens to fire Derek for making the concert too adult, he succumbs and tells Kyle and Jimmy that their services are no longer needed. One of the concert’s back-up dancers goes MIA as - “and I quote - ‘my boyfriend requested that I no longer work with Derek.’” Ivy Lynn pinch hits as it turns out she was a swing when Veronica was Audrey in Little Shop. And in the biggest surprise of all, Karen is actually OK with working with Ivy. Julia feels hoodwinked when Peter the dramaturg invites her to his NYU class, only to have his students critique her Bombshell script. But after confronting him about his games, they end up day drinking on a weekday and cracking the code to fixing her Bombshell script. Ivy ends up becoming mother hen to the concert: inspiring both Ronnie and Derek to listen to their guts when it comes to the song list. And that final song list ends up including a new song by Jimmy and Kyle after all: a soaring ballad called “I Can’t Let Go.” One last coda: Bombshell is freed of its legal troubles and OK’ed to move to Broadway but under one condition: Eileen isn’t allowed to produce it any more. Somehow, that pesky Ellis still ruins everything!

It’s time for a moment of levity, friends. And what better way to forget your troubles and get happy than by listening to someone else’s troubles. Today, we bring you stories of auditions: both those that are truly wonderful and truly, truly terrible. Special thanks to Erica Dorfler, Megan Sikora and Vishal Vaidya for sharing their stories with us this week.

Today we have for you a very special episode in honor of The Actors Fund and the livestream of their 2015 concert of Bombshell. For those of you who haven’t spent the last six months watching Smash episodes (like we have) this will be your perfect promise for remembering what Bombshell was all about. Throughout this episode, we will guide you through the most iconic moments of the Bombshell score along with our thoughts and critiques of each number. Enjoy!

When a Broadway show closes, we often think about the cast onstage being out of work. But really a Broadway production is an entire ecosystem - often with more than a hundred people working in a variety of positions. One of the performers affected by the closing of Broadway's Frozen in Bronwyn Tarboton. As a vacation swing with the company, she had been performing with the company in a variety of tracks since October. Here's our conversation...

The Broadway adaptation of Frozen will not reopen at the St. James Theatre when Broadway once again opens its doors post-pandemic. It effectively took its final bow March 11 running for 26 previews and 825 regular performances. Today, we share some of our favorite conversations about Frozen with original Anna standby Aisha Jackson, music supervisor Stephen Oremus, the original Queen Iduna Ann Sanders and original company member Tracee Beazer. Enjoy...

“The Dramaturg” premiered on February 19th, 2013. It was written by Larry Shaw, and directed by Bryan Goluboff, both newcomers to Smash as of season 2. The viewership was 3.29 million viewers, which was 1.16 million down from the previous episode two weeks prior. We saw new material from both of our up-and-coming shows this episode! We were treated to a brand-new song from Bombshell, called “Our Little Secret” written by Marc Shaiman and Scott Whitman, and a preview of a song from currently-unnamed-show-soon-to-be-known-as Hit List, called “Good For You” written by Drew Gasparini. The episode also featured Megan Hilty singing a cover of Robyn’s ”Dancing On My Own,” as well as snippets of The Wiz’s “Soon As I Get Home” sung by Jennifer Hudson, and Katherine McPhee’s mini-rendition of “They Just Keep Moving The Line.” Eileen demands that Tom and Julia meet with a dramaturg named Peter Gilman to make the quick fixes she thinks the show needs. Tom thinks Peter could be a shepherd for their play, but Julia is afraid dramaturgs are parasites especially when he reads her for focusing on DiMaggio instead of putting the sex appeal into Marilyn herself. Derek knows that new musicals take years to develop, but needs something now, something big. So he’s burning the candle from three ends: staging a Bombshell number for producers, scheming with Veronica Moore to get his job back at The Wiz and agreeing to meet Kyle and Jimmy about the plot that goes around their great songs. Ivy talks Smash’s real casting director Bernie Telsey into letting her audition for a revival of Liaisons, but feels like she has little chance of booking up again “real names” like Jen Damiano and Jessie Mueller. When she stops by Bombshell rehearsal to ask Derek for advice, she realizes that she needs to start “dancing on her own.” Tom helps her to realize the Liaisons role is more like Marilyn than she imagined, but the boost helps her win the part. Inspired or in spite of Peter Gillman, Julia writes a non-PG number for Marilyn and JFK called “Our Little Secret.” It loses Derek a job on The Wiz but Eileen calls it the perfect direction for Bombshell. Jimmy is his usual angry-white-man self, seemingly pissed off at every opportunity Karen and Kyle provide him to share their show with the world. When they finally meet, Jimmy describes the story of their show: a young man who hates the world but has a treasure trove of mind blowing music. Stealing his songs to catapult her to fame, a female fling gets addicted to the fame his music provides - and he lets her even though his love will destroy him. Derek is intrigued enough to pound beers with the team, and they begin their work on the new musical...

“The Fallout” premiered on February 5th, 2013, immediately after the premiere episode. (Aww, remember those two-hour premieres that networks used to do back in the day, Mo?) It was written by Julie Rottenberg & Elisa Zuritsky, whose previous work we saw in the season 1 episodes “Let’s Be Bad” and “The Movie Star,” and was directed by Craig Zisk. Now, here’s a weird thing: viewership for this episode was 4.45 million, down from 4.48 in the previous episode WHICH WAS AN HOUR AGO. I guess 30,000 people collectively turned off their TVs after hour 1? We had three featured songs in this episode: one cover of the Eurythmics’ “Would I Lie To You?” And two original songs by two different musical theatre composers: the first by then-up-and-comer duo team Pasek & Paul called “Caught in the Storm” sung by Katherine McPhee, and the second by our home team of Marc Shaiman and Scott Whitman called “They Just Keep Moving the Line” sung by Megan Hilty. Eileen summons her bruised songwriting team to attend the American Theatre Wing gala, but Julia can barely get out the door let alone put on cocktail attire. But Julia heard from Mary Testa who heard from Jackie Hoffman who heard from Cheyenne Jackson who heard from Harvey Fierstein that she and Julia would be presenting at the gala (a lie that Tom made you on the street). In addition to Bombshell being put on ice, Derek gets fired from The Wiz - not only because he shagged a couple of actresses but the five dancers are accusing him of sexual harassment. One of them, Daisy, serves Derek the T in front of Schnippers, saying “You don’t get it. You’re a big shot Director. You’re in a position of power from the mind you wake up in the morning and you don’t treat that power with respect.” Derek second guesses his serial seducing in a dream sequence set to the Eurythmics' “Would I Lie To You?” Ivy is considering leaving the business, as she’s going in for parts that she would have passed on two years ago. But running into a drunken Derek on a stoop, he leaves her with one nugget of wisdom: “You weren’t my Marilyn, but what do I know?” Karen Cartwright hunts down the young and unknown composing team. Half of the team, a twink named Kyle, is eager to collab with Karen. But while his songwriting partner Jimmy is cute enough to go to Greenpoint for, he is anything but agreeable. Even her attempts to wow Jimmy with an impromptu performance of one of his songs drives him away. Jimmy retorts that he doesn’t need help to make it big, but decides the next day that he’ll give it a go with Karen for Kyle’s sake. The American Theatre Wing gala becomes an embarrassment for the Bombshell crew, when Tom gets caught in his lie about presenting and Eileen is asked to leave by the League president. But she decides to leave the industry with a parting shot to remember: an announcement that Bombshell is coming to Broadway this season followed by Ivy Lynn giving a stunning rendition of a never-before-heard tune called “They Just Keep Moving The Line.”

This week, weThis week, we share the second half of our conversation with Ruthie Fierberg, Senior Features Editor at Playbill. In the second half of our spirited conversation, we talked about our favorite performance and ensembles of the season. Here’s the second half of our conversation... share the second half of our conversation with Ruthie Feer-berg, Senior Features Editor at Playbill. In the second half of our spirited conversation, we talked about our favorite performance and ensembles of the season. Here’s the second half of our conversation...

Julian DeGuzman has spent the last decade performing in shows that both feature primarily Asian-American casts (Broadway's Miss Saigon) as well as more multi-cultural companies (Newsies, Hello, Dolly! on Tour. He joined me over the phone to talk about how each of those experiences have felt different for him. Here's our conversation...

“On Broadway” premiered on February 3rd, 2013. It was written by new showrunner Joshua Safran, and directed by Michael Morris, who had also directed the season 1 finale. The episode unfortunately did not premiere to as wide an audience as the season 1 premiere or even the season 1 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 6 songs: three original songs by our original team of Marc Shaiman and Scott Whitman, which were the good ol’ “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 JHud. 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 2 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. 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. She’s also planning a soirée for potential investors and invites Karen to pick her three back up singers (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.” Disdain for Ivy seems to be growing within the production; While other pre-Broadway ensemblists gave received offers for Broadway, Ms. Lynn is still waiting to hear. At rehearsal for the producer soirée, Ivy asks Julia advice. The lyricist tells her, “Maybe you apologized to Karen, but you were apologizing for the wrong thing.” On their way to the event, composer Tom congratulates his boyfriend Sam on getting offered the General 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. But as they canoodle down Central Park West they spot Julia’s husband caressing a coworker, effectively the final straw in ending her dissolving marriage. Covering for a truant Jordan Roth at the 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 the performance, when Eileen tells Karen and the creative team that Bombshell is being investigated. While the government is looking into how Eileen received the financing, 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 something else.” But later that night while nursing a drink at a Restaurant Row piano bar, Karen meets a team of musical theatre songwriters who may just be Derek’s “something else.”

While the New York theatre season was cut short by at least six week, there was certainly much to celebrate this year. From spectacular visuals to music masterpieces, Broadway stages were filled with memorable moments worth noting. This week, I got the chance to speak to Ruthie Fierberg. In addition to working as Senior Features Editor at Playbill, she’s also one of the most articulate people I know when it comes to describing what makes a theatrical moment work. We had a spirited conversation about the trends she saw on stages, as well as her favorite musical and visual moments. Here’s the first half of our conversation…

Before we dive into season two, Aaron and I wanted to take stock of the first season as a whole. One of the biggest reasons we wanted to look back on this show, now that we’ve had seven years of separation from it and can look at it in an unbiased way, is to see if Smash really holds up: To see how the show authentically represents or sensationalizes our business; to see what, if anything, holds true to our 2019 Broadway world, or is it more of a time capsule of the business in 2012; and if anything else that sticks out that may have, or may not have worked. We think that we, having been on the show and thus invested in it seven years ago, can now look at the show objectively and see how it resonates with us differently than it may have then.

"Bombshell” premiered on May 14, 2012. Rebeck stans rejoice: this finale episode was written by show creator Theresa Rebeck. It was also directed by Michael Morris, who last directed episode 3 of the series. The viewership was up by about a quarter million viewers this week, ending the season with a triumphant 5.96 million! Yay! No covers this week! Instead, rounding out the season was all music by Marc Shaiman and Scott Whitman. Just like last week, we had various snippets of the Bombshell songs, but most notably were a fully-staged production number (complete with Ivy cutaways) of “I Never Met a Wolf Who Didn’t Love to Howl,” and the thrilling last-minute finale of Don’t Forget Me, sung by season 1’s understudy-turned-leading lady Karen Cartwright. It’s 15 minutes til places and the theatre is buzzing. Tom and Julia are feverishly finishing rewrites to give to their new Marilyn. But who is it? Karen or Ivy? We are transported twelve hours earlier, where Derek, Eileen, Tom and Julia are arguing about how to move forward now that Rebecca has left the production. But in Derek’s mind he continues to see Karen as his Marilyn, so he makes the decision to put Ms. Cartwright on as Ms. Monroe. The day is spent putting Karen into the show, altering costumes and updating her on rewrites. And as the rehearsal progresses, Karen proves herself adept at the part. But even while she is being put in there are whispers that Ivy already knows most of the show, most notably from Ms. Lynn herself. When Ivy confronts Derek about why it wasn’t her, he finally admits to her that he’s always seen Karen as Marilyn in her head. She’s not the only one who is #TeamIvy; Even Eileen is pushing Derek to put Ivy on. When Karen learns that Ivy and Dev hooked up she takes her wig off and goes missing. Ivy goes as far as getting into Marilyn’s costumes but Derek gets Karen to channel her personal angst into the role and get back into rehearsal. And with that we are back at the evening preview with Karen shining as Marilyn Monroe, debuting Tom and Julia’s new ending to the show, a stirring ballad called “Don’t Forget Me.”

For 366 performances, the spooky souls of Broadway’s Beetlejuice haunted the hollowed halls of the Winter Garden Theatre. Until its untimely demise in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, the show was playing to sold-out houses who reveled in its zany, but loving spirit. As fans of the show, we are sad to see it go but so greatly for the joy the company brought to the Broadway community. The Ensemblist loved sharing stories from its 22 ensemble members over its year on the Rialto. Luckily many of its cast joined us in the studio over the year to record those stories, and we’re happy to reshare a couple of them with you today.

“Previews,” the penultimate episode of the season, premiered on May 7th, 2012. It was written by David Marshall Grant, and directed by Robert Duncan McNeill (another weird Star Trek connection: Robert McNeill played Lieutenant Tom Paris, also on Star Trek Voyager! So weird….I wonder what the connection is….). The viewership was up from the previous week, being seen by 5.72 million viewers. Thank goodness. Since this episode included Bombshell’s first preview, we heard snippets of all our favorites by Shaiman and Whitman: Let Me Be Your Star, The 20th Century Fox Mambo, Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Don’t Say Yes Until I Finish Talking, and a reprise (finale?) of Secondhand White Baby Grand. One newcomer to the original Smash catalog was (get ready for it) the titular song of Smash! sung in its entirety by Megan Hilty and Katherine McPhee. Two covers in this episode were Kurt Weill’s September Song, sung by Anjelica Huston, and Donnie McClurkin’s Stand, sung by Leslie Odom Jr. and Katherine McPhee. The first preview of Bombshell and while Derek doesn’t want to jinx it he thinks the show is in pretty good shape! But Bobby the Soothsayer tells us: ““You go out of town and all hell breaks loose.” He’s right, as Derek and Rebecca continue to canoodle, even after Karen tells her that Derek is seeing Ivy. Michael Swift is back in the show, arriving at the theatre only to be greeted by Julia’s entire family. But despite the backstage drama, the show goes on. In a never-before-seen number, Ivy and Karen lead the female ensemblists in a number that feels wildly reminiscent of 9 to 5 (down to use of a mustachioed Marc Kurdish.) All in all, the show goes well but ends to crickets instead of wild applause. What’s the problem? Ellis hits the nail of the wig-prepped head, saying “It’s Rebecca. She’s good and all but she’s not landing any of the numbers.” When Ivy finally confronts Derek about his dressing room antics, he tells her “Rebecca needs my attention, and I’m giving it to her. Is there any other approach?” (Spoiler alert: there is.) After accepting Dev’s second take at a marriage proposal, Karen comforts Rebecca about the first preview audience’s poor response to the show. But as she is confiding in Karen, Rebecca has an allergic reaction to her smoothie and gets sent to the hospital. With previews for the weekend cancelled, but the creative team is plotting about their game plan if Rebecca doesn’t recover in time. The understudy, Karen, hasn’t had any time on stage, but Ivy knows the whole show. Yet, neither gets the chance when it is announced that Rebecca recovered. And yet while the drama seems high, it all seems to absolve by Sunday morning when Sam gets the entire Smash family goes to church! Wrongs are absolved, sins are forgiven and Karen unexpectedly leads a gospel number. But after the service, Rebecca calls Karen to say that even though she’s not going back into the show and that the production will have to crown a new Marilyn after all!

Just yesterday, the Broadway League announced an extension of its shutdown through June 7. One of the causalities of this is Beetlejuice, which was scheduled to close June 6. That disappointing news means that the production has already played its last performance on Tuesday, March 11. Cast member Elliott Mattox was gracious enough to join me on the phone to talk about how he heard the news and how he is grieving a show he didn't realize has already ended. Here's our conversation...

A decade after Sunday in the Park with George won the Pulitzer Prize, a new musical exploded on the scene in a way the theatre community hadn’t seen since A Chorus Line. RENT, with music, lyrics & book by Jonathan Larson, was presented at New York Theatre Workshop in January of 1996 before quickly making the jump to Broadway that April, where it won four Tony Awards and the 1996 Pulitzer Prize. For many theatre artists, including ourselves, RENT was a formative part of their creative identity. Like South Pacific, How to Succeed and A Chorus Line, RENT spoke to a specific part of life in America at the time it was written - ticking every box in the Pulitzer committee’s requirements. RENT’s impact lasted far beyond the show’s 5,123 Broadway performances- this little show about a slice of life in Manhattan’s East Village has been presented all around the world, and twice on film. At its debut, RENT felt like a completely new kind of storytelling, something that hadn’t been seen on Broadway in at least decades, but perhaps ever. But RENT’s connection in its spirit and staging to the Broadway musicals that paved the way for it may surprise you.

That’s right - we’re heading Off-Broadway for today’s episode! When I was doing my initial research for this series, many of the examples of queer representation that I found interesting happened to be produced off-Broadway. However, due to timing, I sadly made the choice to cut all of that from our history episode. I thought it’d be fun to dig deeper into those shows while in quarantine. Here’s the result!

“Tech” premiered on April 30th, 2012. It was written by Jason Grote & Lakshmi Sundaram, and directed by Roxann Dawson. Sadly, viewership dipped back down even despite the surge from the previous week, amounting to a mere 5.34 million. Songs this week mainly featured non-Smash properties: we got an opening montage set to Cole Porter’s “Another Op’nin’, Another Show” sung by Christian Borle, and a cover of Rose Royce’s/Mary J. Blige’s song, “I’m Goin’ Down,” sung this time by Megan Hilty. The other two songs we heard were snippets from tech that we heard in previous episodes: “History is Made at Night” and “The 20th Century Fox Mambo.” It’s “another openin’ of another show” for the company of Bombshell. The company makes the journey from New York to Boston for the show’s pre-Broadway tryout. The Ensemblists are joyously rolling their roller bags through Grand Central Station, Linda the stage manager is ushering costume racks into the dressing rooms. With the first preview two days away, the show is… not ready for an audience. Derek is on the verge of having a stroke, with the show’s technical elements barely coming together. The number one rule of tech is: nobody has any time! Derek doesn’t have time to tell Rebecca that her leading man has quit the show for a TV pilot. But when she hears that Eileen is thinking of bringing Michael Swift back, Julia gives an ultimatum: she can have Michael or her on the production but not both. Rebecca admits to Karen that she’s nervous about performing Marilyn for an audience. For the first time Derek seems to direct, telling Rebecca to “use her star power” in her performance. But he uses and abuses his own star power, giving her shoulder massages that lead to a dressing room make out session. Ivy goes through her own emotional rollercoaster, starting with Derek saying he loves her before standing in for Marilyn, to being relegated to changing Rebecca’s gloves and listening to her and Derek make out from outside her dressing room. Jessica says “No civilians during tech. We’re in the middle of a war. They don’t get it.” Dev comes up anyway, and while out at a romantic dinner admits proposes to Karen. The following is the verbatim conversation between Dev and Karen after he pulls out the ring: DEV: “Will you marry me?” KAREN: “Marry you?” DEV: “Yeah, it’s not all that crazy, is it?” KAREN: “Of course not, I just don’t know what to say.” DEV: “Say yes.” KAREN: “I’m in tech.” DEV: “...is that the same thing as a yes?” KAREN: “I’m sorry, Dev. I’m just under so much pressure now. Tech is so crazy.” DEV: “It’s sounding more and more like a no.” KAREN: “It’s not a yes or a no. It’s I’m in tech.”