The Ensemblist

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...

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“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.”

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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…

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Before we dive into season two, Aaron J. Albano and Mo Brady 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.

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"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.”

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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.

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