"SMILE" the Musical- Page 2

[Cora Hoover Hooper]

Posted: 5/29/18 at 11:35am

Yes, I remember the 60 Minutes tie in. One reason I was so surprised the show turned out to be a dud. It seemed to have everything going for it. And yes, the film WAS a flop (though it may have achieved cult status over time). I remember it played out in a matter of a couple weeks. Blink and you missed it...

[Nancy Bowman]

Posted: 5/18/19 at 1:33am

"SMILE!" Music by Marvin Hamlisch with Book & Lyrics by Howard Ashman

Connelly Theater

220 East 4th Street, NY, NY 10009 (at Ave. A)

Show runs May 17-25 at 7pm (No show Mon, May 20). 

May 18/19 & May 25/26 – 1 or 2p

$35 ticket

917-830-KIDZ (5439)

https://www.kidztheater.org

Kidz Theater is composed of teen performers 13-18 working on their craft who come from Broadway, Hollywood, West End, LaGuardia, PPAS High School... (Ben Platt was a member of KT before "Dear Evan Hansen".

Smile, which features music by Marvin Hamlisch and book and lyrics by Howard Ashman, is "a satirical portrait that follows the intrigue and exploits onstage and behind-the-scenes as Santa Rosa, California plays host to the Young American Miss Pageant."

Songs from the Hamlisch-Ashman score include “Disneyland," "Smile," "In Our Hands," "Very Best Week of Your Lives" and "Dear Mom."

Smile is rarely performed. It opened Nov. 24, 1986, at Broadway’s Lunt-Fontanne Theatre and closed after 48 performances.  Marvin Hamlisch was so devastated, the show was never performed again until after his passing.

From the NYTimes review in 1986: 

The endearing passion to be found in ''Smile,'' has little to do with beauty pageants, nubile teen-age girls, corrupted American values or any other subject that the show keeps claiming to be about. What clearly drives Howard Ashman, the author of the book and lyrics, and Marvin Hamlisch, the composer, is their deep affection for the lighthearted musical comedies of their youth - during the form's last, pre-rock-and-roll gasp of the late 1950's and early 1960's. In ''Smile,''....there are many worse reasons to put on a show than sheer love of the musical's happier past.

 

[copskid949]

Posted: 5/18/19 at 10:41am

Actually, the Pittsburgh CLO put on a production of Smile with their high school students a year or two ago. I agree that the satire is a bit too on-the-nose and the book is weaker than the rest of the show, but I really did have fun watching it. It’s very feel-good, very memorable. Aside from a couple songs though, I wouldn’t call it very notable.

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 5/18/19 at 4:19pm

I wonder if Smile is in consideration for Encores! at some point.

[Boq101]

Posted: 5/24/19 at 10:48am

I took the advice of the poster above and saw the production being done in the Lower East Side right now at the Connelly Theater and had a blast! Those performers were incredibly talented and the show feels incredibly resonant today. You wouldn't believe some of these lines were written decades ago and not last week. If you are curious in seeing  little slice of theater history in a way that we might not ever fully see again in NYC get yourselves to the Connelly Theater on E. 4th betweeh Ave. A and B. They have a show tonight at 7pm and two shows Saturday and a closing show Sunday at 1pm. I got my ticket at kidztheater.org/tickets. 

 

Truly enjoyable! Had a blast seeing photos from their past shows on their website as well! 

 

[ducdebrabant]

Posted: 6/23/19 at 11:14am

As a tremendous admirer of the film it's based on, I was so disappointed. In fairness, it must have been a very daunting job of adaptation. But Ashman's idea was to make Big Bob (Jeff McCarthy, in the part played in the movie by Bruce Dern) a developing protagonist with a crisis of conscience, which turned the whole thing into an Ibsen play. The show got very earnest, sentimental, and flat. It also looked under-budgeted, skimpy. It was a respectable score, though I didn't like the big ballad "Disneyland" worth a damn. It felt like, not merely a missed opportunity for a real ballad, but product placement for the author's patrons. Hamlisch's music, as usual, was just facile.

The original lyricist Carolyn Leigh ought to have had just the right saucy cynicism and gimlet approach. And indeed, I heard that her lyrics were terrific (maybe we'll read them, if we ever get a Complete Lyrics of). The scuttlebut was that she had a baleful influence on the book (I'm not sure if she was writing that too), but since I don't like Ashman's concept either, I don't know. Michael O'Gorman was indeed excellent in the part played onscreen by Michael Kidd.

 It was far from the worst show I ever saw... professional in its way, but a bit pale and second rate, and as others have said, "soft." That was deliberate. and the decision to turn a brutal satire into an earnest problem play (where the only untoward thing is the ramp) just didn't work for me. In Ashman's book, the ramp is like the tannery waste in the water, in An Enemy of the People, the Moment That Tries a Man's Soul. Here's what Hamlisch said:

''The original movie was both satiric and very, very cynical,'' Mr. Hamlisch said. ''The first two versions of the show also pounded you over the head nastily. That cynicism, which might have been interesting in a 70's film, seemed very out of touch with the 80's. It had the feel of Easterners looking down at something in California. From a musical standpoint, I wanted to take an almost opposite point of view and present the pageant from the inside looking out, allowing a few chuckles here and there.''

Now, we all know the aesthetic of Hamlisch's music, his deep embeddedness in both the good and the bad of the California scene, and his embarrassing love of his own celebrity persona. He did NOT believe in being behind any scenes, like some composers, he believed in being on camera whether there were cameras or not. 

For example, I was having a conversation on the way out of The Last Five Years, telling a friend that the last time I'd seen him was at Bed, Bath and Beyond, and Hamlisch loudly injected himself into our conversation: "Oh yeah, everybody goes to Bed, Bath and Beyond!" How could anybody that clumsily exhibitionistic see anything worth satirizing about teenaged beauty pageants?

Updated On: 6/23/19 at 11:14 AM

[bwayphreak234]

Posted: 6/23/19 at 1:48pm

I saw a college production of this when I was in school, and I thought it was pretty damn abysmal. There were some nice tunes for sure, but when examining the entire show as a whole, there is no denying that it is an absolute dog through and through.

[Charley Kringas Inc]

Posted: 7/5/19 at 10:33am

Been listening to the demo album this week, and it's been consistently revealing gems. Hoping to watch the original film this weekend - it reminds me a bit of the semi-lost Altman flop, HEALTH (which would also make a great musical!).

The score has some major stumbling blocks. Bob's Song is pretty atrocious, the gospel song and the spoken word segment about the library in Young and American are also pretty bad, and the point being made in "Smile" is far too vague. There are some pretty middling lyrics scattered about elsewhere, and unless something REALLY interesting is happening in the text that's not in the songs (if anyone has the libretto I'd love to read it), the show kind of fizzles out musically in act two.

The rest of it is really pretty special, though. Disneyland is maybe a little bit subtle, but I do like the eerie idea of Doria embedding herself in the pageant lifestyle as an escape from the tougher realities of her actual life. This pays off at the end when she feels like she's made a bond with Robin, only to discover she's gone back to her mother - the loving family Doria can't have - leaving Doria to go, alone, to another pageant across the country. It's pleasantly brutal and still holds up as a reflection of American values.

edit: the Maria plot also feels upsettingly still-relevant. I love the idea that she's doing the exact same thing as the other girls and playing up her culture. The other girls are just as much a comical stereotype of A Typical High-School Senior, but the problem with that stereotype is that it's also unabashedly an American ideal. Maria making a mockery of her own culture as a grab for the crown throws the crassness of the American beauty industry into a harsh relief. It and Disneyland help to add texture, because otherwise the show wouldn't get any deeper than the "thrust with the pelvis" joke in Shine (or wouldn't have the potential to - the snippets of dialogue fall pretty flat).

Updated On: 7/5/19 at 10:33 AM

[wickedfan]

Posted: 7/5/19 at 11:40am

Charley, have you read the licensed script? Some of your queries/issues about the score are answered in it. 

I agree that "Bob's Song" is colorless and unnecessary, but the gospel and spoken word in "Young and American" are intentionally amateur. In the spoken word segment, Doria's doing a striptease all while talking about finding "beauty from within." It's pretty hysterical if done well. You can find that moment from the movie online. The words are slightly different--Ashman made it all rhyme--but the intention is still the same. And the gospel was originally intended for a blonde haired, white girl to sing super classically--think that beauty pageant clip of the white woman singing "And I Am Telling You" all in head voice.

In regards to Act 2, you're right that musically it starts to peter out, but that's because the show becomes more dialogue heavy, especially after the title song when Shawn's prank on Maria comes into play. Ashman's libretto includes giant chunks of dialogue lifted directly from the movie (the girls' speeches to the Elks in "Shine" for example), but one key change he makes is the prank on Maria and the nude photograph. In the movie, the two are separate incidents and played for laughs and innocence. Ashman combined them and played it much more calculated and as a violation. 

I unabashedly love SMILE and think that it doesn't get enough attention. It's not perfect, but few shows are, and the licensed version is better than many shows that have gone on to run much longer than SMILE did. 

Updated On: 7/5/19 at 11:40 AM

[Charley Kringas Inc]

Posted: 7/5/19 at 11:58am

I haven't, and I'm very curious to! I kind of assumed the dialogue took over in act two, but it does feel like there needs to be something a little spiky before the finale (perhaps this is accomplished via contrast between book scene and song). One thing I love is how many of the songs are high-energy - too much of a good thing can be killer, but it really works here and all the vamps are fun.

[wickedfan]

Posted: 7/5/19 at 12:11pm

Charley: Definitely get your hands on it if you can! 

You bring up a good point about the energy of a lot of the numbers. The tempos are a BIT faster for the demo (I assume to make it all fit on one casette or record), but after the title song in Act 2, the pacing of the show does kind of slow down. It's not that the ending is bad or dull, it's just a big shift from Act 1, which as you said is very high energy.

If you can find them, there are some clips from the Broadway production online. The show famously went through many changes on its way to Broadway, mostly for the worse, and then went back to its original incarnation for licensing. At the time, there was pressure on the show and an expectation for it to be the first American Broadway musical to compete with British imports and become a huge hit. As a result, the show got too big, too loud and too earnest for its own good. What started off as a satirical medium sized musical became a huge, splashy, "heart-on-its-sleeve" American musical. But there's still a lot of meaty stuff that got to Broadway. The orchestrations are especially fascinating. The energy of the Broadway production is very...80's. When you watch it, you'll see what I mean. 

[Charley Kringas Inc]

Posted: 7/5/19 at 2:03pm

I found the Martha Swope page for the Broadway production, and it has 40 color photos! Here's a link. Very colorful.