Smash Report: A Change is-a Comin'

I missed you all last week, but now that I’m home from The Happiest Place on Earth, the “Smash” Report is back! We open the episode with the answer to the cliffhanger from last episode. Eileen’s decision is…drum roll please…Tom and Jerry! Oh how funny! Bombshell is going big budget Broadway! We shift over to no budget theater to Jimle’s Fringe production. They get a schlocky little theater preparing for their performance in ten hours. Will they be ready in time? The cast of misfits set up their new space while Jimmy serenades the gang with a little ditty only to be shut up by a venue director in very funny fashion. How very true that moment was. Karen heads off to go to her Broadway rehearsal where she meets Ivy in the elevator. Awkward! They attempt to have a conversation but small talk is not their forte. Ivy gets off the elevator to be ambushed by her cast because superstar Terry Falls has brought in sheep and metaphors to the production. Oh boy. Bomb. Back at Bombshell, Karen sings one of the songs Jerry is ready to cut in order to make way for his big budget plane. Julia and Tom are not ready to cut the first song they wrote for the show that got them excited about the project. Tom tries to level with Julia who, along with the rest of the team, has gone off the charts. Eileen agrees with Jerry? Oh this isn’t good. During the break, McSleazy discovers that Karen and Jimle have gone ahead with their Fringe show and pouts. Jerry plays the producer card after he finds out that Karen won’t be introduced as the star if she continues with Jimle’s Fringe show because, well, she would have been introduced there. What will Karen do? Betray her new friends or continue on Broadway? That’s a tough one? Or not. But in the meantime, has Jerry forgotten that she’s already been introduced to audiences in Boston? Right…we’re supposed to forget that happened.
Karen tells Jimle that she has to bow out with six hours to go before the first performance. The gang is pissed and kicks Karen out. Back to Broadway I suppose. McSleazy and Ivy happen on each other outside of their rehearsals, where they both reveal how sucky their respective shows are going. How will they ever recover? Julia is on a date, perhaps a professional date, with Peter. He offers the idea for her to leave Bombshell. Why? Because he wants to bring her to London to collaborate, or “collaborate”, on a new show. He plays the “Tom’s left you” card just as Tom goes to bat for his collaborator. Mean Peter! Jerry claims the song he wants to cut is too intellectual and lacks the wow factor that the show needs. Eileen and Jerry make a deal that if Tom can adjust the song in 24 hours time, he and Julia can keep it. What will happen? Outside of the Fringe show, Karen talks with Ana about Hit List only to be found by Cyn, Ellis’s ex. Welcome back to “Smash” Condola! She drops the bombshell to Karen that Ellis was working with Jerry, and that he’s a gay. Oh snap! What will Karen do with that information!
At Jimle’s, they discuss what to do with their show now that Karen is gone. Cancel or perform. Doesn’t Jimmy know that despite any hiccups, the show must go on? Cleary not. It’s the mantra of live theater! At Tom’s, Julia tells Tom about Peter’s London proposal because she thinks the show is doomed. Tom tells her that he has her back and will fix it. Tom is too good for everyone. Something good needs to happen for him. And now for the hilarity, Terry Falls and company perform an invited press rehearsal of Les Liaisons. Oh it’s gonna be a doozy isn’t it. But before we can see it, we are at the Bombshell song experiment to get Tom and Julia’s song back in. Tom offers some guidance to Karen, which McSleazy gets whiney about because it’s a good idea that he didn’t have first. Calling the wambulence! The new version of the song now brings the men of Marilyn’s life on stage with her as she goes through each of them. No longer a solo number but a production number. Julia, Eileen, and Jerry love the piece and the idea. Tom saved the show! But again, McSleazy whines and gets in everyone’s face because he can sense he’s being pushed to the background. What will he do? What he does best. McSleazy monologues, verbally slapping each member of the creative team in the face, only to announce he quits. Well, for someone who’s been fired from projects because he’s a womanizer, not sure that was his best decision. What will McSleazy do now? Fringe show?
Karen and Eileen run after McSleazy to bring him back but it’s no use. His mind is made up. Now with McSleazy gone Karen spills the beans to Eileen about the news Cyn brought to her attention. What will Eileen do with the information? She runs after the truth as Karen gets in a taxi to presumably go to the Fringe show. At Les Liaisons, Ivy gets to perform her solo number. It’s quite on point until she decides, via imagination, to go Terry Falls with it. Homegirl has some opera pipes! She brings the comedy into the song, which Terry isn’t fond of. Jealous much? But before we can hear from him, Eileen sneaks into Jerry’s office. Eileen takes a page out of the Snoopy playbook! Meanwhile, Terry reveals to Ivy that she can’t have the spotlight and is going to ask to get her song cut. Oh movie stars. Getting everything they want. At Hit List, Karen returns and tries to grovel her way back in the show. She pleads to Jimmy to take her back but his tough exterior won’t budge. Someone has to crack that kid!
At rehearsal for Les Liaisons, Terry finds Ivy crying on the stairs because the show is awful. Ivy tells Terry that he’s one of the reasons the show sucks. And Terry, off his meds, agrees. Humble pie! Terry gives Ivy her song back as long as she always tells him the truth. That shouldn’t be too hard! Tom and Julia have Chinese food to discuss the departure of McSleazy. Tom thinks the best thing for the show is the loss of McSleazy. And Julia reluctantly agrees. Eileen calls, presumably with the information she discovered on Snoopy and Jerry. But before we know what she found out, we get to see Jimmy in the Fringe show, accompanied by Karen. The song is a pretty duet that develops into an big budget reimagining of what the song would look like. I looks very similar to Baz Luhrmann’s La Boheme. Oh and McSleazy is there to watch. Is this a sign of his approval? Of course, the song caps off with a kiss. Is this the first real kiss the pair has had? If so, wasted on a stage kiss? How unfortunate.
Terry brings his cast together to have a heart to heart session about their feelings. No one wants to pipe up, until they lay into it all at once. Terry is on board to make changes to make the show good. What will this show become now? At the little Fringe venue, the gang all celebrates their triumph until they are interrupted by Tom Collins or Jesse L. Martin or Scott Nichols, (fake) Artistic Director of NYTW. He wants to meet the writers and director of the show because he’s interested in it. And who claims he’s the director? McSleazy himself! Gross! Eileen meets up with Tom and Julia to reveal that Snoopy gave Jerry the information on Nick that pushed her out. She wants payback! But before that, they need a director. Who will replace McSleazy? The person who wants to save Bombshell more than anyone, Tom!
Oh, and if Kyle’s script sucked a week ago, how the hell did he make it better for the Fringe production? It’s the little things. How will Tom do as the new director of Bombshell? Will Tom bring Ivy back to play Marilyn? Will Karen follow McSleazy to Hit List? How will the power struggle between Tom and McSleazy play out? Things are heating up here at the little “Smash” show!