It must be close to the end of the scholastic year, because I've gotten a few more emails than usual from high school and college students (including one from China) asking me for quotes or looking for answers to questions for the end-of-term papers about Broadway and Off-Broadway.
My favorite one came from a young man who lives in the great state of Texas, and it went something like this:
"My name is Elijah and I am a theatre student at the Fort Worth Academy of Fine Arts. We are currently doing a project on theatre jobs and I chose to do mine on the job of a producer because I've been watching too much Smash."
As I wrote about in this blog from 2009, one of the great effects of dramatic entertainment is its ability to inspire.
And hopefully, Smash will continue to inspire young men and women like Elijah to learn more about producing . . . and maybe they'll find out they like it . . . and want to do it.
Because the more people we have producing, the better our business and the better our art.
(Got a comment? I love 'em, so comment below! Email subscribers, click here, then scroll down, to say what's on your mind!)
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Well, I am one that LOVES SMASH!!! And I am far from the age of a Student. But Hey Elijah, I don't wanna sell you a Desert Island or anything but I too am from Texas - FORT WORTH in fact. Started at Casa Manana, went to TWU and TCU for Theatre B.A. and MFA.
Anyway I am a small time Off Off Broadway Producer and have several shows I would like to give you the opportunity to help Produce. Interested???
Thanks Ken as always for your most interesting Blogs. You know where it is happenin' Man!!!
Posted by: Jack Dyville | April 03, 2012 at 08:48 AM
Like so many in our business I have a love/hate relationship with SMASH. But I think the things I hate are some of the most telling things about our business. The whole number where the "experimented" with the concept of Marilyn, giving it a dark vampire/goth feel, is so typical of so much of our NYC downtown scene and sometimes even Broadway. At least these producers scrapped the idea (I THINK THEY DID) before a paying audience sees it. Sometime original and edgy are not necessarily good. Often traditional is a winner. yada yada yada ...
While I do think the show works best when they avoid the GLEE moments (Lets sing a song now for the sake of singing a song you know and to make money on ITUNES later) and show us really artists struggling on and off stage to navigate this business we call SHOW.
Posted by: Walt Frasier | April 02, 2012 at 10:43 PM
I was so hoping for a producer's procedural... but something is better than nothing. McPhee is irritating and Huston is burdened with some skanky material but it's fun to see Christian on TV... and even with the weak foundation they still have an audience and they've been renewed for next year. I still have hopes that they will read some of the thousands of posts about the stupid side stories...
I never miss your blog. Work and life keep me away from NYC, but the years I spent on W.49th (Right near Z's)call me back rather often.
Posted by: Bunny | April 02, 2012 at 08:25 PM