 First edition cover | |
| Author | Garson Kanin |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Novel |
| Publisher | Viking Press |
Publication date | 1980 |
| Media type | Print (hardback & paperback) |
| Pages | 522 |
| ISBN | 0670148032 |
Smash is an American novel by Garson Kanin. Published in 1980 by Viking Press, the book follows the creation of a Broadway musical about vaudeville performer Nora Bayes, from casting to opening night.
Smash was the partial basis for the 2012 NBC television series Smash .
The novel is in the form of a production diary for Shine On, Harvest Moon , the fictional musical being created about the life of vaudevillian Nora Bayes. The diary is kept by Production Secretary Midge Maghakian, a young woman who leaves her secure publishing job to join the staff. She finds herself caught up in the various power struggles to control the musical.
With the production in trouble, producer Art Clune turns to Gene Bowman, the Chicago-based author of the Bayes biography upon which the musical is based. His rewrites lead to continued improvement of the show but the struggle for control continues, culminating in director Larry Gabel's being forced out, replaced by Production Supervisor Clay Botsford. As this is happening, Midge and Gene enter into a physical relationship and Midge finds herself falling in love with the older Gene.
The show founders through out-of-town tryouts in Boston and Philadelphia along with a surprise run in Washington, D.C. as the major players continue to jockey for position and power. In a last-ditch effort to save the show, Midge, Gene and others in the production staff conspire with Larry to bring his vision back to it. After attending previews in outlandish disguises and donning drag as Clay's secretary, Larry rejoins the show openly as director just before opening night.
On the day of the Broadway opening, Midge quits the production and flies to Chicago. The show gets rave reviews and Midge calls Gene to tell him she has moved to be with him.
Smash is loosely based on Kanin's experiences directing the 1964 Broadway musical Funny Girl . Writing for Playbill magazine, Peter Filichia noted possible parallels between characters from Smash and real-life counterparts, including:
The novel's analogs to Funny Girl star Barbra Streisand and her husband at the time, Elliott Gould, Filichia finds a much less direct comparison and he finds amusement in Kanin's description of director Larry Gabel as "ruggedly attractive, intense, lean, and the opposite of flaky ... fastidious, always beautifully groomed and dressed".
Filichia also cites events in the novel that match events that happened during Kanin's work on the musical. These include an argument over whether to include Bayes' song "Shine On, Harvest Moon" (similar to an argument over including "My Man" in Funny Girl) and a show-stopping number by supporting players (mirroring the audience response to "Who Taught Her Everything?"). [1]
In 2012 NBC debuted a television series also entitled Smash . The series follows the basic premise of the novel, although the central musical is based not on Nora Bayes but on Marilyn Monroe. Sources report that the novel was optioned solely for the title; [2] however, "based on the novel by Garson Kanin" appears in each episode's closing credits. [3]
Writing for the Associated Press, Gregory Ryan cited Kanin's "crisp style" and his ability to "catch[] the flavor of the various cities that [the musical] plays in" before opening in New York to conclude that although Smash is flawed it "should give many people hours of fun reading". [4]
The authors of A Novel Approach to Theatre: From Adams to Zola, a compendium of capsule reviews of novels about the theatre, called Smash "brazen, racing, hard-talking and funny". [5]
Trey Graham for NPR described Smash as "a steamy, smart story" with Kanin's "passion for showbiz...cooked...thoroughly into it". [6]
With the novel's connection to the television series, the book garnered some renewed critical attention. Writing for The A.V. Club , Noel Murray incorporated passages from and opinions on the novel into his weekly episode recap/reviews. Initially he found that the novel was "one of those scandalous, soapy bestsellers that was [ sic ] all the rage in the Jackie Collins era--the ones with a gratuitous sex scene every few pages--and Kanin seemed to be filling in the blanks in some kind of a trash-fiction version of MadLibs". [7] Just a week later he had revised his opinion upward, saying it had improved by focusing on the mechanics of mounting a show but questioning Kanin's decision to present long conversations in the form of script pages. [8]
Filichia summed up his response to the novel by writing, "So, okay, Smash isn't great literature. But, like every other book written about a fictitious Broadway musical, it's awfully hard to put down -- in both senses of that expression." [1]
Jule Styne was an English-American songwriter and composer best known for a series of Broadway musicals, including several famous frequently-revived shows that also became successful films: Gypsy,Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, and Funny Girl.
Larry Simon Gelbart was an American television writer, playwright, screenwriter, director and author, most famous as a creator and producer of the television series M*A*S*H, and as co-writer of the Broadway musicals A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum and City of Angels.
Born Yesterday is a play written by Garson Kanin which premiered on Broadway in 1946, starring Judy Holliday as Billie Dawn. The play was adapted into a successful 1950 film of the same name.
Funny Girl is a musical with score by Jule Styne, lyrics by Bob Merrill, and book by Isobel Lennart, that first opened on Broadway in 1964. The semi-biographical plot is based on the life and career of comedian and Broadway star Fanny Brice, featuring her stormy relationship with entrepreneur and gambler Nicky Arnstein.
Adolph Green was an American lyricist and playwright who, with long-time collaborator Betty Comden, penned the screenplays and songs for some of the most beloved film musicals, particularly as part of Arthur Freed's production unit at Metro Goldwyn Mayer, during the genre's heyday. Many people thought the pair were married, but in fact they were not a romantic couple at all. Nevertheless, they shared a unique comic genius and sophisticated wit that enabled them to forge a six-decade-long partnership that produced some of Hollywood and Broadway's greatest hits.
Betty Comden was an American lyricist, playwright, and screenwriter who contributed to numerous Hollywood musicals and Broadway shows of the mid-20th century. Her writing partnership with Adolph Green spanned six decades: "the longest running creative partnership in theatre history." The musical-comedy duo of Comden and Green collaborated most notably with composers Jule Styne and Leonard Bernstein, as well enjoyed success with Singin' in the Rain, as part of the famed "Freed unit" at MGM.
The Ziegfeld Follies was a series of elaborate theatrical revue productions on Broadway in New York City from 1907 to 1931, with renewals in 1934 and 1936. They became a radio program in 1932 and 1936 as The Ziegfeld Follies of the Air.
Raymond Otto Stark was one of the most successful and prolific independent film producers in postwar Hollywood. Stark's background as a literary and theatrical agent prepared him to produce some of the most profitable films of the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, such as The World of Suzie Wong (1960), West Side Story (1961), The Misfits (1961), Lolita (1962), The Night of the Iguana (1964), Reflections in a Golden Eye (1967), Funny Girl (1968), The Owl and the Pussycat (1970), The Goodbye Girl (1977), The Toy (1982), Annie (1982), and Steel Magnolias (1989).
Henry Robert Merrill Levan was an American songwriter, theatrical composer, lyricist, and screenwriter. He was one of the most successful songwriters of the 1950s on the US and UK single charts. He wrote musicals for the Broadway stage, including Carnival! and Funny Girl (lyrics).
Do Re Mi is a musical with music by Jule Styne, lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, and a book by Garson Kanin, who also directed the original 1960 Broadway production. The plot centers on a minor-league con man who decides to go (somewhat) straight by moving into the legitimate business of juke boxes and music promotion. The musical was headlined by the comedy couple of Phil Silvers and Nancy Walker, both of whom were Tony nominated. Popular songs introduced included "Cry Like the Wind" and "Make Someone Happy".
Garson Kanin was an American writer and director of plays and films.
Born Yesterday is a 1950 American comedy-drama film directed by George Cukor, based on the 1946 stage play of the same name by Garson Kanin. The screenplay was credited to Albert Mannheimer. According to Kanin's autobiography, Cukor did not like Mannheimer's work, believing it lacked much of the play's value, so he approached Kanin about adapting a screenplay from his own play. Because of legal entanglements, Kanin did not receive screen credit.
Robert Drivas was an American actor and threatre director.
The Magic Show is a one-act musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz and a book by Bob Randall. It starred magician Doug Henning. Produced by Edgar Lansbury, Joseph Beruh, and Ivan Reitman, it opened on May 28, 1974 at the Cort Theatre in Manhattan, and ran for 1,920 performances, closing on December 31, 1978. Henning was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical and director Grover Dale was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical.
Isobel Lennart was an award-winning American screenwriter and playwright. She is best known for writing the book for the Broadway musical Funny Girl which premiered in 1964, although she also wrote scripts for successful Hollywood films featuring major stars, some of which received Oscar nominations.
Fay Kanin was an American screenwriter, playwright and producer. Kanin was President of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences from 1979 to 1983.
Funny Girl is a 1968 American biographical musical comedy-drama film directed by William Wyler and written by Isobel Lennart, adapted from her book for the stage musical of the same title. It is loosely based on the life and career of Broadway and film star and comedienne Fanny Brice and her stormy relationship with entrepreneur and gambler Nicky Arnstein.
Three Men on a Horse is a three-act farce co-authored by John Cecil Holm and George Abbott. The comedy focuses on a man who discovers he has a talent for choosing the winning horse in a race as long as he never places a bet himself. Originally titled Hobby Horse by John Cecil Holm, Three Men On A Horse was a property controlled and produced by Alex Yokel, who reached out to Warner Bros. for financial assistance; Warners agreed to provide financing on the condition Yokel find someone to doctor the script and direct the Broadway production. George Abbott, the director, who had since 1932 directed and produced each of his Broadway productions, immediately saw the potential and rewrote the script and agreed to direct if he received co-author credit and split the author's royalties with Holm. Abbott wrote a third act, resulting in a new three-act play titled Three Men on a Horse.
Mr. Broadway is an American 13-episode CBS adventure and drama television series starring Craig Stevens as New York City public relations specialist Mike Bell. It ran from September 20, 1964 until December 26, 1964.
Dennis Grimaldi is an American theatrical producer, director, and choreographer who has worked on Broadway, Off Broadway, television, and on London's West End. His work includes Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes, Other People’s Money, Harry Townsend’s Last Stand and Annie Warbucks. Grimaldi choreographed the touring companies of Gigi, The Robber Bridegroom, The Red Bluegrass Western Flyer show, and Broadway; among others.
