Smash

- Season 2

(2013)

After a successful run in Boston with Karen in the lead, "Bombshell" seems destined for Broadway, making Karen a Broadway superstar. As such, Karen is now part of the show's power team, and, based on advice she gets from Broadway star Veronica Moore, she can make whatever requests she wants to protect the material. Despite most of the cast and crew being automatically rehired for the Broadway run, Karen has the power to dismiss Ivy, who not only tried whatever she could to thwart Karen's success, but was also the reason for her break up with Dev. Ivy, in turn, does ...

Eileen's public legal problem concerning financing the show is perhaps the biggest obstacle in "Bombshell" making it to Broadway. As such, many with the show look for other professional opportunities. Derek may have problems getting another job as Rebecca Duvall's false publicity statement that she quit the show due to unwanted sexual advances by Derek leads to other actresses claiming the same. After running into another former actress colleague, Ivy contemplates getting out of the business altogether. And Karen comes across a couple of bartenders who are writing a ...

Although Bombshell is officially going back into unofficial rehearsals, Karen and Derek are still looking for other projects "just in case". Karen is still interested in helping Jimmy and Kyle get their musical at least to a stage where someone may consider staging it, with Derek being her go to person. While Kyle is optimistically hopeful that Karen can produce what she says in terms of a meeting with Derek, Jimmy is more skeptical. But Jimmy takes a risk to get some materials in preparation for that planned meeting with Derek. Derek on the other hand, turns to ...

Eileen has to decide if she will sell Nick down the river at the deposition into the illegal funding of "Bombshell". The fact that Nick has gone into hiding may make her decision easier. While the cast and crew wait in limbo as to Bombshell's fate, many, including Derek as director, Tom as musical director, and Karen and ultimately Ivy as chorus work on Veronica Moore's concert, which will be performed in 24 hours to a sold out house. Veronica wants this event to be her big break away from her sweet, ingénue image, or so she says. Despite the fact that a deal has been...

Jerry has taken production control of "Bombshell" away from Eileen because of her legal issues, although she and the show's cast and crew are unaware that he orchestrated the publicizing of her illegalities with Ellis' help. Eileen tries to figure out a way to remain part of the production team while not kowtowing to Jerry. Regardless, there will be no show if Julia can't provide a satisfactory rewrite, her job being on the line. Julia is excited about her latest draft, which was developed with Peter's help, leading up to its official read-through, that is until Tom ...

"Bombshell", "Dangerous Liaisons" and "Hit List" are all going through problems. Ivy asks Derek for advice on how to save "Liaisons" and/or her career if the show goes forward in its current direction as dictated by its star, Terry Falls. With "Bombshell", Eileen, who had the tie breaking vote - with Julia and Derek on one side, and Jerry and Tom on the other - decides to go with Jerry and Tom and go with an earlier, more commercial book draft rather than Julia's latest draft, which she and Derek feel is the best work she's ever done. In addition, Jerry wants to cut ...

Tom has been appointed director of "Bombshell" after Derek leaves the show. But Tom's style and vision doesn't mesh with Karen, with who the rapport becomes quietly but openly strained. In addition, Tom doesn't feel he can use Derek's choreography, and as such the new dance numbers are insipid, especially in Jerry's eyes. Eileen works behind the scenes to regain legal production control from Jerry, but even if she does achieve this goal, it may be too late for Tom, who may be fired by Jerry, especially as he still wants Derek back at the helm. Jerry's wish may become ...

The level of collaboration at "Bombshell" and "Hit List" are taking divergent paths. Derek has his big budget sensibility in directing "Hit List" and is able to stick to his vision within the limited budget. However, that vision doesn't sit well with Jimmy, who voices his opposition. Their relationship is further negatively affected by Derek's hands off statement concerning Karen, who doesn't know why Jimmy has not approached her romantically. On the other hand, Tom, now the director of "Bombshell", wants to please everyone, especially his new star Ivy, by listening ...

Karen and Jimmy's first night together is cut short by the arrival of her father, in town for a conference. Beyond believing that Karen is in a sexual relationship with Derek, he can't get over the fact that she left "Bombshell", a Broadway show, for experimental theater. His demeanor toward Karen and the men in her life is based on this perspective. Specifically with Jimmy, he may not be able to outrun his past, which he'd rather forget, as he becomes more famous. Meanwhile, Ivy is having parent issues of her own, with her Broadway diva mother, Leigh Conroy, coming ...

Personal relations between Tom and Ivy are still strained, into which Ivy brings the cast onto her side. Wanting to mend their friendship, Tom, at the last minute as he reminded of the date, asks his friend and Ivy's idol Liza Minnelli to provide a surprise to Ivy for her birthday later that evening. Beyond Ivy already having made arrangements with her cast mates to celebrate her birthday without Tom, the evening has the potential to be a disaster for all concerned, which includes Eileen and Richard, who are testing the waters of a personal relationship. Meanwhile, Jimmy and Karen...

Both "Bombshell" and "Hit List" have important upcoming full run throughs. "Bombshell" is doing a "friends and family" performance before going into its first preview the following day, which coincides with "Hit List" doing a run through the same day for Richard Francis, who plans to write an article on the show. A multitude of technical problems in the "Bombshell" "friends and family" performance may end up delaying the first preview show, which Tom wants to avoid at all cost as he sees a delay in preview as a public declaration of failure. Tom does whatever he needs...

It's "Bombshell"'s opening night, to which Eileen has provided tickets to the cast and crew of "Hit List". While trying to avoid any on-line chatter leading up to the opening, Ivy can't help but be affected by one comment that she is only a chorus girl not up to a starring role. Karen, on the other hand, isn't sure if she wants to see someone perform the role she voluntarily gave up. And even before the opening, Tom and Julia contemplate their next move, which may or may not be together as a team. Much of what happens will depend on the reviews, the Times' which may ...

Despite "Bombshell" not getting the ticket sales they were hoping, Eileen and Agnes are certain they are still on track for the show to sweep the Tonys. They just have to keep the show open until the awards, so they drum up whatever publicity they can featuring Ivy at whatever opportunity. One of those publicity items - Ivy moderating a Q&A session with Tom and Julia - may be bad timing. Tom has found out that he didn't get the "City of Angels" directing job. His belief that he would then work on "The Great Gatsby: The Musical" with Julia doesn't seem to be in the ...

The teams and individuals at both "Bombshell" and "Hit List" are going about their regular routines, both with regard to their respective shows and with their interpersonal relationships. This business includes Tom taking legal measures to dissolve his partnership with Julia, much to her ire, and Karen contemplating beginning a sexual relationship with Derek following her fall-out with Jimmy. But all comes to a screeching halt with the news of Kyle's death, he who was struck by a car. The team at "Hit List" is particularly hard hit by the news. The one person who ...

Eileen and Agnes are working hard to place "Bombshell" in the best possible light for the entire cast and crew in the lead up to the Tony nominations. One of the projects is a tribute night for Tom and Julia. Already seen by the online community as having slept her way to her current lead position, Ivy is feeling uncomfortable in her role for the tribute night - where Tom has asked her to portray a stripper - which may further kibosh her chances of a nomination. But what may be a bigger problem is Tom and Julia's partnership. News of the partnership's dissolution ...

The Outer Critics Circle (OCC) Award winners, which many see as a precursor to the Tonys, have just been announced. The results amp up the strategies each team uses in securing that coveted Tony nomination. Each of the individual members of the "Bombshell" and "Hit List" teams make some moves - some calculated, some unwitting - that may place them in a bad light, especially in how they deal with their main competition. Regardless of the OCCs, Tom may have problems getting a Tony nomination because of the less than friendly or ethical encounters he has with movie and ...

"Bombshell" and "Hit List" lead the Tony nominations with twelve and thirteen nominations respectively. Some things seem a certainty at tonight's awards ceremony, primarily that Derek, who has three individual nominations, will win nothing as he is now seen as persona non grata by the Broadway community after his public announcement of his casting couch process, the latest which led to Ana's firing and Daisy's hiring, and that he will not attend the ceremony. Since he made that announcement, he has been in hiding in his apartment, with none of his closest confidantes ...