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We're 13 days away from the workshop presentation of Marilyn the Musical and lyricist-librettist Julia (Debra Messing) has not yet delivered a full script, even though her husband, Frank ( Brian d'Arcy James ), is away on a teacher's training retreat (giving her quiet time to write, right?). Maybe Julia is distracted by her extra-marital flirtation with former lover, Michael (Will Chase), who is cast as Marilyn's Joe DiMaggio. They share pie at the Westway Diner — that's the exterior of the real Westway, an actor hangout, on Ninth Avenue between 43rd Street and 44th — and Julia fingers the whipped cream of his apple pie. That's a very public fingering considering they're at a front-window booth looking out on Ninth Avenue.

During this "work session," Julia and Frank's 16-year-old son, Leo (Emory Cohen), is taken into custody by the cops for "loitering for drugs" in Central Park. Julia cannot be reached, Frank is out of town, so Julia's composer, Tom (Christian Borle), gets the call — while he's on a date with new flame John (Neal Bledsoe) at the theatre-district bistro Pigalle. (Sidebar: That's the exterior of Pigalle, at least. At 48th and Eighth, Pigalle is a go-to place for reliable after-theatre French-inspired vittles. Try the chicken cobb salad with lardons and a hunk of blue cheese and crusty peasant bread.) John, a lawyer, gets Leo sprung. Back at Julia's, Tom warns his lyricist about the flirtation with Michael: "You're playing with fire, and this is your wakeup call."

Some highlights of (and comments about) Episode 5:

	Katharine McPhee and Jack Davenport
	photo by Patrick Harbron/NBC

BELOW THE NECK: Director-choreographer Derek (Jack Davenport) is big on shaming people, privately and publicly. He asks chorus newbie Karen (Katharine McPhee) to try a few dance steps with him at rehearsal and accuses her of being stiff and not in touch with anything below the neck. Later, unhappy with Ivy's vibrato on a note, he makes Karen (Ivy's competition) stand up and demonstrate how to sing, as ensemble and creative team watch. In a showbiz soap opera, these moments provide tension. In the real world, it's called a hostile work environment. Later, Derek makes Ivy take a voice lesson from Karen to get her "trill" right. "Don't get ahead of yourself," Ivy (Megan Hilty) warns Karen. (How much do we love that Hilty conveys Ivy's discomfort by pitching her voice slightly higher when she's alone with Karen? Her words say she's at ease, her tone speaks volumes.)

ELLIS AND EILEEN: Producer Eileen (Anjelica Huston) has lost her assistant, Scott, to her ex-husband Jerry. Enter Tom's scheming assistant, Ellis (Jaime Cepero), delivering a book about Marilyn Monroe to Eileen — just when Eileen is most in need.

SEX APPEAL: Karen was not raised to push her sex appeal to the fore, but boyfriend Dev (Raza Jaffrey) says it would be nice to show her off at a business event, where his competition for a promotion will be in attendance. Prepping for her appearance at the party (to be held on the USS Intrepid, the de-commissioned aircraft carrier that is now a museum on the Hudson River), she taps into her inner sensualist by singing James Brown and Betty Jean Newsome's "It's a Man's Man's Man's World" while looking into mirrors, straddling a chair, slipping into pumps and arching her back to expose her bra and midriff. (You get the picture: This is the scene for all the tired businessmen who aren't interested in the between-the-sheets scene in which we learn Tom and John are not a sexual match.) Karen's "Man's World" sequence will remind show fans of an odd merging of moments from "Flashdance," Flower Drum Song ("I Enjoy Being a Girl") and Cyd Charisse's sexy transformation from wool to satin in the M-G-M film "Silk Stockings." (Here's a non-widescreen internet clip from the latter. It's essential movie-musical viewing.)