By Ben Rimalower
22 Apr 2013

	Christian Borle
	Photo by Will Hart/NBC

In the meantime, Julia's packing to move out of Tom's place. As she tells her son, who's back in all of our lives for the opening, she's tired of sleeping on a couch, which is weird to me because Tom's apartment always looked bigger than "a swell junior four," so I would have thought there'd be a second bedroom, but whatever.

Julia tells the story of how she and Tom met and how their dream was to musicalize "The Great Gatsby," but they could never get the rights. Her son asks her when was the last time she tried.

Cut to the limo on the way to opening night, and Julia surprises Tom with a first edition "Gatsby" and the news that Ahrens and Flaherty's option on the stage rights has lapsed (Oh my god, totes!). Julia's got a lawyer working on it right away so they can announce their newest collaboration at the party that night.

Tom expresses concern that announcing on opening is a jinx ("Remember our Vegas musical?"), but neglects to mention what's really concerning him, his scheduling conflict; he has agreed (pending good reviews for his direction of Bombshell) to direct the revival of City of Angels. (He boasted he could "nail the noir" to producer Jeff Breson, played fittingly by Stephen Bogardus, who toured in the original production of City of Angels).

Ah, the reviews! The anticipation is killing Ivy! Just when she's admiring her name outside the theatre, she hears some regular people (played by the decidedly irregular Donna McKechnie and Edward Hibbert) criticizing her performance. That sends Ivy into a self-defeating spiral, looking to others for the confidence she should be finding inside. She certainly does not get it from the Broadway message boards and she barely gets it from Derek, but thank God for Bernadette Peters! Ivy's mom, for once in her life, offers support.

 Continued...