By Adam Hetrick
The producers and creators of "Smash" have remained very faithful to the Broadway community — we see so many familiar faces in the series.
So, while Broadway is hungry for Hollywood stars lately, "Smash" is taking the opposite approach and putting our stars on the screen.
With that in mind, what did you think when you first saw the pilot?
03 Mar 2012
Hilty on "Smash." Photo by Will Hart/NBC
MH: It makes me really proud to be representing the Broadway community in this kind of way. It speaks volumes about how much the creators and producers wanted to stay authentic to the story. They hired so many people with theatrical backgrounds and I'm so lucky to be one of them. It's a breath of fresh air. They could have just hired every pretty face in L.A. who's done a million T.V. shows, but they're going for people that are really from this world and can do it. There are so many stereotypes that theatre performers can't do TV because we're too big and we're too Broadway, but it's such a crock.
MH: Right. In my opinion, to be an actor, your first job is to gauge your audience. Your performance is going to change from playing a 2,000-seat house, to the intimacy of performing for one person who's practically sitting in your lap. To insinuate that it can't be done is just crazy and "Smash" is turning that stereotype on its head.
MH: I really had a hard time watching the pilot, because I have a hard time watching myself anyway. But it's never a pretty thing to watch someone really singing, watching their face on camera when they're really, really singing. We are really singing when we film this stuff. We're not just lip-synching. For the most part it's all pre-recorded, but we sing full-out everytime so that it looks like we are singing and not just lip-synching and trying to look pretty.
There's a lot to think about. Your performance really does change when you're in a big theatre like the one we shoot in on Staten Island, and my thought was, "Well, I'm just going to go for it and play to the back of the house and see if that works."
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| Hilty in 9 to 5. |
| photo by Joan Marcus |
"Smash" is filmed in real New York City locations that are very familiar theatre folks. That must be surreal for you.
MH: The most surreal moment for me so far has not been singing in Times Square in an angel suit. It has been shooting scenes in Bernard Telsey's office, where I've sat and waited to audition for so many things before. That was a really surreal moment. It's so great to be in Shubert Alley so much and walking around our old stomping grounds. I mean even the Westway Diner. Come on! It's all the places we know and love and hang out. I keep pushing for a big scene dinner at Kodama!
Tell me about playing Ivy Lynn, who is also playing Marilyn during the musical sequences.
MH: There was one number in particular we were doing out in Staten Island. I was playing Ivy Lynn, Ivy Lynn was playing Marilyn and Marilyn was playing Sugar in "Some Like It Hot" and she shows up wasted and is having a hard time doing the number. But they're filming it on stage, so there's a fake camera crew, and a fake director on stage, and then there's the real camera crew that's out in the audience and above us swirling around us capturing it all. It was a lot to think about.
Broadway fans will also be excited to know that Tony winner Bernadette Peters guest stars as your mom on some upcoming episodes.
MH: That put me over the edge. She's the reason I'm in this business in the first place. She was it for me, she still is. I mean, she was my ultimate musical theatre idol. When they told me that they were talking to her about it I thought, "I don't know if I'll be able to do anything with her!" I was a complete goober around her on set. But we had some really great scenes together. I can't wait til people see that relationship, it's very interesting. She is just incredible. Watching her perform was like a master class.
