The 2011 pilot season had something that would have been unthinkable even a few years ago: Multiple musical TV shows. Long banished from prime time, musicals are coming back in a big way, thanks to the massive success of Glee. But is there room on the airwaves for more autotuned Broadway refugees? Here’s a look at the (oddly violently named) contenders that we know of so far.
Smash: Written by the guys who added the jazz hands to Hairspray, directed by Spring Awakening’s Michael Mayer (who will likely bring popular Glee costar Jonathan Groff along for the ride) and starring Debra Messing, NBC’s Smash has a pretty solid Broadway pedigree. Which is good, because it follows the staging of a fictional Broadway musical. I love backstage dramas (Slings and Arrows is my favorite show ever) so I’ll definitely check this one out.
Mobbed: Not so FOX’s musical reality show, Mobbed. Mobbed creates musical flash mobs for special events – proposals, etc – and films them. Is there anything here I can’t get from that YouTube video of the guy who had a whole bunch of peppy strangers propose to his girlfriend at Disney World? Doesn’t sound like it. Also, to all my swains who may be thinking of proposing to me: If you do it through a reality show, we are breaking up.
Idina Menzel Project: Rachel’s mom on Glee is getting her own show. She’ll play a single mother of a teenage daughter who moonlights as a Bat Mitzvah singer. You know, I liked Gilmore Girls, but I don’t remember ever thinking “Boy, I wish they’d burst into song.” Although I do kind of wish I knew Idina Menzel was available for Bat Mitzvahs back when I had mine. Nah, my sundae bar was better.
Rumors have floated of at least three or four other musical projects on top of these, but it sounds like most are already dead in the water. Which is kind of too bad. The ’00s have definitely been the decade of the crime procedural. It would be kind of amazing if the ’10s turned out to be a decade where we’re all saying, “Man, I wish I could find something to watch that wasn’t a musical.” I would be okay with that.
