Catch up on Smash every night with Playbill! It's available to stream with commercials on NBC, and available for purchase on Amazon. Episode 4 recap here.
Bombshell has the Belasco Theatre! But no book. At least, not a book that Tom, the co-creator of the musical, has read. After a weekend getaway to power through the writing process with The Dramaturg, Julia got back to the city too late to show a draft to Tom. Her writing partner. With whom she lives. Remember, kids, this was 2013, before email existed. Dark days!
And while we're on the subject of technology, that loud box in Kyle and Jimmy's apartment is a home printer! Kyle laboriously prints out one copy of The Hit List script to make copies of before an impromptu reading organized by Karen. In addition to, you know, directing an original Broadway musical, Derek is happy to take on a Fringe production of it.
Sadly, though Jimmy's songs are great, no one is a fan of Kyle's book. He takes it well! Or wait... No, he actually freaks out and accuses Bobby of just not getting it because it's not "Broadway." It's original! But even Jimmy is forced to admit that Kyle's book is not great.
Ivy has her hands full with co-stars Veanne Cox and Sean Hayes, who has misread Liaisons and arrives to rehearsal playing it as a broad comedy. "You die," Ivy points out. "But in a sword fight!" he replies. Still not funny. More importantly, Ivy spends most of the day in Madison Square Park eating Shake Shack, first while she and Tom gossip and then while she gently schools Sean Hayes on what the show is really about. He takes her notes, and promptly tells the director they need to make it a comedy. Done and done!
Julia is finally doing the work—and it's all for naught, because it turns out that The Dramaturg is actually evil, and has his own version of Bombshell ready to go, one that Nikki Blonsky, for one, loves. One thing she doesn't get though, is why Tom and Julia changed the title? She loved Bombshell. "So did we," Tom says during their recon mission. (This was after he envisioned himself playing all the male roles in "Public Relations," another newly revealed Bombshell song. At least it gives Christian Borle a chance to flaunt his stuff.)
But The Dramaturg denies it all! Poor Julia, torn between two men again. And not getting laid by either this time. And willing to gamble her whole career (and Tom's!) because she needs to know if this script she worked so hard on—finally—is any good or not. It is, though! It's brilliant, Derek says! Hit List can wait, it's Bombshell's time. And I immediately dread Jimmy's reaction. Remarkably understated, actually. He simply stalks off, saying that Kyle is his family. Enough to convince Ana Vargas that he's a good guy underneath all the bluster! OK.
Speaking of sociopaths, Ivy is giving acting advice to Sean Hayes in an attempt to get him on track with Liaisons. She is not going to throw away her first major role in a Broadway show because some hack comes in and makes a joke out of everything. So he decides to go off his meds! Can this woman find an all-female team to work with, because men keep slowing her down.
As for Bombshell: Jerry and Tom want to use the workshop version. Julia and Derek want to use the new draft, about how the men in her life created Marilyn Monroe. Who's the tie breaker? Eileen, of course. She's done feeling sorry for herself this episode, and ready to make decisions. And her vote... will have to wait until the next episode!
