By Kenneth Jones
20 Mar 2012

	Bernadette Peters wows the kids as Ivy's Tony-winning mom.
	photo by Eric Liebowitz/NBC

TOM AND JOHN AND SAM: Remember when Tom and lawyer John (Neal Bledsoe) figured out that they were incompatible in bed, and how refreshing it was that they seemed to be on the path to friendship? Well, they are still sharing a bed in Episode 7, and there is still no evidence of heat, just company (lots of company). It gets reiterated this week that chorus dancer Sam (Leslie Odom, Jr. of Broadway's dawning Leap of Faith) is gay, gay, gay, and Tom (who wasn't paying attention when it was revealed in an earlier episode) is shocked! Sam seems so, you know, straight. (Number of times Sam references a sports team in this episode: Zero.) Tom and Sam are an inevitable couple. But we all know from history that showmances usually don't end well.

IVY AND DEREK: The public dressing down that Ivy gave Derek last week (when she said he was cruel — and not great in bed) is just a memory. Like Tom and John's apparent breakup, her public lashing-out is forgotten and forgiven. "Are we good?" puppy-dog Derek asks Ivy. She forgives him his sins, and he seems to be adjusting his behavior. "You're wonderful in this show, and you're gonna be great tomorrow," she says. During intermission of the workshop he is candid but not unkind about the slightly shaky Act One. He tells Ivy he's giving her a note as her director, not her lover: "Get your head in the game," he says. "I need you to focus." Tom doesn't like Derek giving notes to the company at intermission, but Tom doesn't really have a leg to stand on in the sensitivity department: He accompanied Leigh's earlier performance of "Everything's Coming Up Roses," allowing Ivy's mother to take over Ivy's rehearsal room. Discuss.

	Jack Davenport
	Photo by Eric Liebowitz/NBC

SAY IT WITH MUSIC: The original number of the week, Shaiman and Wittman's "Lexington and 52nd Street," shows ballplayer Joe DiMaggio percussively anguished about the public commodity that his wife has become. Joshua Bergasse's bold mosh-pit choreography illustrates the public tug of war that ruined the celebs' marriage — Joe's tugging at her, the press and public are tugging at her, the studio is tugging at her. The musical sequence, which includes dialogue, is linked to the famous "Seven Year Itch" scene in which Marilyn's skirt billowed up as she stood atop a subway grate. It was filmed at Lexington and 52nd Street, as fans and media looked on. DiMaggio was not pleased. Also revived for the workshop are snippets of Marilyn songs from past episodes, including "The National Pastime," "History Is Made at Night," "The 20th Century Fox Mambo" and "Let Me Be Your Star." Embedded in the workshop sequence are two "Smash" signature fantasy moments: Chorus-girl Karen intermittently imagines herself in full Marilyn drag in the musical numbers, and Michael imagines himself playing his DiMaggio breakup scene for an audience of one — Julia. Both Michael and Julia have tears in their eyes. Hurt or shame? You decide. The chorus cameo closeup of the week: Karen is cheek to cheek with Keith Kuhl, a dancer who works a lot on Broadway (Fiddler on the Roof; Sweet Charity; Promises, Promises). Kuhl is one in the corps of amazing and too-often-faceless Broadway dancers who populate "Smash," which is shot in New York City.

SCAPEGOAT: Stricken after (the apparently conscienceless) Michael Swift's wife and child come to visit a workshop, Julia flees to her Brooklyn home and discovers her son, Leo (Emory Cohen), getting high. He knows she's having an affair and is apparently acting out. Julia knows she must end it, but Michael resists the end of the secret relationship, thinking it might be the start of something better than their marriages. "I'm not yours to order around," Julia tells Michael when she is forced by Derek to improvise dialogue in order to activate a Marilyn Monroe/Joe DiMaggio scene that isn't working. "I'm not yours!" At episode's end, it is decided by Tom and Julia (with Eileen's approval and to Derek's dismay) that Michael is the reason for the failure of the workshop, and he is fired. Julia goes home and tells her teenage son of his dismissal, and he weeps in her arms, relieved and forever changed by the secret.

LURKERS: Lurking is turning out to be a trend in "Smash." Last week, Karen dropped her sheet music behind the piano, knelt to pick it up and was obscured from the view of the creative team, who talked about replacing Ivy due to her illness. This week, Ellis is hiding in a rehearsal room where Michael and Julia have a sloppy makeout session. And when Ivy tells her mother off in the studio — spitting out that mama is prone to "sucking up the light like a black hole," that mama's cruel and withholding, that Marilyn was an "unhappy drug-addicted disaster because her mother didn't love her" — the camera reveals that Derek has been witness to the confrontation, a few feet away from them. The only sure place for a private exchange in the world of "Smash" may be an elevator. Unless Eileen has access to the digital video files from the security cameras. Then, all bets are off.

(Kenneth Jones is managing editor of Playbill.com. Follow him on Twitter @PlaybillKenneth.)

Check out the earlier "Smash" Report recap of Episode 6. View Playbill Video's earlier visit with cast and creatives of "Smash."