Gay Norfolk

In show business? She suspects Jerry is enjoying her powerlessness a little too much. He quips that she could never be powerless; she's just not the producer.

He exits and she's on her way out too, telling her assistant Liz that she'll be visiting mobbed up bartender Nick. Tom and Derek scope out the Belasco Theatre as the new home for Bombshell and Tom hops up on stage. He wants to see if there's room to land an airplane for a possible new number he and Julia wrote for the top of Act II.

He turns to the back of the stage and drags us into a fantasy sequence rendition of the number, Public Relations . Public relations? Sounds pretty dirty ta me!

Marilyn arrives in Hollywood and is greeted and questioned by the foreign press. It's yet another of the endless series of set up the song with an introductory paragraph followed by call and response between Marilyn and the ensemble that the show is littered with. And it's abysmal.

Like, rivaling Mr. and Mrs. Smith levels of terrible.

A big chunk of the lyrics is nothing but rehashes or direct quotes from Marilyn, including how all she wore to bed was Chanel No.

5 and how during her nude photo shoot she left on only the radio. It does however feature Tom tricked out as a series of foreign correspondents, including a British agony auntie . Presented without comment Derek speaks for the nation when he asks, Are you done?

He wonders if Public Relations is in the new draft. Tom replies that he'll have to ask Julia . Julia and Peter breeze in just then, apologizing for being late but lunch was long and they couldn't get a cab.

Tom asks if the new number is in, snarking that he'd know if she'd bothered to get a script to him. She apologizes again but starts telling them about a new ending for Act I which led them to decide to stay out of town an extra day. Derek cuts through it all demanding to know if they have a brilliant new book for that afternoon's read-through.

Julia is confident that they do, which raises Tom's suspicions since she's always nervous before a read-through. Peter assures everyone that Julia has no reason to be nervous but Derek begs to differ. A less-than-brilliant read-through will cause Jerry to pull the plug and probably end Julia's career.

On that cheery note, Derek and Tom depart to check out the flies, which is a theatre term and not at all dirty. Julia's confidence immediately crumbles and she suggests postponing and going through the book one more time. He talks her off the ledge and there is mention made of a Liz Taylor sequence being left out that will become important later.

He urges her to stand behind his instincts and promises that he's 100% behind her. Karen checks messages at the gym for what we are led to believe is the umpteenth time and roommate Ana chides her that in the 21st Century it's OK for a woman to call a man. Karen worries that if she calls Jimmy Charming it will make him think that she cares about the kiss.

Ana points out that clearly she does care, which makes one of us. The phone rings but it's just Derek checking in. She offers to sit in on that but he declines and asks after Team J/K .

Noting the buzz that's built up around Jimmy since Veronica's concert, he suggests having them put together a working version of Hit List for the Winter Fringe Festival which may or may not be a thing. Karen suggests that he's hedging his bets in case Julia craps out, which is more perception than I would normally give her credit for. They ring off and Ana smilingly suggests that Karen has her reason to call Jimmy.

Can I just say, I have nothing against either the character of Ana or Krysta Rodriguez , who plays her, but why does this character exist? Is there some reason why Jessica can't just do the things that Ana's doing? It's bad enough that we've apparently lost Sue and Dennis permanently from the chorines, do we have to lose Jessica too?

Thank heaven Bobby's back tonight! Checking in on this season's third musical , we find Ivy in rehearsal for Liaisons , with the company in simplified versions of period costume. This makes sense I suppose, giving the actors a sense of how the costumes will wear and move.

Before we see anything of the show the director calls a break as the star, Terry Falls , has arrived. An as-yet unnamed player exposits to Ivy that they've been rehearsing for a week without him. Ivy comments that he's a big movie star and that if it weren't for him there wouldn't be a revival.

Nameless concedes the point but compares the casting of Terry as Valmonte to casting Jim Carrey as King Lear . On that note, the director ushers Terry (guest star Sean Hayes ) into the rehearsal room to general applause. He apologizes for his tardiness and as two dressers slip a jacket and tricorn hat on him swears he will integrate smoothly into the process.

Things start off promisingly as he's already memorized the script, but our first sign of trouble soon manifests when he doesn't know the difference between stage right and right right. With that cleared up, he makes his first entrance and delivers his first line, in a faux French accent that makes Inspector Clouseau sound like a native. This is quickly followed by a near-motorboat into an ensemble members bosom and a walking stick rising like an erection in Ivy's general direction.

Ivy is instantly panic-stricken. Continue reading →