Let Me Be Your SMASH

"Fade in on a girl, with a hunger for fame." The new anthem of fame-searchers, and Broadway wannabes. The original song from the Emmy-nominated NBC hit Smash,  that can sum up Megan Hilty's rise to fame.

SPOILER ALERT! Contains Smash spoilers from Season 1

Smash

Summary

Nbc's Smash is a fairly new show that follows the a new musical's path to Broadway. The new musical just happens to be about the life of Marilyn Monroe. It starts with an idea and a song called Let Me Be Your Star written by the openly gay song-writer Tom Levitt and his writing partner Julia Houston. (played by Christian Borle and Debra Messing) After their original song is accidentally released on the internet, a recently divorced producer by the name of Eileen Rand (Anjelica Huston) takes on the project as well as a homophobic slime-bag director named Derek Wills (Jack Davenport). Auditions for the role of Marilyn are held and two girls are called back, Karen Cartwright (Katharine McPhee) and Ivy Lynn (Megan Hilty). Karen is a young girl from Iowa, her only previous experience being in local midwest theaters. Ivy is a seasoned veteran who we can assume to have a BFA in theatre. Ivy has spent 10 years in the chorus of various musicals. 

When pilot season came around, Megan got a script about a television show about a Broadway musical. "I thought it was too good to be true," she says. But she almost didn't try out. In the description for the character of Ivy Lynn, it mentioned dance skills. Megan has notoriously botched many dance auditions. (At one, she just waved repeated an arm motions because she couldn't remember the rest) Her agent told her to just try it, and THANK GOODNESS she did! 

I can't even imagine the overwhelming emotions that Megan felt when she go the part. I can't even begin to describe how it felt, so I'll leave that to Megan; "I literally cried all night. I called my parents, I was sobbing uncontrollably and they thought something was wrong, and I said, 

'No it's a good thing, I'm just really emotional!'"

Megan's character is very complex, and very relatable. Ivy Lynn is definitely my favorite. She sleeps with the Derek, but it's not a one night stand sort of thing. She also gets her hands on some dangerous drugs when her voice becomes overworked and stressed, but she begins to abuse them. Ivy's mother could be one of the roots of her problems. Her mother, Lee Conroy (Bernadatte Peters) is a Broadway star and Ivy can't seem to get out of her shadow. Her mother can't seem to find a single encouraging thing to say to Ivy and I get the sense that Ivy was raised by nannies. When her character is called manipulative and conniving, this is Megan's response, " I can't judge the character like that. I can't think that she's manipulative or conniving. I have to look at it a different way, because i have to love her. In my mind I had to kind of rationalize [Ivy's] behavior as something along the lines of her being a victim of circumstance. She's backed into a corner because of these certain things and that's why she's behaving this way."

Comment Prompter: What is your favorite thing about Megan's "deeply flawed" character Ivy Lynn?

*Direct quotes came from PR and Cambio

 

Broadway Barbie: 9 to 5

"What would Dolly do?" When spending nearly two years remaking the movie character made famous by none other than Dolly Parton, Megan found herself thinking of the country sensation when making decisions. 

9 to 5

         After dropping into the starring role of a Broadway show made a hit by previous women, Megan ventured into the more exciting-and sometimes excruciatingly long- Broadway process. When Megan was in Toronto on tour with Wicked, her then-boyfriend asked her why she wasn't auditioning for the role of Doralee. The following day, the director, Joe Mantello, called asking if she would be a part of the first readings. That was two and a half years before the show hit Broadway. To add to the pressure of playing the oh-so iconic role, Dolly Parton was there throughout the entire process."It was extremely daunting in the beginning when I just got a phone call to be at one of the first readings...then I realized that Dolly was going to be in the room and I would have to do her role in front of her." But, Megan has been heard many times talking about how kind and generous Dolly was. 
        Dolly wrote all of score herself, and she had a very unique way of teaching the music. Typically, the cast is grouped around a piano and sight reads the music that is handed out in the form of a score. But Dolly sat down with her cast and sang with them. So, Dolly would sing a phrase, then Megan would sing it back to her. They would repeat this until Dolly felt that Megan had retained the song. Different, but to me that sounds better. On Dolly's work ethic, Megan says, "She was so supportive of just letting me do my thing and never telling me I was doing anything wrong. She was just like, 'Oh Honey, you're doin' fiiiiine.'"       

"She was just like, 'Oh Honey, you're doin' 

fiiiiine."

      

          All shows go through workshops and revisions, but Megan had never been a part of the traditional Broadway process before."There is something about being a part of the process from day one that you feel like the show is your child because you were there for its conception. You've put your handprint on a show." The famous song "Backwoods Barbie" was almost left out due to its extreme parallels to Dolly herself, but in the end it was decided that Doralee was a role written about Dolly, so the similarity wouldn't be a bad thing for Megan. 
         And of course, in playing the role originated by the curvy Dolly Parton, we knew the costuming would have to be fun! I mean, the D-cups, the hair, the tiny waist! But Megan said that the nails helped her get into character the best. "People think that's weird because the audience can't see them, but you act differently with those long nail on. You use your hands in a totally different way," says Megan. She even got to wear a waist cincher that made her waist 4 inches smaller, "As soon as I put it on I hold myself differently and breathe differently."
        Megan absolutely kills it on the 9 to 5 soundtrack. My dad actually thought Megan's "Backwoods Barbie" was Dolly Parton! Is there any role that Megan can't play?

Comment Prompter: If you could work with any celebrity on a Broadway show, who would it be?

*The direct quotes for this post came from interviews with GuestOfAGuest and NewYorkPost

She's Gonna Be Popular!

She's gonna be POPULAR! She sang the famous song every night, and she was indeed becoming what she sang about. The start of Megan's rise to fame came before she'd even graduated college!

Wicked

       After her Carnegie Mellon Showcase, Megan got a packet with the information for an audition. Someone had shown an interest in her to play a key role in Little Shop of Horrors.But the man playing opposite her was at an age that didn't fit with her age.She was devastated. Her agent told her there were some openings for a new show starring Kristin Chenowith and Idina Mendzel. Megan was asked to see the show the night before the audition. In an interview, Megan said that after watching the show, she was stunned and sudenly no longer wanted to audition. She said in an interview,"I thought I had absolutely no chance to get the job, and that liberated me, so I just concentrated on having fun." Shortly after on the same day as her audition, her agent called and according to Hilty said, "I don't know what you did, but they want you in the show." Shocked, she was ready to get started.

"A couple of hours later, my agent called me and said 'I don't know what you did, but they want you in the show.'"

      Megan trained and rehearsed in a room with only a few backup dancers and ensemble members. After having played the role of standby for a few performances, she was struggling with staying true to Kristin. According to Megan in an interview, an assistant stage manager told her that she needed to stop trying to clone the performances of Kristin and Jennifer. She was asked not watch the show again and just make the role her own. "Because of that I had to sit down with the script again, and I was like, 'Okay, I can't be as funny, charming as these two ladies, especially in these places, but maybe if I can make it funny here, if I can bring something else to it in a different spot.' I really had to go back and treat it like any other script." She didn't step into the bubble in the full Galinda-style ballgown dress until her first night on stage starring as Glinda opposite the crazy-famous Idina Mendzel. Although she says everyone was supportive, I'm sure her stomach must have been doing somersaults! Many people who saw her in those early days as standby were blown away by her strong, well thought out performance (I mean she winked with the music in the opening number!) and were shocked to learn that she didn't play the role nightly.  

       After some time, she replaced Jennifer Thompson and continued with Idina Mendezel playing Elphaba. Later, Shoshana Bean became her Elphaba. Megan and Shoshana became very close and started their own webseries called the Meg an' Sho Show. They put on a concert  that they called The Wicked Swap where they sang the songs of each other's character. Although it was originally performed live, it became a YouTube hit among fans. Shoshana retired her role and was replaced by Eden Espinosa. Eden is known to be one of the few Broadway babes to have never attended college for theater.

        Wicked was Megan's start to fame. She became known for the role and on YouTube, and many comments indicate that "Thank Goodness" is considered by Wicked fans to be 'Megan's song.' Glinda was a perfect role for her to play fresh out of college. It lead to many other projects that eventually led to her small screen debut. It's safe to say that she has  definitely become POPULAR!

Comment Prompter: Who is your favorite Glinda/ Elphaba combination?

*The direct quotations came from AOLMusicBlog and MeganHiltyOnline

Welcome: A Little Girl from Bellevue

She's just a little girl from...Bellevue. Maybe you're a hardcore Megan fan from the Wicked days, maybe you're a new fan blown away by her performance as Ivy Lynn on Smash, or maybe you're just looking for an interesting read. Whether a diehard Hilty fan or someone looking for an neat story, you've come to the right place. 

The Early Years

At a very young age, Megan became obsessed with singing. Her mother had read an article that if a tone-deaf parent sang to their child, then their child would become tone-deaf. So Megan's mother refused to utter a note in the presence of her young daughter. But she would  play the music of Whitney Houston. Growing up in a non-musical family, Megan grew fascinated with the world of music and at the age of twelve, she began taking voice lessons. Going in, Megan thought she could sing the powerhouse pop she often listened to, but her teacher opened the door to the world of opera singing. Megan's dream shifted to becoming a professional opera singer, she even attended opera camp. But after learning of the short-lived career of an operatic vocalist, Megan focused on musical theatre. Her favorite Broadway shows include Sweeney Todd and Into The Woods, whose albums showcased the emotional vocals of Bernadatte Peters. She graduated high school early at the age of 17 and moved to Oregon to "see if it was possible to make a living on acting." After a show, Megan was at a laundry mat, where her life was changed. A man who had seen her in the perform that night told her to get to Pennsylvania as soon as possible and audition for the prestigious musical theatre program at Carnegie Mellon. She took the leap of faith and never turned back. Citing her only reason for getting through the dance portion of the audition as confidence, Megan to this day calls herself a "stage-mover" NOT a "dancer". In one open dance call, she only remembered the part of the dance that was an waving arm movement, so she did that for the entire duration of the dance combination. 

Comment Prompter: When did you first hear about Megan?

My Mission:

My goal for this blog is to celebrate Megan Hilty and connect her fans. For the first few posts, I will do recaps of different projects and parts of her life. After that, I will write reviews of each Smash episode starting February 5th. In addition, I will keep you up to date on upcoming Megan events. Thank you for reading! Hope you enjoy! 
~Bailey

***Just for the record, the other posts are better than this one!!!!!!