TV

Smash: Is Uma Thurman Really the Best Marilyn Monroe?

With heavy competition from Megan Hilty and Katharine McPhee, does guest star Uma Thurman really offer audiences a satisfying Marilyn Monroe?

By Jen Harper /

Uma Thurman taking the stage on Smash’s musical Bombshell

Smash rivalries thicken with the inclusion of guest star Uma Thurman

Monday’s (April 16) episode of Smash on NBC brought more of the same: Ellis (Jaime Cepero) does something loathe-worthy, Ivy’s (Megan Hilty) feeling conspiratorial, Dev (Raza Jaffrey) and Karen (Katharine McPhee) are having problems and so is the Marilyn Monroe musical Bombshell. But is the solution to the latter really Rebecca Duvall (Uma Thurman)?

After Rebecca’s terrible performance of Let Me Be Your Star, the answer to that question is most certainly no — particularly knowing that she’s only around for three more episodes (although that’s all that’s left of the first season as well). Amidst everything else, Rebecca supposedly redeems herself in the end with the reworked Dig Deep, but was it really enough to upstage Karen and Ivy’s previous performances as Marilyn?

“Now we’re getting somewhere,” Derek (Jack Davenport) says following the performance, but is that “somewhere” really a place viewers and potential Bombshell ticket-buyers want to be?