AmericanTheaterWeb Original News & Reviews

UPDATED 9/16/08

Talkin' Broadway

The Siegel Column
Off-Broadway Heats Up with Two Exceptional Plays: Lady and What's That Smell: The Music of Jacob Sterling.

UPDATED 9/15/08

Bloomberg.com

Bloomberg.com

Witty, Tasteless `Sterling' Salutes Broadway's Talent-Free: Jeremy Gerard
If Broadway composer-lyricist Jacob Sterling were real, he'd be well represented on the walls of Joe Allen's Theater District bistro in New York, which are famously lined with posters from flop musicals.

nytheatre.com

Review: What's That Smell?

ny1

Time Out Theater Review: "What's That Smell: The Music Of Jacob Sterling"

AmericanTheaterWeb

What's That Smell? - Making Merry With Musical Pretensions

New York Times

Let ’Em Scoff, Baby; You Keep Singing
For connoisseurs of atrocious musical theater — and/or whip-smart satire — the fictional Jacob Sterling is a godsend to be eternally grateful for.
* Title Song from 'What's That Smell?' (mp3)

New York Sun

The Aroma of Near Success: 'What's That Smell'
Maybe it's all those decades of being condescended to as the "Fabulous Invalid," but the New York theater world has long had a soft spot for the runts of the litter, particularly those that can (sort of) carry a tune. Two long-running series of staged…

nypress

Pittu, Brute?
‘The Music of Jacob Sterling’ is so bad, it’s good.

Star-Ledger

Dry B'way comedy just a 'one-note trifle'
A little show-biz satire of dubious mirth and worth, "What's That Smell: The Music of Jacob Sterling" is the fictional saga of a would-be Broadway songwriter.

Associated Press

A satiric 'Smell' celebrates musical theater

Variety

Review: What's That Smell: The Music of Jacob Sterling
A bull's-eye parody of third-rate Broadway-style musical theater as practiced by an untalented fictitious composer impervious to the repeated sting of failure, this affectionate homage to bad art and its purveyors is very funny stuff.

Back Stage

What's That Smell: The Music of Jacob Sterling reviewed by Adam R. Perlman
So much of musical theatre is now self-parody that it seems bad form to further satirize it.

TheaterMania

Review: What's That Smell? The Music of Jacob Sterling
David Pittu gives a delicious performance as an undertalented theater composer in this modestly amusing if ultimately too-thin one-act.

Talkin' Broadway

Review: What's That Smell?
It's every musical lover's dream: Whenever some smarmy know-it-all starts babbling about the death of the musical theatre, he's drowned out by piercing klaxons and forced to ooze back into his well-deserved obscurity. It's a bit over the top, as those kinds of prognostications are usually premature. But isn't it wonderful that someone cares enough to shut them off as soon as they start? . . .

CurtainUp

Review: What's That Smell?