Smash: Will It Be Your (Broadway) Star?

Smash lives!

You might remember the short-lived NBC show from over a decade ago that was about the creation of a Broadway show. I recapped every episode on this blog, if you want to read them.

After it ended its run on TV, there was talk of turning the fictional Marilyn Monroe musical the characters worked on (Bombshell) into a real life musical. There even was a benefit concert version featuring many actors from the show, including Megan Hilty (Ivy) and Katharine McPhee (Karen).

Then the pandemic hit and a lot of projects had to wait.

Well, it seems that while they were waiting, it was decided that instead of mounting Bombshell, they would turn Smash itself into a musical and mount that instead.

Things progressed when they had a workshop for it, though not many details were leaked about it. What was released about it showed that many of the names were changed except for Karen and Ivy, which makes me think the central conflict of the musical will still be who will be the star of the musical. I think this conflict will be better for an approximately two hour musical rather than even a short season of a TV show, allowing them to tighten the plot rather than drag it out.

After the Tony Awards wrapped up the 2023-2024 season, all eyes turned to the 2024-2025 season. A video was put announcing that Smash would bow sometime during the season. It promised fans of the show that it would be everything they wanted but assured people who didn’t see the show or like it, that they changed everything.

Intriguing.

Recently, the producers have announced that the show will begin previews on March 11, 2025 at the Imperial Theater and will open about a month later on April 10th. It will likely be part of a rush of shows opening at the end of the current season in a bid for a Tony nomination.

We still don’t have much of a synopsis except that it’s based on the TV show and is about the creation of a musical. But we do have a cast list! Robin Hurder will be Ivy and Caroline Bowman as Karen. Since none of the other character names come from the TV show, I’ll just list some of the remaining main cast: Brooks Ashmanskas, John Behlmann, Kristine Nielsen, Jacqueline B. Arnold, Bella Coppola, Casey Garvin, and Krysta Rodriguez.

Krysta appears higher in the cast lists printed in the articles about the production but I put her last for a reason. Namely, the fact that she is the only cast member who was also in the show! She starred as Ana Vargas in Season 2 of Smash, Karen’s new roommate who also wanted to star on Broadway as well. Will her character on Broadway be similar or will it be entirely new?

(I’m leaning toward entirely new).

How will Smash fare on Broadway? Honestly, I’m not sure. It doesn’t have as big name recognition as it might’ve had a decade ago. But there are many who still remember Smash somewhat fondly who will want to see it on the Great White Way. I think it might get some Tony nominations but I’m not sure if it will win, not with the story still so vague and not hearing the music yet. I’m not sure how many songs they will recycle since most were written for the fictional musical. Will all the singing pertain to the still fictional musical? Or will there be new songs featured in the main plot as well?

There are just too many questions that need to be answered before I can begin to speculate on that.

Will I go see it? Very likely. After all, it opens shortly after my birthday. I probably won’t go see it right away but close to it. I’ll just have to see how it goes.

What about you? Are you excited to see Smash on Broadway? How do you think they are going to change it from the show? Which songs do you hope will transfer from TV to the stage? Let me know in the comments!