Fade in on a lady with a starvation for fame and… a Broadway present to her title. Smash, the beloved (and lovingly derided) NBC musical collection that adopted rival actresses on their quest to star as Marilyn Monroe in an enormous Broadway musical, shall be making its strategy to Broadway subsequent 12 months.
Lead producers Robert Greenblatt, Neil Meron and Steven Spielberg introduced on Wednesday that Smash is about to make its Broadway bow through the 2024-2025 season. The musical comedy shall be directed by five-time Tony winner Susan Stroman, choreographed by Emmy-winner Joshua Bergasse, and have music and lyrics from March Shaiman and Scott Wittman, and a ebook by Rick Elice & Bob Martin.
Spielberg, who got here up with the thought for the NBC collection and helped produced by way of Dreamworks Tv, stated “Smash is close to and pricey to my coronary heart, and it was all the time my hope {that a} musical impressed by the present would ultimately come to the stage. We now have an unimaginable artistic staff, and I’m wanting ahead to finishing the Smash journey which started with my producing companions over ten years in the past.”
The NBC collection started with a bang, kicking off with a much-admired first episode that launched us to warring actresses Karen, performed by American Idol runner-up Katharine Foster (then McPhee), and Ivy, performed by Broadway it woman Megan Hilty. The ensemble was rounded out by Broadway veterans like Christian Borle, Will Chase, and Leslie Odom Jr., TV royalty like Debra Messing, and Oscar winner Anjelica Huston. However whereas the present’s pilot, which premiered after the Tremendous Bowl in February 2021, was successful, the collection had a tough time residing as much as the hype—and ended after simply two seasons. Regardless of its comparatively brief shelf life, NBC’s Smash has had a surprisingly lengthy tail and outsized influence on tradition. Songs from the present have popped up on different tv exhibits, like HBO’s Women, and its quantity have been carried out at a number of sold-out concert events.
Nonetheless, the thoughts reels on the implication of Smash’s imminent Broadway bow, which takes meta-theatrics to a complete new stage. Will #TeamIvy vs. #Group Karen discourse proliferate the theater neighborhood as soon as once more? What are the producers doing about the truth that the tune “Let’s Be Unhealthy”—written for Smash—at the moment seems in a distinct Marilyn Monroe-centric Broadway musical, Some Like It Sizzling? Will a stage adaptation of Bombshell, the rival Marilyn Monroe musical within the collection, pop up at some buzzy Off-Broadway theater, like BAM? What is the scarf finances? In any case, it is formally time to get again off ebook on each the soprano and alto harmonies of “Let Me Be Your Star.”
