Smash is an American musical drama television series created by playwright Theresa Rebeck and developed by Robert Greenblatt for NBC.
It features a large ensemble cast, led by Debra Messing, Jack Davenport, Katharine McPhee, Christian Borle, Megan Hilty, and Anjelica Huston.
Julia Houston (Debra Messing) and Tom Levitt (Christian Borle), a Broadway writing team, came up with the idea of a new musical based on Marilyn Monroe's life titled Bombshell.
Producer Eileen Rand (Anjelica Huston), in the midst of divorce proceedings from her philandering husband, jumps on board and brings with her Derek Wills (Jack Davenport), a difficult but brilliant director.
Ivy Lynn (Megan Hilty) is initially cast as Marilyn, but is forced to deal with competition from the talented, yet naive ensemble member Karen Cartwright (Katharine McPhee).
After a somewhat disastrous out-of-town opening in Boston, Rebecca has fallen sick due to a peanut allergy and the actor playing Joe departs the production for a better gig.
Karen discovers Ivy has slept with her fiancé Dev (Raza Jaffrey), while Eileen finds out that her assistant Ellis (Jaime Cepero) was the one who poisoned Rebecca and fires him.
Theresa Rebeck was brought on as showrunner and wrote the pilot script after executive producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron suggested her to Spielberg and Greenblatt.
The series has a large number of executive producers, including Steven Spielberg, Craig Zadan, Neil Meron, David Marshall Grant, Rebeck, Darryl Frank and Justin Falvey.
David Marshall Grant, a playwright and actor who had served in that capacity during Brothers & Sisters' final seasons, was hired as executive producer to help her with it.
[45] Rebeck also decided she would not run a "writers' room," i.e., a regular meeting with the entire writing staff to discuss and perfect episodes and plotlines.
As a result of these distractions, plotlines like Julia's adoption dilemma (mirroring Rebeck's real life) began to assume unusual prominence, and along with them secondary characters like Leo and Ellis became almost main characters—the latter because Spielberg reportedly liked him.
However, many of them said the show's own problems were not entirely Rebeck's fault, since Greenblatt also intervened in things like costume design and Spielberg was not informed of the conflicts until near the end.
[62] A Bombshell cast recording, featuring original songs from the first and second season of the show, was released on February 12, 2013, selling 16,000 copies in its first week.
[63] It contains all 22 songs written for the fictional Bombshell musical and features lead vocals by Katharine McPhee (Karen Cartwright) and Megan Hilty (Ivy Lynn) as Marilyn Monroe.
[68] Mary McNamara of the Los Angeles Times called the show a "triumph" and said creator Theresa Rebeck as well as her team "have managed to capture the grand and sweeping gesture that is musical theater and inject it with the immediate intimacy of television.
"[69] David Wiegand of the San Francisco Chronicle gave the program a rave review: "[It's so] good you can't help wondering why no one thought of it before, a compelling mix of credible real-life melodrama with a fictionalized approximation of what it takes to get a Broadway show from the idea stage to opening night.
"[70] Tim Goodman from The Hollywood Reporter called the pilot episode "Excellent, a bar-raiser for broadcast networks", and superior to Glee.
[72] Robert Bianco of USA Today gave the show three and a half out of four stars and wrote, "Unless you're allergic to musicals in general and Broadway in particular, you should find that a compelling central story, a strong cast, an out-of-the-procedural-mold premise and some rousing, roof-raising numbers more than compensate for any lingering problems.
In fact, that episode-ending performance of 'Let Me Be Your Star' (featuring dueling divas Megan Hilty and Katharine McPhee) was among TV's most watchable and gleeful three minutes of the year.
'"[75] Kevin Fallon summed up the response in The Atlantic, writing that "there's been an almost visceral reaction to how rapidly and sharply the show's quality has dipped, and just how much promise Smash has thwarted...In other words: It's bad."
In June 2011, Smash was one of eight honorees in the "Most Exciting New Series" category at the 1st Critics' Choice Television Awards, voted by journalists who had seen the pilots.
[citation needed] From January 16 through February 6, 2012, the full pilot was offered for free on iTunes, Amazon Video, Xbox, and Zune.
[106] During production of the show, executive producer Craig Zadan said: "We stand on the set, watch the Bombshell numbers and say, "Wouldn't this be great on Broadway?
[110] In May 2020, shortly after a virtual cast reunion during a live-streamed concert, it was announced that a musical based solely on the plot of the series was in the works for a Broadway production.
Spielberg, Greenblatt, and Meron are all attached as producers, with Bob Martin and Rick Elice penning the book to Wittman and Shaiman's score, and Bergasse returning to choreograph.
Among the performers were Hilty, Rodriguez, Brooks Ashmanskas, Beth Leavel, Bonnie Milligan, Daniel Breaker, Kristine Nielsen, Maddie Baillio, and Christian Thompson, with Stephen Oremus as musical director.
[113][114][115] On March 22, 2023, it was announced that Smash would officially open during the 2024–25 Broadway season with five time Tony Award winner Susan Stroman directing and Bergasse choreographing, music and lyrics by Shaiman and Wittman, and a book by Elice and Martin.
[116] On January 4, 2024, it was announced that Smash would have a six-week workshop starting that month, with cast members Ashmanskas, Alex Brightman, Yvette Nicole Brown, Bella Coppola, Nihar Duvvuri, Casey Garvin, Robyn Hurder, Nielsen, Rodriguez, and Jonalyn Saxer.
Announced cast members include Hurder as Ivy, Caroline Bowman as Karen, Ashmanskas as Nigel, Rodriguez as Tracy, John Behlmann as Jerry, Nielsen as Susan, Jacqueline B. Arnold as Anita, Bella Coppola as Chloe, and Casey Garvin as Charlie.