Theatre fans, the time is upon us. After years of development news, it's finally official: TV's Smash is coming to Broadway, in the 2024-2025 season. Five-time Tony winner Susan Stroman will direct, with Joshua Bergasse continuing his work from the NBC series as choreographer. The new musical will feature a score by Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman, and a book by Rick Elice (Jersey Boys, Peter and the Starcatcher) and Bob Martin (The Drowsy Chaperone).
As reported last year, the theatre-centric series' long journey to the stage has shifted from a fully realized production of the series' fictional Marilyn Monroe bio-musical Bombshell (which did play a one-night-only benefit concert for the then-Actors Fund in 2015) to a musical adaptation of the series itself, with many of the series' songs joining new tunes by Shaiman and Wittman. It's unclear if "Let's Be Bad," written for Smash but now interpolated into the Broadway score of Shaiman and Wittman's Some Like It Hot, will be included—though the duo left room for that possibility speaking to us about it last year.
The show, which aired on NBC for two seasons beginning in 2012, followed writers Julia and Tom, loosely modeled on Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty, creating a fictitious musical about screen icon Marilyn Monroe, with the first-season following the fight for the lead between newcomer Karen Cartwright and seasoned chorus girl Ivy Lynn. The stage musical will follow the process of mounting Bombshell, but will otherwise "depart liberally from the series" according to press notes.
Smash is being produced by Robert Greenblatt, Neil Meron, and Steven Spielberg, all of whom worked on the Theresa Rebeck-created series, as well.
"Smash is near and dear to my heart, and it was always my hope that a musical inspired by the show would eventually come to the stage," says Spielberg in a statement. "We now have an incredible creative team, and I’m looking forward to completing the Smash journey which began with my producing partners over 10 years ago."
Adds Meron: "Ever since the show ended in 2012, not a week goes by that someone doesn’t ask us when will they see Smash as a musical. We think we’ve come up with something the die-hard series fans will love but that will also be exciting for people who never saw an episode of the show. And above all else it will be a valentine to the Broadway musical and the exhilarating rollercoaster ride of bringing one to life."
No news yet on casting, though the TV series featured a veritable smorgasbord of stage favorites, including Megan Hilty, Brian d'Arcy James, Jeremy Jordan, Leslie Odom, Jr., Christian Borle, Debra Messing, Savannah Wise, Ann Harada, Krysta Rodriguez, Jack Davenport, Wesley Taylor, Jenny Laroche, Keith Kühl, Raza Jaffrey, and Katharine McPhee.
Visit SmashBroadway.com.