Forget about tech — the gestation period of Smash‘s musical-theater adaptation is the real hell. But the morning after a charity live stream with the show’s cast, there’s new hope for those wanting to see Ivy and Karen on the Great White Way.
The project, first announced in 2015, is officially heading to Broadway, TVLine has learned. Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman, who wrote much of the series’ music, will pen the score. Bob Martin (The Prom) and Rick Elice (Jersey Boys) will co-write the book. And Joshua Bergasse, who won an Emmy for his work choreographing the NBC series, will return to choreograph the musical.
The stage show will include much of the music that Wittman and Shaiman wrote for Smash, and it will chronicle the lives of characters like Ivy (played by Megan Hilty in the series), Karen (played by Katharine McPhee in the series), Julia (played by Debra Messing in the series) and Tom (played by Christian Borle in the series) as they work to mount Bombshell, the Marilyn Monroe biographical musical-within-the-musical. However, we hear the stage musical will “depart liberally” from the TV series.
Steven Spielberg and Neil Meron, who were executive producers on the NBC series, and former Peacock net boss Robert Greenblatt will serve as lead producers on the show.
“I am personally thrilled to be a part of this musical and its road to Broadway,” Spielberg said in a statement. “Smash is near and dear to my heart, and it seems fitting that a new musical inspired by what we did on the show would eventually come to the stage. I’m beyond thrilled to be working with this incredible creative team and my producing partners, who began the Smash journey with me over 10 years ago.”
Meron added, “Speaking for myself and Bob Greenblatt, our partner when he was running NBC, we’re thrilled Steven wanted to embark on this musical with us. We’ve all felt that Shaiman and Wittman’s incredible score for Smash belonged on Broadway. Collaborating with first-class bookwriters Rick Elice and Bob Martin, and the world’s best choreographer Josh Bergasse, will be the icing on the cake.”
At the moment, there is no timeline for when Smash: A New Musical will debut on Broadway. But you can bide your time by watching the cast’s one-night-only concert from June 2015 and a virtual reunion (from 2020), both of which were livestreamed Wednesday evening as a benefit for The Actors Fund.
Are you excited about the latest Smash development? Hit the comments and let us know!
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