The infamous NBC drama is reborn as a riotous musical

Don’t worry, Smash fans — there are scarves. And a very annoying personal assistant. A leading lady does, in fact, get poisoned. And yes, a variety of Marilyn Monroes belt out the series’ signature power ballad, “Let Me Be Your Star.”

Smash, the Broadway musical based on NBC’s short-lived drama, features plenty of Easter eggs for those of us who loved (or hate-watched) all 32 episodes of that infamously ludicrous show. But the theatrical production — written by Bob Martin and Rick Elice and featuring Marc Shaiman’s and Scott Wittman’s music from the TV series — goes beyond winky homage. With its transition to the stage, Smash finally realizes its full potential as a hilarious, pointed satire that both skewers and celebrates the Great White Way. 

While it’s easy to enjoy Smash without ever having seen the TV show, the preview audience at New York’s Imperial Theater was packed with fans of the NBC series. A cheer erupted when the curtain rose and the glittery sign — featuring the familiar title Bombshell: The Marilyn Monroe Story — appeared over the stage. Smash opens with a full production number from that Broadway-show-within-a-Broadway-show, as Ivy Lynn (Robyn Hurder, taking over from Megan Hilty on the TV series), resplendent as Marilyn in her familiar white silk dress, croons the lyrics fans know so well: “Fade in on a girl/ With a hunger for fame…”

As soon as Ivy’s done bringing the house down with “Let Me Be Your Star,” the setting transitions to a rehearsal studio, where she and the Bombshell team — director/choreographer Nigel (Brooks Ashmanskas), associate director Chloe (Bella Coppola), lyricist Tracy (Krysta Rodriguez), and Tracy’s composer husband, Jerry (John Behlmann) — are putting the final touches on the opener. Though their first previews are just a month away, the creatives can’t stop tweaking.

Nigel and his hard-charging lead producer, Anita Kuperman (Jacqueline B. Arnold) want Bombshell to avoid “the weepy Marilyn Monroe bio thing,” while Tracy worries that the show’s light, comedic tone is off. “Is ‘feel-good’ right for Marilyn Monroe?” she frets. When the writers introduce Ivy to the work of acting coach Susan Proctor (Kristine Nielsen) — a thinly veiled take on Monroe’s real-life Method mentor, Paula Strasberg — it sets off a chain reaction that threatens to destroy Bombshell before it reaches opening night.

Smash’s first act is front-loaded with musical numbers, as Ivy and her understudy, Karen (Caroline Bowman, now playing Katharine McPhee’s TV part), run through a series of songs fans will recognize from the TV series, including “National Pastime,” “Second Hand White Baby Grand,” and “The 20th Century Fox Mambo.” Unlike in the NBC series, though, Ivy and Karen aren’t competing for the role of Marilyn; here, Ivy Lynn is already an established Broadway star, and Karen is her good friend and frequent understudy. The question of who’s going to land the starring role does surface later in an unexpected way, but it doesn’t drive the story.

Absent this conflict, Smash plays more like a revue until two-thirds of the way through the first act, when Ivy’s transformation into the famously difficult Marilyn becomes a bit too successful. From that point on, Smash earns its tagline — “a comedy about a musical” — as Nigel and the panicked Bombshell team scramble to keep the backstage drama behind the curtain and away from the Broadway influencers, including a Swedish YouTuber named Kewpiedoll (Jeff Hiller), who are tracking the show’s development. “You invited a hundred and twelve vindictive youths to my dress rehearsal?” Nigel bellows at Scott (Nicholas Matos), Anita’s comically clueless assistant.

Ashmanskas is riotously funny as Nigel, and the two-time Tony nominee adds a wonderful physicality to his portrayal of the frantic director. Rodriguez, the only member of the ensemble who appeared on NBC’s Smash (she played Karen’s roommate Ana in season 2), brings a dry wit — and a series of statement scarves — to Tracy.

Bowman’s powerful vocals and endearing sweetness bolster the somewhat underwritten role of Karen, while Hurder and her show-stopping pipes make Ivy a divalicious delight. Beowolf Boritt and S. Katy Tucker’s sleek stage design blends practical sets with large-scale projections, allowing the action to move seamlessly between Bombshell’s big production numbers and the rehearsal studio.

If the second act — a collection of other notable numbers from the series’ oeuvre, including Bowman’s visceral rendition of “They Just Keep Moving the Line” — feels rushed and a little disjointed, it doesn’t dampen the show’s buoyant energy. Smash exists to sing the praises of the many, many talented people on and off the stage that it takes to bring a blockbuster musical to life. As much as I loved that mess on NBC, it’s clear Smash belonged on Broadway all along. Grade: A-