”Smash” stage musical, directed by Susan Stroman, announces Broadway plans

Smash, a new musical inspired by the cult-favorite NBC drama series created by Theresa Rebeck, is heading to Broadway in the 2024 to 2025 season, producers Robert Greenblatt, Neil Meron, and Steven Spielberg have announced.

As previously reported, Smash will have a score by Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman, who penned the musical numbers for the television show, with a book by Rick Elice and Bob Martin. Susan Stroman will direct the production, with Joshua Bergasse repeating his duties as choreographer from the series.

This stage production will “depart liberally” from the TV version, though it will still follow the process of mounting a Marilyn Monroe biomusical titled Bombshell. Many of the songs Shaiman and Wittman wrote for the screen, including the anthemic “Let Me Be Your Star,” will be used alongside new material. “Let’s Be Bad,” which was also featured on the Smash television show, is currently on stage in Shaiman and Wittman’s Some Like It Hot at the Shubert Theatre.

Further details will be announced in the future. A reading took place in the spring of 2022 with a cast reportedly led by Megan Hilty, Beth Leavel, and Brooks Ashmanskas.

Smash aired on NBC in 2012 and 2013 and told the story of a group of creatives putting together a Broadway musical about Marilyn Monroe. The second season, which was run by Joshua Safran, followed the show’s journey to the Tony Awards, while also focusing on its competition.

Spielberg, whose original idea led to the NBC series, commented: “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. We now have an incredible creative team, and I’m looking forward to completing the Smash journey which began with my producing partners over ten years ago.”

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