‘Smash’ Forged: The place Are They Now?

Allow them to be your stars! Smash solely lasted for 2 seasons, however that was sufficient time for it to develop a cult following — and a real-life Broadway musical.

The musical drama premiered on NBC in February 2012 and adopted a bunch of producers creating a Broadway present titled Bombshell, based mostly on the lifetime of Marilyn Monroe. Debra Messing performed Julia Houston, the cowriter of the fictional musical, whereas real-life Broadway star Christian Borle appeared as composer Tom Levitt.

Because the musical got here collectively, producers battled over who would play the function of Monroe: Ivy Lynn (Megan Hilty), a seasoned theater veteran, or Karen Cartwright (Katharine McPhee), an inexperienced upstart from Iowa who nails her audition.

Smash was critically acclaimed when it premiered, however critiques — and scores — went downhill because the present progressed. Whereas NBC canceled the sequence in Could 2013 after simply 32 episodes, the Smash fan base remained energetic on-line and the present turned a cult favourite. References to the late sequence additionally popped up on different TV reveals, as throughout a 2017 episode of Ladies the place Elijah (Andrew Rannells) auditioned for a musical along with his rendition of “Let Me Be Your Star,” arguably Smash‘s most well-known tune.

“Coming from that Broadway world, I do know all of these people who find themselves on that TV present,” the Ladies 5Eva star defined throughout a March 2017 interview with Jimmy Fallon. “I knew all these of us, and it was a present that everyone watched.” Rannells added that legendary Broadway composer Marc Shaiman, who cowrote the tune, gave him his first job within the musical Hairspray.

In 2015, the Smash solid reunited for a one-night-only, sold-out efficiency known as Bombshell in Live performance. They reprised the occasion once more in 2020 for a digital live performance benefiting The Actors Fund, a charity group that helps performing arts employees in want.

Hypothesis a few full Broadway adaptation of Smash have circulated for years, and in Could 2022, Shaiman claimed that the mission continues to be “alive and kicking” after many delays. “We have now no concrete plans but,” the Tony Award winner wrote by way of Instagram on the time. “This was simply the primary studying, however I feel I can safely say that, except the world ends quickly, you actually will get to see Smash on Broadway prior to later!”

Preserve scrolling to see what the solid of Smash has been doing because the present resulted in 2013.