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The only thing more exciting than a Smash Broadway musical is a Smash Broadway musical helmed by Steven Spielberg—which is exactly what New Yorkers will be getting during the 2024-2025 theater season.
Helmed by five-time Tony award-winning director Susan Stroman (The Producers), the new production will be scored by Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman, who actually wrote over two dozen songs for the NBC TV series that the musical will be based on. A lot of those tunes, including the beloved “Let Me Be Your Star,” will be used in the theater production as well, alongside new material.
The television show's Emmy-winning choreographer, Joshua Bergasse, will also be reprising his role for the stage adaptation.
“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,” Spielberg, whose own idea was to develop the NBC series back in 2012, said in an official statement about the news. “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.”
The small screen iteration of Smash, critically acclaimed albeit enjoying a very niche audience mostly comprised of New Yorkers and theater aficionados, ran on NBC for two seasons but has been part and parcel of the city's cultural conversations for the past decade.
Back in 2015, for example, the cast—which was led by Debra Messing, Katharine McPhee, Megan Hilty and Anjelica Houston, among other live theater big weights—performed a benefit concert at the Minskoff Theatre and tickets for it sold out in a mere 15 minutes. We suspect the Broadway production will draw just as much attention once it premieres.
Plot-wise, just like on NBC's Smash, "the story will follow the harrowing and hilarious process of mounting Bombshell, the musical about the life of Marilyn Monroe," reads an official press release. However, expect the stage version of the production to "depart liberally from the series."
No word yet on who will join the new cast, but we sure hope to see some familiar faces at the theater.