Wicked and Saturday Night Live star Bowen Yang unofficially kicked off the celebration of the new musical SMASH on Broadway by reciting “Fade in on a girl with a hunger for fame” during the “I Am an Actor” tribute at the SAG Awards last month.
The lyrics were from the song “Let Me Be Your Star” by Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman. The song was originally written for the TV show SMASH, which aired on NBC for two seasons, in 2012 and 2013, by executive producer Steven Spielberg. The premise of the show focused on Ivy Lynn, a longtime chorus girl competing against Karen Cartwright, a singer from Iowa with no professional credits to her résumé, for the role of Marilyn Monroe in a new stage musical about the icon’s life.
In the Broadway adaptation, which began previews March 11 at the Imperial Theatre, Robyn Hurder (who auditioned for the TV show) stars as Ivy and Caroline Bowman as Karen. Directed by Susan Stroman with a book cowritten by Rick Elice and Bob Martin, the stage production is loosely based on the TV show, with the same songs and choreography. Though, 13 years later, the plot has veered, focusing more on the comedic backstage antics of putting on a musical about Marilyn Monroe than pitting two actresses against each other.
Here’s everything you need to know about SMASH, the TV show, before settling into your seat for SMASH, the Broadway musical — including all the Broadway stars who appeared throughout the TV show’s season run and who, coincidentally, happen to be on Broadway at the same time.
Team Karen or Team Ivy?
It’s the question people have been asking longer than “Is the dress white and gold or blue and black?”
The main premise of the series focused on the back-and-forth competition between Ivy and Karen and who was going to play Marilyn Monroe in Bombshell, a new musical about her life written by the fictional songwriting duo Tom Levitt (Christian Borle) and Julia Houston (Debra Messing). Megan Hilty, currently starring on Broadway in Death Becomes Her, played Ivy, the chorus girl clamoring her way to star as Marilyn Monroe in the workshop. Ivy’s perfect for the role, everybody knows it, and she is good friends with Tom. She’s also in a romantic relationship with the musical’s tough-as-nails and inappropriate director, Derek Wells (Jack Davenport). American Idol star Katharine McPhee played Karen Cartwright, a newbie in the industry who looks nothing like Marilyn who auditions for the role. She initially doesn’t get the part but is offered a spot in the ensemble, posing a threat to Ivy.
Fun fact: Annaleigh Ashford also auditions in a short cameo for the pilot episode, in which she sings the Betty Boop song “I Wanna be Loved By You.” BOOP! The Musical is on Broadway this spring.
A Name to Remember
An ensemble of stars fills out the cast of Bombshell. Will Chase plays Michael Swift, who is cast as a sexy Joe DiMaggio — and, yes, there’s a great baseball number called “The National Pastime.” The incredibly high-energy dance numbers were choreographed by Joshua Bergasse (who won an Emmy Award for it) and returns to choreograph those same big hits for Broadway. A married Michael rekindles a past affair with Julia, who is married to Frank (Brian D’Arcy James).
Before he won a Tony Award for Hamilton, Leslie Odom Jr. played Sam, a chorus dancer. Wesley Taylor (SpongeBob SquarePants) is also in the ensemble.
Ann Harada plays the musical’s stage manager, Linda, and Jaime Cepero plays Derek’s pesky and nosy assistant, Ellis, who fans loved to hate.
The Workshop
Bombshell’s lead producer, Eileen Rand (Angelica Houston), is strapped for cash, as she’s in the middle of a messy divorce with her producer husband (Michael Cristofer). She spends the first season trying to raise money from investors and even asks former child star Lyle West (Nick Jonas, also on Broadway this season in The Last Five Years) to be a potential investor. She sells an Edgar Degas painting to pay for the workshop.
Ivy’s mom, Broadway legend Leigh Conroy (Bernadette Peters, on Broadway this spring in Sondheim’s Old Friends), also attends the workshop. She manages to steal the spotlight from Ivy on the heels of her big performance when the cast asks her to sing “Everything’s Coming Up Roses” from Gypsy. (In season two, she joins the cast of Bombshell as Marilyn’s mother.)
Let’s Be Bad
After the workshop, Michael is fired and Ivy develops a bit of a drug problem. She takes a break from the show to recover. The creative team wants a star in the lead role and hires Rebecca Duvall (Uma Thurman) as Marilyn. But, as it turns out, she’s terrible.
Bombshell heads out of town for a tryout in Boston, but the move doesn’t come without drama. Rebecca gets food poisoning from Ellis with a peanut smoothie. So Karen takes over the role. Oh, and Ivy has an affair with Karen’s fiancé.
Act II
When the curtain rises on season two, Bombshell is halted due to legal troubles and needing some script rewrites before it can open on Broadway.
Ivy, fired from Bombshell because Karen’s in charge now, books a starring role in Liaisons, a musical adaptation of Les Liaisons Dangereuses, opposite the unpleasant actor Terry Falls, played by Sean Hayes.
A slew of new Broadway stars joins the TV show. There’s also a new musical added to the mix that causes more challenges for Bombshell.
Hit List
Karen meets Jimmy (Jeremy Jordan, in Floyd Collins on Broadway this spring) and his friend Kyle, a playwright (Andy Mientus, who is starring Off-Broadway in The Jonathan Larson Project), at a bar. She hears Jimmy singing “Broadway, Here I Come” at the piano (written by Joe Iconis in 2011) and convinces director Derek to direct their scrappy musical, Hit List, which has similar parallels to Jonathan Larson and Rent. Newcomers Benj Pasek and Justin Paul were handpicked by Shaiman and Wittman to pen the songs for Hit List. Joe Iconis and Drew Gasparini also wrote a handful.
Karen stars in Hit List alongside Jimmy and her new roommate, Ana Vargas, played by Krysta Rodriguez. Later in the season, her role of “The Diva” is replaced by Daisy Parker (Mara Davi) after blackmailing Derek.
Fun fact: Rodriguez is the only main character from the TV show who is in the musical. Rodriquez plays Tracy (renamed from Julia), part of the Bombshell songwriting team. Katie Webber, in the ensemble of SMASH on Broadway, also appeared as a dancer in both seasons of the TV Show.
Keep Moving the Line
Meanwhile, Tom takes over as the director of Bombshell, as Derek tackles Hit List. With Karen at Hit List, Ivy assumes the role of Marilyn Monroe.
Both musicals, Hit List and Bombshell, end up transferring to Broadway and vie against each other for Best Musical at the Tony Awards. Ivy wins Best Actress in a Musical, Kyle wins posthumously for Best Book of a Musical, Tom and Julia win for Best Score, and Bombshell wins Best Musical.
None of the plot from season two, however, is part of the SMASH musical.
Other notable guest stars in season two included Jennifer Hudson as Tony Award winner Veronica Moore, who has joined Broadway’s SMASH as a coproducer. Liza Minnelli cameos as herself in one episode. Seth Rudetsky, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Rosie O’Donnell, Lindsay Mendez, Phillipa Soo, Montego Glover, and Donna McKechnie also appear on the show.
And that’s everything you missed on SMASH!