‘Smash’ Arrives on Broadway, Turning a Cult-Favourite TV Series into an Exuberant Love Letter to Theatre
A decade-long journey from screen to stage
When NBC’s Smash launched in 2012, critics cheered its pilot, theater lovers reveled in the insider jokes, and mainstream audiences tuned in to hear powerhouse ballads about Marilyn Monroe. By the time the curtain fell on its second—and final—season, the series had lost ratings momentum but gained a passionate cult following that never stopped asking the same question: When will we see Bombshell on Broadway?
That question lingered through a sold-out Actors Fund concert in 2015, through workshop whispers and pandemic delays, until producers Neil Meron and Robert Greenblatt finally confirmed in 2020 that a full stage adaptation was underway. Now, at the Imperial Theatre on West 45th Street, the answer is a resounding yes. Smash is here—and it feels like Broadway has been waiting for it all along.
Susan Stroman at the helm
Entrusted to five-time Tony Award-winning director–choreographer Susan Stroman, Smash barrels onto the stage with the polish of a Golden Age musical and the knowing wink of a backstage comedy. Stroman has always fused narrative momentum with dance—think The Producers or Crazy for You. In Smash, she lets the audience swoop behind the proscenium, into rehearsal rooms, and ultimately onto an opening-night stage vibrating with expectation.
Choreography is split between Stroman’s theatrical staging and Emmy winner Joshua Bergasse, who choreographed the original television series. Bergasse brings TV-quick transitions to Beowulf Boritt’s transforming set: curtains part to reveal a rehearsal hall, then glide aside to create a neon glimmer of Sardi’s, then rotate to suggest a Broadway backstage stuffed with road boxes and quick-change racks.
A plot steeped in showbiz thrills
On paper, the premise remains delightfully meta:
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Bombshell—a fictitious musical about Marilyn Monroe—is nearing its Broadway opening.
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Rehearsal is imploding because its leading lady, Ivy Lynn (Robyn Hurder), has fallen under the spell of her eccentric acting coach, Susan Proctor (Kristine Nielsen), who convinces Ivy she is Marilyn.
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Ivy’s understudy Karen (Caroline Bowman) smells an opportunity—until a sudden illness sidelines her.
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With hours until curtain, a true unknown (breakout star Bella Coppola) is thrust into the role that could define, or destroy, her fledgling career.
If that sounds like high-stakes melodrama, playwright Bob Martin keeps it buoyant with quips worthy of The Prom and Elf (both his work). He also sneaks in a surprisingly tender meditation on ambition—what it costs, what it rewards, and who gets left backstage picking up the glitter.
Star turns and scene stealers
Robyn Hurder (Moulin Rouge!) and Caroline Bowman (Frozen, Evita) seize the moment with performances that feel both lived-in and skyrocketing. Hurder’s Ivy is all dazzling vibrato and frayed nerves—a star who can’t tell where the wig ends and the real woman begins. Bowman’s Karen, by contrast, sings with a crystalline belt that slices through self-doubt.
Then there’s Bella Coppola, previously a standout Jane Seymour in SIX, whose late-show entrance jolts the production with raw, unpolished electricity. To reveal more would spoil the kind of twist audiences relish; suffice it to say, her number “Let Me Be Your Star” stops the show.
Comic firepower comes from Brooks Ashmanskas as Nigel, Bombshell’s exasperated director. Between barking orders and swigging triple espressos, he delivers a pep talk for the ages: “I know this might be upsetting to some of you, but perhaps we can all take solace in the knowledge that, no matter what happens tonight, one day we’ll all be dead.” The line detonates laughter while skewering every anxiety lurking in a Broadway rehearsal room.
Kristine Nielsen’s daffy acting guru, Krysta Rodriguez and John Behlmann as feuding songwriters, and Jacqueline B. Arnold as Bombshell’s iron-willed producer fill out an ensemble so deep it feels like an all-star benefit concert—except this show plays eight times a week.
Shaiman & Wittman’s score soars anew
Much of Smash’s musical DNA comes from Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman—the duo behind Hairspray and Some Like It Hot. On TV they wrote nearly two dozen pastiches evoking Monroe’s era. For Broadway, they’ve preserved fan favorites (“Let Me Be Your Star,” “Never Give All the Heart”) while adding fresh, full-throated showstoppers that comment wryly on celebrity worship and the brutal math of Broadway economics.
A lush 18-piece orchestra in the pit underscores Shaiman’s gift for melody: sweeping ballads segue into brassy show tunes, each orchestrated to sound like vintage Capitol Records yet pulsing with 2020s sheen.
Inside jokes—and broader resonance
Yes, theater insiders will howl at Easter eggs: an audition scene featuring “actors” in increasingly absurd Marilyn drag, a dead-on parody of production-meeting jargon, a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it quip about Tony eligibility rules. But like A Chorus Line, Smash never forgets the outsider. It says: here is a dream, fragile and flickering, but bright enough that whole companies will bleed for one shot under the lights.
By curtain call, the show has made its central point: everyone has a role to play, whether center stage or pushing a broom in the wings. And when we cheer for the underdog—on stage or in life—we cheer for ourselves.
Box-office prospects and awards talk
Early box-office numbers suggest Smash is poised for a healthy run. Advance sales surged after buzz-heavy previews, and producers have already added a Monday-night performance to meet demand. With Tony season approaching, pundits predict multiple nominations: Lead Actress, Featured Actor, Choreography, Score, and Direction appear likely battlegrounds.
Yet awards chatter, while thrilling, feels secondary to the palpable sense that Smash has landed at the right moment. Broadway’s post-shutdown recovery has depended on titles that reassure audiences that live theater—rowdy, messy, magnificent—still matters. Smash does that with confetti-cannon joy.
Practical information
Smash is playing at the Imperial Theatre (249 W. 45th St.). The limited engagement is currently scheduled through June 8, with a possible extension should box-office momentum hold. Tickets range from $114 to $321 and are available at smashbroadway.com or by calling Telecharge at 212-239-6200. Rush and lottery policies will be announced later this spring.
Whether you adored the television series, caught only the concert version of Bombshell, or arrive knowing nothing but the title, Smash reminds us why Broadway endures: a live, combustible alchemy of talent, ego, sweat, and hope—served this time with a Monroe-shaped spotlight, a swinging orchestra, and a wink that says, “Ready or not, showtime.”
