“Smash” is about to take another major step in its march to Broadway.
The cast and crew will gather for six weeks starting this month to mount a fully staged and choreographed workshop, with an orchestra, culminating in five performances for recruited audiences.
The new Susan Stroman-directed musical, inspired by the NBC television series of the same name, is slated for Broadway in the 2024-25 season.
The workshop cast includes Brooks Ashmanskas (“The Prom”), Alex Brightman (“Beetlejuice”), Yvette Nicole Brown (TV’s “Community”), Bella Coppola (“Six”), newcomer Nihar Duvvuri, Casey Garvin (“Some Like it Hot”), Robyn Hurder (“Moulin Rouge”), Kristine Nielsen (“Vayna and Sonia and Masha and Spike”), Krysta Rodriguez (“Into the Woods” Netflix’s) and Jonalyn Saxer (“Back to the Future”).
The full company includes Wendi Bergamini, Giovanni Bonaventura, Jim Borstelmann, Zachary Downer, Tiffany Engen, Ashley Blair Fitzgerald, Megan Kane, Caleb Marshall-Villarreal, Connor McRory, JJ Niemann, Tanairi Sade Vazquez, Brian Shepard, Sarah Sigman, Jake Trammel and Katie Webber.
Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman, who wrote songs for the series, also handle the score for the “Smash” musical, which will feature tunes from the TV show as well as new material. Book writers are Bob Martin and Rick Elice.
I wanted to love Smash so much - a serialised dramatic musical with original songs - that's right up my alley. But I have to say that I found it boring. Not exactly bad, just boring. I barely made it past the start of the second season and then I bailed. But that did mean I loved this line from 30 Rock:
It's interesting that the Variety article doesn't say if the workshop is for a musical based on the TV show itself, or for a musical of Bombshell, the show within the show. The idea was always to turn the fictional stage show from the TV series into a real Broadway musical.