“Smash” is a fractured fairy tale of a Broadway musical about the making of a Broadway musical

Many theatre aficionados like myself fondly remember the TV series Smash. It was a behind the scenes look at the trials and tribulations of creating an original Broadway musical. It was funny and bitchy and soap-operatic and just good clean dirty fun.

Smash featured real Broadway celebrities including producers and critics and a roster of familiar names from the stage, screen, and television: Megan Hilty (Death Becomes Her); Katherine McPhee (American Idol); Jeremy Jordan (The Great Gatsby, Floyd Collins); Leslie Odom Jr. (Purlie Victorious); Debra Messing (Will & Grace); Christian Borle (Tammy Faye); Anjelica Huston (The Addams Family) — the list goes on and on.

At long last, Smash has become the Broadway musical it was always meant to be, and it certainly lives up to its title! This is a big, bright, brassy Broadway musical, and all I can do is urge you to see it in all its tawdry splendor — and consider yourselves lucky that you’ll never find yourselves working on a Broadway show!

The basic idea is the same as the TV series. A group of Broadway professionals is in rehearsals for a new musical, Bombshell, a celebration of the life and career of Marilyn Monroe. Director Nigel (Brooks Ashmanskas) and his assistant director Chloe (Bella Coppola) are putting the cast through their paces. Star Ivy Lynn (Robyn Hurder), her best friend and long-time understudy Karen (Caroline Bowman), and Karen’s husband Charlie (Casey Garvin), who plays Joe DiMaggio, are hard at work on the show, written by the husband and wife team of Tracy (Krysta Rodriguez) and Jerry (John Behlmann).

Overseeing things is lead producer Anita (Jacqueline B. Arnold) and her clueless new  assistant Scott (Nicholas Matos). Things are going along fine until Tracy loans Ivy a book about Marilyn, written by her old Actors Studio coach Susan Proctor. Ivy contacts Proctor (Kristine Nielsen), and soon the two are inseparable.

Proctor starts molding Ivy into a facsimile of the Marilyn she knew, complete with insecurities, mood swings, unprofessionalism, diva behavior — even urging Ivy into taking the same kind of drugs Marilyn took. Bombshell becomes a battleground, with two separate visions of the show battling for prominence: Nigel’s original concept of a celebration of a triumphant, glittering star, and Susan’s insistence on showcasing the darkness that led to her death.

The book, by Bob Martin (The Drowsy Chaperone, this season’s Boop!) and Rick Elice (Water for Elephants, Jersey Boys), is stuffed with running gags, references to past Broadway shows, and good old-fashioned biting, bitchy dialogue. They have wisely decided to avoid much of the soap-opera plot of the TV series, and Smash is the better for it. Songwriters Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman rise to the challenge, using the songs that they wrote for the TV series but resisting the temptation to shoehorn them into the backstage plot, instead saving them mostly for spots where Bombshell’s musical numbers are being staged. Susan Stroman’s direction, along with Joshua Bergasse’s choreography, keep the action lively. In this task they are aided by their extremely talented cast.

Smash is blessed with not one powerhouse leading lady, but three. As Ivy, Robyn Hurder is every inch a star, one who’s worked long and hard to deservedly get where she is. Caroline Bowman’s Karen is sweetly talented, content with being a background performer but talented enough to be hired to take over the part when Ivy is not available. Bella Coppola’s Chloe, a full-figured woman, has given up on her dreams of stardom and has found her passion in associate directing, yet blossoms when she is unexpectedly called upon to perform. 

Krysta Rodriguez and John Behlmann shine as the married show creators, making their show-induced marital woes both believable and funny. Jacqueline B. Arnold is all style and grit and hard-earned wisdom as the beleaguered producer of the show. As her assistant, Nicholas Matos is naive in the ways of show biz but savvy when it comes to influencers and the tech world; his end-of-show epiphany is a wacky combination of Internet nerd and retro “Gee-whiz, why don’t we put on a show in the barn?” 

The duo who put most of the humorous oomph in Smash are comic acting legends Brooks Ashmanskas and Kristine Nielsen. Ashmanskas’ Nigel is a whirlwind of determination and second-guessing, trying to stick to his celebratory vision for Bombshell above all else. Nigel is a gay man of a certain age who finds a romantic lifeline from the stresses of the show with one of the chorus boys.

Nielsen’s Susan Proctor is equally determined to recreate her glory days with Marilyn and the Actors Studio by darkening the vision of Bombshell. Susan slinks around the rehearsal space in head-to-toe black, looking like death warmed over, issuing pronouncements, and demanding changes. Ashmanskas and Nielsen are allowed to put their comic sensibilities to full use and enliven the show whenever they are on stage.

Scenic designer Beowulf Boritt’s sets are his valentine to the theatre. Whether in the rehearsal rooms, a dressing room, or at the local theatre bar, the sets, lit by Ken Billington with sound design by Brian Ronan and videos and projections by S. Katy Tucker, all give us the feel of actually being a fly-on-the-wall during the creation of a new musical. Alejo Vietti’s costumes run the gamut from flashy outfits for Bombshell’s production numbers to rehearsal outfits. The costume designs allow for what seem like instantaneous changes between styles as the show shifts between performance and rehearsal. 

Smash is a great big old-fashioned musical, one that is created simply to entertain and succeeds. That it is also funny and tuneful is just icing on the cake. I cannot more strongly urge you to enjoy the trials and tribulations of putting on the musical Bombshell by making the trip to see Smash!

Smash is presented at the Imperial Theatre, 249 West 45th St., in New York. For more information or to purchase tickets, go to smashbroadway.com.