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‘Smash’ invented hate-watching 1 decade ago. Today, the musical looks for new life on Broadway

The NBC series — which told the story of a fictional Broadway-bound musical based on Marilyn Monroe — has had a long second life thanks to fervent fans.
/ Source: TODAY

Fade in on a show, with a hunger for fame, and a face and a name to remember.

Ten years ago on Feb. 6, 2012, "Smash" premiered on NBC.

The pilot was really nothing broadcast television had ever seen before. Sure, there was the Fox hit "Glee" — but "Smash" profiled the nitty gritty behind-the-scenes making of "Bombshell," a Broadway musical based on the life of Marilyn Monroe. Chock-full of incredible original music, the series quickly went viral for its glitz, glamour and garish cheesiness during a time when social media wasn't quite up and running like it is today.

Real life behind-the-scenes drama ended up plaguing the series and led to a directionless season two. After NBC pulled the plug, though, the show's legacy continued. Maybe like an artist whose work is worth more after they're dead, the fandom for "Smash" continued, and still to this day it burns.

Smash - Season 1
The season one cast of "Smash."NBC / NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal

On this decadelong anniversary, TODAY had the opportunity to sit down with numerous creatives who helmed the project — as well as one of its stars — to dish about it, and also look ahead at what's next for the embattled musical series that still has fans singing and humming along.

Second hand white baby grand

The idea of "Smash" originated with the brilliant Steven Spielberg, whose name maybe carries more weight in Hollywood than anyone else still living. (He also surprisingly produced another camp cult classic — “To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar” — the 1995 film centered around three drag queens traveling across the country.)  

Spielberg bought a book called "Smash" that was about the making of "Funny Girl" — but his intentions were only to use the title, which he thought was fantastic. He started working with Robert Greenblatt, an established television executive at Showtime, on developing this idea.

smash steven spielbrg
Steven Spielberg on May 15, 2013 in Cannes, France.Pascal Le Segretain / Getty Images

"Steven wanted us to aim for doing original music," Greenblatt told TODAY. "He said maybe someday we could actually put the musical within the show on Broadway, but that was an ambitious idea. We said at the very least let's get real composers to write original music for this show within the show."

Originally Spielberg's idea was to profile the making of a musical and then at the end of the season of the show, the musical would actually be mounted on Broadway. Every season there would be a new musical created, but that lofty aspiration was never realized.

Greenblatt first recruited Craig Zadan and Neil Meron, voluminous musical producers primarily of film and television. They then rallied songwriters Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman, a pair of impresarios known best for their work on the musical version of John Water's iconic film "Hairspray." From there, Theresa Rebeck — a revered Broadway playwright — was brought in to pen the pilot and act as showrunner.


“It was the last time everyone who worked on the show agreed on anything.”

Marc Shaiman

"Almost immediately after (Rebeck) delivered the script, four or five months later, I left the network for NBC and I was sad to leave that project behind," Greenblatt described. "But then I thought, well, you know, why couldn’t ‘Smash’ be right for a broadcast network? The Showtime version was a little edgier, there was harsher language and whatnot. But I thought well, we could easily adapt this for NBC and everybody was on board. So we got the rights for this project out of Showtime and I greenlit it at NBC."

But what was the musical in the musical series going to be?

"There were various thoughts about maybe it should be something like 'The Three Musketeers' because the juxtaposition of the costumes and the contemporary could have led to more comedy ... blah, blah, blah," Wittman told TODAY via Zoom. “I was the one who said, 'Well, what if it's about Marilyn?' Steven loved that idea and we also were able to write songs about Marilyn that also had to deal with the lives of the two characters who were trying to compete for the part."

This was really a unique "aha moment" in the creative process.

Smash Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe poses for a publicity portrait for the 20th Century-Fox movie "River of No Return" in 1954.Donaldson Collection / Getty Images

Shaiman added, "When Scott said, 'How about the life of Marilyn Monroe?' — everyone just kind of went yeah. It was the last time everyone who worked on the show agreed on anything."

From there, the creative team began pouring themselves into the life of Monroe, especially Wittman.

What was the most interesting thing they learned about her?

"She was actually a very deep thinker. People don't think of her that way and we tried to bring that out," Wittman explained. "But the best story was in one of the books she wrote with someone about her life. One of the stories was about a baby grand piano that she had as a child, and that she associated with her mother. She tried to find that piano again and eventually did. Then by coincidence, Marc was working with Mariah Carey, and she actually owns the actual piano that once belonged to Marilyn. That's a real 'aha' moment, too!"

“There are so many people who live in the middle of the country who can’t fly to New York and afford a $200 ticket to experience a live show. So to be able to bring that to television felt very special.”

DEBRA MESSING

That story inspired the song "Second Hand White Baby Grand," a heartwrenching ballad featuring the emotional lyrics: "Something secondhand and broken/ Still can make a pretty sound/ Even if it doesn’t have a place to live."

"When we found that story in the Marilyn Monroe autobiography, we just latched on to it," Shaiman added. "Her mother was mentally ill and they would come and get her and put her away and then she would still be let out for just a few weeks or months. Marilyn said she associated the only time she ever thought her mother was happy was when she was playing the piano. So when they drag your mom away, then they drag the piano away, too. Finding that piano was a great metaphor of finding a moment of happiness within her very unhappy childhood."

Let them be your star

"Smash" wasn't just about Monroe, it was also about the two women vying to play her on Broadway. The first: An established prima donna with a litany of chorus girl credits on her resume. The other: An up-and-coming belter who has never set foot in a Broadway bathroom, let alone a Broadway stage.

"There were a lot of women that came in for both roles," Meron told TODAY. Zadan — Meron's business partner — died in 2018 at the age of 69.

Smash - Season 1
Katharine McPhee as Karen Cartwright as Marilyn Monroe and Megan Hilty as Ivy Lynn as Marilyn Monroe.Mark Seliger / NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal

The diva went to Megan Hilty — a doppelgänger for Monroe — while the rookie went to "American Idol" finalist Katharine McPhee who didn't have too many acting credits under her belt. Other stars cast to fill out the proverbial Playbill included Debra Messing, Christian Borle, Jack Davenport and icon of stage and screen Anjelica Huston.

"Debra was our first choice for Julia and we saw a bunch of guys for Christian's role," Meron said. "There were no strict straight offers except to Anjelica Huston. We went right to Anjelica."

Smash - Season 2
The diva went to Megan Hilty — a doppelgänger for Monroe — while the rookie went to "American Idol" finalist Katherine McPhee who didn't have too many acting credits under her belt.Will Hart / NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal

Huston — who declined a request to be interviewed for this article — opened up to Savannah Guthrie on TODAY in 2012 about the musical series and her role.

"It was irresistible," she said at the time. "It's a brilliant script written by Theresa Rebeck ... the fact that Steven Spielberg is our executive producer doesn't hurt. It's a fantastic cast, wonderful crew. I just happened to be on the receiving end of this miracle."

Smash - Season 1
Anjelica Huston as Eileen Rand.NBC / NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal

"It's very good for me because my life changed radically three years ago," she added. "My husband died and I was in Los Angeles sort of wondering what would happen for the rest of my life and this came up. It was a sort of wonderful way to move forward, be gainfully employed and also sort of participate in this amazing show with so many great people. I have to say, there's not a bad apple in the bunch. We're all in love with each other."

On her character — ruthless producer Eileen Rand — she said: "She takes no prisoners. I've modeled her on quite a few producers that I've worked with — female and male — but it's a wonderful part in that I can be all out awful when it's necessary and also have quite a nice underbelly."

Hilty, McPhee and Borle also declined requests to be interviewed for this article.

"I am a musical theater freak," Messing told TODAY. "I grew up going to Broadway shows and wanting to be on Broadway. So the whole concept of 'Smash' was just thrilling to me. There are so many people who live in the middle of the country who can’t fly to New York and can’t afford a $200 ticket to experience a live show. So to be able to bring that to television felt very special." 

Smash - Season 2
Debra Messing as Julia HoustonPatrick Randak / NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal

Messing had already become an NBC staple for her iconic turn as Grace on “Will & Grace,” the sitcom that earned her an Emmy and Screen Actors Guild award. "I just was really intrigued by the character," she said of Julia Houston, the lyricist for the Monroe-themed musical in "Smash."

"I knew that she was going to be struggling in her marriage. She had a son. Being someone at the time who was raising a son and understanding the challenges of being a very present parent and also being someone who worked, I just really appreciated the challenge of showing both home life and work life. It didn't have to just focus on one."

But Messing really just loved the Broadway energy of it all.

"The idea of being able to peek behind the curtain and see exactly how and how many people and what it takes to put a musical on Broadway ... to celebrate all those artists," she said. "Those triple threats ... they’re like gods to me. So the idea that there was also going to be real Broadway actors and working actors from New York on the show regularly? That was really exciting to me as well."

While the show's main cast featured an arsenal of talent, a litany of iconic Great White Way stars litter the show's IMDB page as well.

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Megan Hilty as Ivy Lynn and Kathie Lee Gifford as herself in "Smash" season two.NBC / NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal

Bernadette Peters, Jennifer Hudson, Sean Hayes, Uma Thurman, Daphne Rubin-Vega, Jesse L. Martin, Leslie Odom Jr., Krysta Rodriguez, Jeremy Jordan and Philippa Soo were all recurring characters at one point or another, while Rosie O'Donnell, Nick Jonas, Liza Minelli, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Sheryl Lee Ralph, Harvey Fierstein and even TODAY's own Kathie Lee Gifford had cameos.

Meron said, "It really was a who's who of Broadway."

They just keep moving the line

For season two, changes were made behind the scenes. Rebeck was out, and Joshua Safran was brought in as showrunner. (TODAY was unable to get in contact with Rebeck for this article.)

"The show was still figuring out what it was because there were some very grounded real stuff about the theater and there was also over the top fun," Safran told TODAY. "Poisoned smoothies or the assistant stabbing people in the back. So it was interesting to figure out where to take it from there."

What piqued Safran's interest was a 2007 documentary "Show Business: The Road to Broadway" that profiled four productions — including "Avenue Q" and "Wicked" — competing against one another during the same Broadway season.

"I was really fascinated by that, about how we pit artists against each other," Safran — who is currently the showrunner on the HBO Max "Gossip Girl" reboot — explained. "We pit musicals against each other when really we should just be celebrating that it's a f-cking achievement to be able to get to the finish line as it is, let alone they're all great in their own way, right? So that was my idea to do it that way."

Smash - Season 2
"There were people who loved the show and then there were people who loved to hate the show. As long as they kept watching, which was all I cared about."NBC / NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal

Safran brought in competing musicals that represented other genres that "Bombshell" did not. But also — with so much original music already created for a full musical — it created an opportunity for more original work to be produced.

"That also came in because of Marc and Scott, who wrote the incredible music for 'Bombshell,' at that point had written so many songs that it was hard to think of more material to mine," he said. "'Bombshell' already had 14 songs. So they themselves were a little bit like where do we go from here? That also added to this idea of diversification."

Other talented composers — like Benj Pasek and Justin Paul who would later create the Tony-winning hit musical "Dear Evan Hansen" — penned music for the competing musicals as well. But this ended up muddying the direction of a show that was already experiencing a steep decline in ratings from its season one premiere.

"It felt we reached a bit of a plateau and the audience interest was declining," Greenblatt said. "There was also this whole phenomenon of hate-watch. I think hate-watching started with 'Smash.' Social media was just coming into its own as a platform for people to really get in there and have their voices heard. There were people who loved the show and then there were people who loved to hate the show. As long as they kept watching, which was all I cared about."

Smash - Season 2
Jennifer Hudson as Veronica Moore.NBC / NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal

“I think the show was ahead of its time,” Safran said. “It probably it should have been a binge-model. It would have done amazingly on Amazon, all episodes dropping at once because it was such a highly serialized story and you wanted to get in the world and stay there. “

"It was really sad," he added of the show's conclusion. "We knew the writing was on the wall. We were shooting the last three episodes and we kind of knew that it was over but everyone is from theater so the show must go on. Many Broadway shows know they're going to close before they do but everyone goes out and f-king still gives it their all. That's what everyone did on 'Smash.' It was beautiful."

Broadway, here comes 'Smash'

Over the years, the legacy of "Smash" has burned brighter than the actual marquee that was lit during its tenure on NBC.

"We all were surprised by how vocal people were, once it was announced that it would not be coming back," Messing said. "We didn't really, really understand the love that our audience had for this show. That's very compelling and gratifying because it's hard work. You're working 14 hours every day. It's good to know that what you're putting out, there is an audience out there that is appreciating it."

Smash - Season 1
"It was incredible to get everybody back and to hear all of the original songs that were made for it." — Debra MessingNBC / NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal

Over the years, the show has stayed in the zeitgeist. This could be because the best part of the show — the music — has been able to live on the most with YouTube or streaming platforms like Spotify. Those sweeping melodies and brassy belts continue to be experienced the most by fans, informing them to remember the series in better terms than what it actually was on screen.

"You might be right," Greenblatt said when confronted with this idea. "The music is the thing. It's incredible, and it was impeccably produced. It still kind of stands up with the incredible artists who performed it. That is what drives musicals onstage. It's really the score that differentiates these shows from each other."

The music and the fandom is what led creators to produce a one-night only charity event of the musical-within-a-musical for the Actors Fund in 2015 that was sold out in minutes. They also remounted it for a virtual production amid the pandemic in 2020.

"It was incredible to get everybody back and to hear all of the original songs that were made for it," Messing said. "That opportunity for us all to get back together again was very special."

USA: 'Smash' - Billboard
"But to try to do it as a Broadway musical is something that we're excited about because it will be largely that score that Marc and Scott wrote for 'Bombshell' and I think there is a new life ahead for it in a slightly different form and tone." — Bob Greenblatt Walter McBride / Corbis via Getty Images

After the success of that charity staging, Greenblatt and company imagined another life for "Smash" on stage, revisiting Spielberg's initial vision for the project in the first place.

"Is there a new incarnation of the show and can we bring it back? We thought about that as a TV show and we've kicked that around but at the moment, there's nothing happening there," he said. "But to try to do it as a Broadway musical is something that we're excited about because it will be largely that score that Marc and Scott wrote for 'Bombshell.' I think there is a new life ahead for it in a slightly different form and tone."

Aiming for a 2024 Broadway opening, Tony-winner Bob Martin and Tony-nominated Rick Elice are writing the book, and the show is slated to workshop this summer. The show will not be a restaging of "Bombshell," but a behind the scenes look at its creation — similar to the series but different in many ways, according to Meron and Greenblatt.


Smash - Season 1
"We didn't really, really understand the love that our audience had for this show. That's very compelling and gratifying because it's hard work." — Debra MessingNBC / NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal

"It's much funnier as a backstage musical," Greenblatt said, adding there will be other plot departures from the series as well. "It’s less of an earnest soap opera and that may be what does the trick for it to become a long line, kind of hit show.”

"''Smash' is something that burned bright," he added. "The good news? People didn't just forget about it."