TV’s ‘Smash’ musical may be made into a real stage show

Justin Falvey and Darryl Frank, executive producers of “Smash” and co-presidents of Amblin Television, will also be involved as producers of “Bombshell“. The show’s second season introduced Kyle and Jimmy (Mientus and Jordan), a singer-songwriter duo who write Hit List, a new Broadway-bound musical that ultimately competes with Bombshell at the (fake/super campy) Tony Awards. Neil Meron and Craig Zadan, who served as executive producers of the series Smash and also produced the Actors Fund Bombshell concert, will be lead producers on the new stage show. Every episode featured original songs, by the “Hairspray”/”South Park” movie team of Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman, and one always got the impression that these songs could cohere into a decent musical whole. NBC has announced that the Marilyn Monroe musical-within-a-musical, Bombshell, will be turned into a real-life stage version. They included both Megan Hilty and Katharine McPhee, who on the TV show were the actresses competing, with lots of storm and drang, for “Bombshell’s” starring role of Marilyn Monroe.

A Marilyn Monroe musical has been seen on Broadway once before; in 1983 the short-lived Marilyn: An American Fable played 34 previews and 17 performances.

While most television shows with ardent fan bases get revived for new seasons at other venues, NBC’s Smash is being revived by heading on stage.

Christian Borle and Debra Messing at Bombshell in Concert. The musical on NBC never amassed the ratings it needed to survive through season 2, but it did manage to create a cult-like following.

Since the shows cancellation on NBC in 2013, Smash has lived on in various places in the NYC theater circuit.

It’s likely Bombshell will need quite a bit of work before it hits Broadway. Bombshell was written for the series with music and lyrics by Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman, and Shaiman and Wittman will remain involved in the stage production of Bombshell with Shaiman as composer and co-lyricist with Wittman. It’s just a toss-up of whether this will be a Karen (Katherine McPhee) or Ivy (Megan Hilty) type of show.