Helmed by a newly announced creative team, a musical adaptation of “Smash” is setting its sights on Broadway.
The musical, based on the NBC television show, will feature a book by Bob Martin (“The Prom,” “The Drowsy Chaperone”) and Rick Elice (“Jersey Boys”) and a score from Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman, who wrote original songs for the television show. Steven Spielberg, Robert Greenblatt and Neil Meron, all of whom worked on the television show, will produce the new musical.
Production dates have not yet been announced.
The team behind “Smash” had previously announced that they were creating a musical adaptation of “Bombshell,” the Marilyn Monroe-themed musical within the television show. The 2015 concert of “Bombshell,” which reunited the cast at the Minskoff Theatre, aired Wednesday night as a fundraiser for the Actors Fund.
This adaptation, entitled “Smash, A New Musical,” will also follow the creation of “Bombshell,” but will “depart liberally from the series,” according to the press release. It will feature the main characters from the show — Julia, Tom, Ivy and Karen — and well-known songs including “Let Me Be Your Star.”
“I am personally thrilled to be a part of this musical and its road to Broadway,” Spielberg, executive producer of the original series, said in the press release. “’Smash’ is near and dear to my heart, and it seems fitting that a new musical inspired by what we did on the show would eventually come to the stage.”
Joshua Bergasse, the television show’s choreographer, who was also attached to the “Bombshell” adaptation, will return as choreographer.
Meron and Greenblatt, now chairman of WarnerMedia Entertainment, are also working with Shaiman and Wittman on a musical adaptation of “Some Like it Hot,” which recently announced a fall 2021 Broadway run. Martin and Elice are working together on “The Princess Bride.”
Created by Theresa Rebeck, “Smash” originally aired on NBC in 2012. It starred Debra Messing, Jack Davenport, Katharine McPhee, Christian Borle, Megan Hilty and Anjelica Huston.
