In May 2022, theater writers Bob Martin and Rick Elice organized an informal reading of their stage adaptation of the television series Smash. More than a decade before, Smash had debuted on NBC in a prime slot: February 6, 2012, the night after Super Bowl XLVI. The show was a handsomely produced comedy-drama about the making of a Broadway musical based on the life of Marilyn Monroe. It had original songs by Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman, who wrote the musical Hairspray, and lavish production numbers staged by Joshua Bergasse, who would go on to win an Emmy for his work on Smash. Initial reviews were terrific, and all of Broadway was thrilled that their crazy profession, always a bit of a backwater in the entertainment industry, had inspired a network TV show.
“It was insanely ambitious and profoundly original,” Jack Davenport, one of the show’s stars, recalled. “And for people who love musical theater, it blew their socks off.”
Without giving too much away, the premise of the stage version of Smash is that of a Broadway team trying to put on a cotton candy version of Marilyn Monroe’s life when everything goes horribly—and hilariously—awry. “It’s a rip-roaring comedy!” Elice, ever the ad man, pitched...READ MORE