‘Smash’ on Broadway: Over-the-top in the very best means

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Imperial Theatre, New York, NY.
April 5, 2025.

Smash, the NBC musical drama of 2012, was never really a smash. Despite that, it garnered a cult following of musical theater devotees, and when previews opened to the re-imagined Broadway show in March 2025, they were out in full force. Regardless of what any critic might write about the intricacies of merit or lack thereof, the audience of the preview show I attended was nothing but rousingly enthusiastic. The classic show-within-a-show really has it all. There are many shiny objects bobbling on the surface of depth. But, they never dive down to actually seek it. From my seat, though, that was just fine. The shiny objects were shimmering, buoyant, fun to watch and made pretty sounds.

The story is the convoluted journey that a Broadway show takes on its way to opening night. While the TV show was a drama, this musical fully embraces comedy. Each character is nearly over the top, but in a Michael Scott from The Office type of way – so absurd it’s gut busting. The book is a bit meandering, with a few too many storylines to each develop their depth. But the robust acting drives the show, along with the belting musical numbers and delightful dancing.

Simply, there is a Broadway show in the works — an illusively lighthearted telling of Marilyn Monroe’s life, but none of the dark stuff. Whether this approach works is a battle between the creatives, made worse when the lead actress playing Marilyn goes into full method acting mode, causing all kinds of problems. One result being a question as to who will play Marilyn on opening night? The answer is less important than the journey to figure it out, as the audience is treated to several versions of the driving song, “Let Me Be Your Star”, from a few of the candidates. We heard it at least three times from three different singers, and I couldn’t choose a favorite. Those ladies can all sing.

Brooks Ashmanskas plays the director Nigel, serving up comedy on a silver platter of bitchy theater one-liners like a cater-waiter who doesn’t care if you take a canapé or not. But you do every time, because you just have to have one more tasty morsel. His presence onstage is worth the price of admission alone. The small but mighty dancer chorus is versatile, hysterical and akin to talented sticky glue that keeps the show intact – only if that sticky glue was the kind with glitter in it, those ubiquitous shiny objects of delight.

There are a lot of layers to this version of Smash, most of them superficial. That said, I don’t need a big, showy, belt-y, glittering, over-the-top Broadway show to have the depth of Les Misérables, Rent or even the TV show (although one could argue how much depth that had either). The two-and-a-half-hour run time felt like 45 minutes, my stomach hurt from laughing when I left, and I walked out of the theater ready to belt a ballad and twirl in the middle of 45th Street in a (faux) fur coat.

By Emily Sarkissian of Dance Informa.

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