How it’s New York: The show is set in NYC, as a new Broadway musical struggles to be born.
How it’s Irish: The musical-within-a-musical is based on Marilyn Monroe, born Norma Jeane Mortenson/Baker, who was of English, Scottish, and Irish descent. Her mother, Gladys Pearl Monroe, traces back to the Monroes of Clan Munro in Scotland and Ireland; her paternal line has roots in County Down.
It’s bad luck to give a show a title critics can mock. Glory Days (2008): not glorious. Disaster! (2016): enough said. Scandalous (2012): well, I just don’t have the heart.
Smash is one of those double-edged words. A smash hit is good. A smash-up? Not so much. And this musical crashes and burns.
With a book by Bob Martin (The Drowsy Chaperone) & Rick Elice (Water for Elephants), music by Marc Shaiman (Hairspray), and lyrics by Scott Wittman (Hairspray) and Shaiman, directed by Susan Stroman (The Producers), it’s surprising this came out so dull. But it managed.
The cast try hard and one can’t fault their voices. Some of the songs are good in themselves—especially “Let Me Be Your Star,” “Let’s Be Bad,” “They Just Keep Moving the Line,” and the title song—but they fail to move the action or generate heat. The choreography (by Joshua Bergasse) is forgettable at best. The story itself, of a company putting on a show about Marilyn Monroe, is uninteresting, and the idea that Broadway creatives go for drinks at Sardi’s (where the drinks are $20) feels frozen in amber. Today’s actors are more likely to be at the dive bar near the rehearsal studio, saving their pennies, and avoiding tourists.
Granted, critics aren’t the show’s core audience: this is fan service for diehards of the 2012–13 TV series. But at hundreds of dollars a ticket, those fans should know what they’re buying.
And for the most part, they do—the best songs are the ones from the TV show. The overall plot has changed, but not for the better: on TV it was a battle between an up-and-comer and a veteran showgirl for the role of Marilyn. That’s no longer the case.
What the show gets right: they’re in a rehearsal studio, not onstage in an empty theater. (Broadway shows haven’t rehearsed on stage in decades; it’s not affordable for any producer.) Costumes by Alejo Vietti are sharp. The Act II opening scrim with Marilyn’s glittering face is gorgeous. And Beowulf Boritt’s backstage set is photo-realistic—he never disappoints.
What it gets wrong: everything else. The dialogue is on the nose and dull. There’s a creaky satire of method acting—in 2025? Are we really still setting up a rivalry between “carefree musical-comedy types” and “serious method actors”? Newsflash: they’re often the same people. Most MFA programs teach both approaches. (Also: Uta Hagen has been dead for 21 years.)
The whole plot hinges on the star of Smash (Robyn Hurder’s Ivy) being “hypnotized” by Susan Proctor (Kristine Nielsen), a fearsome acting teacher. When Ivy “breaks free,” all is well again. Yawn.
We never get a sense of the actual plot of the Marilyn musical-within-the-musical, either—just that it’s about the wonderful, amazing Marilyn Monroe. They want to focus on the happy parts of her story, which… isn’t really possible.
Best idea: watch Smash the TV series on demand. At least the drinks will be affordable.
