Review | Smash: From bombshell to bomb

Well, this wasn’t the plan.

Back when NBC’s “Smash” aired in 2012 and 2013, it seemed only a matter of time before “Bombshell”—the fictional Marilyn Monroe bio-musical at the heart of the series—would make the leap from screen to stage. And why not? With a brassy and fizzy score by Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman (“Hairspray,” “Catch Me If You Can”), and the allure of Marilyn’s tragic glamour, “Bombshell” felt like a natural candidate for Broadway. A one-night-only benefit concert version of “Bombshell” on Broadway in 2015 was well received and made available for streaming during the pandemic.

What we got instead is “Smash,” a retooled, reimagined, and ultimately regrettable stage musical adaptation of the TV series itself—one that lands with a thud instead of a bang.

The creative team behind Smash—including director Susan Stroman (“The Producers”)—has reimagined the TV series for the stage, scrambling character personalities, revamping relationships, and layering on a dizzying mix of industry in-jokes, self-referential chaos, and half-baked subplots. It’s “Smash” through a funhouse mirror: recognizable in outline, but warped in execution—less a love letter to Broadway than a Post-It note of confused intentions.

Gone is Jack Davenport’s brooding, womanizing director Derek. In his place is Nigel (an endearing Brooks Ashmanskas), a kindly, campy vet with a flair for gallows humor and a crush on a chorus boy. Krysta Rodriguez, who once played a plucky actress on the TV series, now shows up as one of the writers—because why not?

Joshua Bergasse brings plenty of Broadway-on-steroids choreography—campy, kinetic, and often overwhelming. Shaiman and Wittman’s “Bombshell” songs still sparkle on their own, but here they appear abruptly, stripped of any narrative context, and rushed through with breathless abandon.

The book, by Bob Martin and Rick Elice, is where things really go off the rails. It’s packed with cringey one-liners, overcooked plot devices, and a scattershot approach to hot-button issues—from body shaming and substance abuse to TikTok fame and the financial mechanics of producing a musical. A subplot involving an eccentric acting teacher (Kristine Nielsen, utterly lost) pushing Ivy (a game Robyn Hurder) into diva mode is baffling even by musical theater standards.

There are glimmers of what might have been—namely, a sleek, standalone production of “Bombshell”—but those hopes are buried beneath this messy meta-musical experiment gone wrong.

Not a smash. Not a bombshell. Just a wreck—one that even Marilyn herself couldn’t save.

Imperial Theatre, 249 W. 45th St., smashbroadway.com.