Review: Smash Is the Hottest Mess on Broadway

Fade in on a show with a dazzling score, a ludicrous plot, and bravura performances across the board. That’s both the NBC series Smash and its brand-new stage adaptation, now playing Broadway’s Imperial Theatre. It’s about a group of people making a Broadway musical about Marilyn Monroe. But that core description is perhaps the only thing that has not changed on the leap from screen to stage, with a new book by Bob Martin and Rick Elice. This is a comedy about a musical. If you come in expecting drama (the television series had it in spades), you’ll only find it in the sheer absurdity of the plot.

In this iteration, Robyn Hurder plays a surprisingly earnest and down-to-earth Ivy Lynn, the Broadway star leading the cast of Bombshell, a new musical from husband-and-wife composers Tracy (Krysta Rodriguez) and Jerry (John Behlmann). We’re led to believe she is good friends with her longtime understudy, Karen (Caroline Bowman, bringing a bit of grit to a role otherwise lacking depth).

It’s clear in the first uptempo chords of “Let Me Be Your Star” that we’re in for a different experience from the 2012 series. Though her vocals are breathtaking, Hurder is not taking the song in the seductive, drawn-out direction Megan Hilty did onscreen, but delivering a softer, straight-toned interpretation. She’s the Miss Congeniality of Broadway divas—and we instinctively know that this happy situation cannot last.

After the writers thoughtlessly gift her a book on method acting, Ivy unleashes her inner Marilyn with the help of a mentor named Susan Proctor (the hilarious Kristine Nielsen). Proctor drives Ivy mad with a volatile combination of pills and Strasberg, resulting in rehearsal room tantrums and walk-outs. This leaves Karen to fill in, aided by associate director Chloe (Bella Coppola).

While some might find Proctor’s insertion into the plot a shoehorned device to avoid the complexity of Ivy’s competition with Karen, it felt refreshing to see a different perspective than Actress Sees Another Actress as a Threat in 2025, and Nielsen easily earns the heartiest laughs.

Gone is Derek, the predatory director in the TV series, replaced by Nigel (Brooks Ashmanskas), a harmless and humorous director so ethical that he even denies the advances of a chorus boy. Ashmanskas deploys a shtick similar to the one he used in The Prom—campy but kind-hearted—and the act certainly hasn’t gotten old, as Nigel serves as the comedic backbone of the musical.

Jacqueline B. Arnold plays producer Anita with plenty of sardonic humor and a watchful eye for audience reception, aided by her somewhat clueless Gen Z intern Scott (Nicholas Matos), the son of an investor who proves useful through his navigation of the digital realm. TikTok explodes onto the stage through S. Katy Tucker’s projections, and rightfully so, because one 60-second video has the potential to wield as much influence as this review.

Though her character’s name has been changed, Rodriguez still brings that signature exasperated energy to Tracy, who is desperately trying to be the voice of reason. Behlmann nails the drawl and depth in “Don’t Say Yes Until I Finish Talking,” delivering perhaps the show’s catchiest number—which is quite an achievement in a Shaiman-Wittman musical.

The score features some of Shaiman’s boldest tunes, all brassily orchestrated by Doug Besterman for an 18-piece orchestra that sounds double its size. Wittman’s clever lyrics bounce off the bright score with ease and advance the story, working in tandem with Susan Stroman’s direction, who, with pure creative magic, takes an unfeasibly chaotic book and turns it into sheer entertainment.

Beowulf Boritt’s set offers an uncanny mirror of the theater world, with the creative team conspiring at a piano bar that looks a lot like Sardi’s, walls adorned with caricatures of legends like Bernadette Peters and Audra McDonald. Costume designer Alejo Vietti expressively enrobes each performer, with Susan Proctor draped in all-black from head to toe (literally, with a shawl framing her face, which leads Nigel to call her a “witch”).

Hurder shines as a triple-threat of perfect comic timing, stunning vocals, and athletic dance. She expertly maintains vocal stability whether giving high-kicks or being whisked off mid-air by the ensemble in Joshua Bergasse’s showstopping choreography.

Though Karen’s opportunities to sing are short-lived, Bowman delivers the kind of awe-inspiring vocals of an actress taking her shot. Her performance of “They Just Keep Moving the Line” is a once-in-a-lifetime sensation akin to Norma Desmond coming home at last.

Act I concludes with the ultimate shocker, as neither Karen nor Ivy go on as Marilyn for the first dress rehearsal of Bombshell. Chloe is thrust into the role, even after years of discouragement for not having a “Broadway body,” an all-too-true testament to the industry’s rigidity and lack of imagination. But Chloe instantly earns the hearts of the crowd, with star-turn vocals from standout Coppola in only her sophomore Broadway role.

With three actors vying for the lead, the second act is set up for an epic showdown. And yet, the show’s conclusion comes all-too-quickly and easily, with rushed resolutions and unrounded character arcs. Ivy’s redemption feels especially unearned, while Chloe’s initial triumph falls flat—as though the book writers, having already strained our credulity for two hours, weren’t quite ready to go the extra mile of committing to a curvier Marilyn Monroe.

But again, this is a frothy musical comedy, and plenty of theatergoers are happy to trade high stakes for high production value, back-to-back laughs, and thrilling performances. Already, audiences have been abuzz throughout previews. This Smash does not appear to be for the original fans of the series, but it’s certainly for anyone who loves the theater. And what encapsulates the industry in a nutshell more than a magnificently messy show that has already sparked endless debate—even on TikTok?