Executive produced by Steven Spielberg, NBC’s Smash premiered in 2012 as a prime-time musical drama series centered on two actresses (Katharine McPhee and Megan Hilty) competing for the role of Marilyn Monroe in a new Broadway musical about the Hollywood icon. But Smash wasn’t just a TV show trying to succeed on its own — it was also intended to become a hit Broadway musical promoted by the series and improved by feedback from viewers. Spoiler alert: That original concept wasn’t realized. Smash was canceled during its second season in 2013, and a new musical about young Norma Jeane Baker — with titles like Hit List and Bombshell: The Musical — didn’t go anywhere.
Still, Smash’s status as a cult classic grew. And the tides shifted during COVID-pandemic lockdowns with a virtual cast reunion live-streamed as a concert. When the world reopened in 2022, a proper reading of the Smash musical occurred. And in 2023, producers (including Spielberg) announced that this stage production was set to premiere during the 2024-2025 Broadway season.
Smash finally opened at Broadway’s Imperial Theatre on March 11. Described as a “hilarious behind-the-scenes rollercoaster ride about the making of a Marilyn Monroe musical called Bombshell,” the stage production is a re-creation of the TV show itself — no longer committed to being a full musical about Monroe’s life. However, enduring fascination with the Gentlemen Prefer Blondes star is a key ingredient — particularly from her queer fan base, who also powered the NBC show (with help in part from modern-day acting draws like Debra Messing and Anjelica Huston).
“I mean, I love Marilyn Monroe,” attests Brooks Ashmanskas, cast as Nigel in Smash on Broadway. “She’s actually someone who deserves the term ‘icon’ that people use pretty liberally now.”
“I think I’ve seen basically everything she was in. I was never obsessed with Marilyn or anything like that, but I really appreciated her talent and her beauty, obviously. I just thought she was so interesting,” Ashmanskas says. “And her life…people became very interested in the highs and lows. It was quite a life she led in a very short period of time.”
Jake Trammel, Robyn Hurder, and Connor McRory in rehearsalJENNY ANDERSON
Over the years, a list of projects about Monroe contributed to the idea that telling her life story through show business was a “cursed” endeavor. Between Arthur Miller’s 1964 play After the Fall, the 1980 television film Marilyn: The Untold Story on ABC, 1983’s Marilyn! the Musical by Mort Garson, 1996’s Norma Jean & Marilyn on HBO, and 2001’s Blonde, a made-for-television biopic on CBS, those projects underwhelmed when compared with the interest in Monroe’s life story.
Two of the latest high-profile projects about Monroe were 2011’s My Week With Marilyn with Michelle Williams and 2022’s Blonde with Ana de Armas. Both actresses earned Oscar nominations for Best Actress but neither won.
“When something becomes sort of culturally mythical…I think there’s no way to cover it for everybody,” Ashmanskas observes when asked about the rumored curse. “Everyone’s going to have a different feel for something that is so settled in their own culture and ethos.”
“She was a sort of mythical character,” he continues. “There were people who obviously knew her and had one way of looking at her, but there were more people who watched her on the movies and experienced her in a much different fashion. And then, when she died, everyone was sort of like, ‘Wait… what?’ It’s a very difficult story to tell, in that way.”
Ashmanskas says that Smash doesn’t try to tell the canonized life story of the actress, nor to have answers for age-old questions. The show dives into those gray areas and has a fascinating approach to tackling a subject as complex as Monroe, he says.
“No project about Marilyn will ever be able to satisfy everyone, and that is one thing I like about where we’re going with this show,” he says. “That’s sort of what the show is. In a way, it’s about all these creative people trying to do right and realizing it’s just never going to be right for everyone. It’s very meta. Between the ‘creative team,’ so to speak, and the actress playing her, everyone’s trying to serve the same monster, but it’s a monster, nonetheless.”
Brooks AshmanskasJason Bell
Much like the TV series, Ashmanskas explains that Smash on Broadway is “not really about Marilyn but about trying to put on a show.” He adds, “You get little peeks and blips and things, but it’s more just people in a workplace trying to put on this product and all the wackiness that ensues.”
The TV version of Smash had actor Jack Davenport playing theater director Derek Wills. On Broadway, Ashmanskas plays a new version of that archetype, Nigel. “It’s putting the same characters through a different filter,” he describes.
Ashmanskas is no stranger to bringing new characters to life in a musical. Nominated for a Tony Award as Comedy All-Star in 2006’s Martin Short: Fame Becomes Me and for playing Barry Glickman in 2018’s The Prom, he also originated Brother Jeremiah in 2015’s Something Rotten! and the Wizard in 2024’s Once Upon a Mattress.
In TV land, Ashmanskas appeared on Netflix’s Uncoupled, a groundbreaking gay rom-com starring Neil Patrick Harris as a gay man separating from his partner of 17 years who reconnects with his friends (one of them, Stanley, played by Ashmanskas). The show, “a total joy” to make says the gay actor, was dropped by Netflix, then picked up by Showtime for a second season that was never made. “That was rough,” Ashmanskas says. “I mean, imagine if that was your livelihood.… It felt like the rug being pulled out from under you twice.”
There are similarities between the back-and-forth of Uncoupled and the highs and lows of realizing Smash. But when working on a new Broadway show called Smash, does Ashmanskas feel any pressure to deliver, you know, an absolute smash?
“I would imagine for the creative team — the writers, the director, the composers, the lyricist, you know?” he says. “They truly want to deliver the best show they possibly can and let the fates take care of whether it’s a ‘smash’ or a ‘bomb’ or whatever.”
Ashmanskas continues, “My feeling with most shows I’ve been involved with is that most people are just trying to do the best they can to entertain. Especially with a show like this, to really entertain people, make them laugh. Take them away from their lives for a little while and just have a ball.”
“Where it sits now, I can’t imagine it wouldn’t do that for people,” he observes. “…I sit there and watch parts of it that I’m not in, and it’s just a total delight.”
Smash is now playing at NYC’s Imperial Theatre. Get tickets at smashbroadway.com.
This article is part of the Out March/April issue, which hits newsstands April 1. Support queer media and subscribe— or download the issue through Apple News, Zinio, Nook, or PressReader starting March 20.
Jake Trammel, Robyn Hurder, and Connor McRory in rehearsalJENNY ANDERSON
Brooks AshmanskasJason Bell
