SMASH
Imperial Theatre
Preview Night! Critic’s Pick
By Brian Guy
Performance reviewed: Friday, June 6, 2025 at 8 PM EDT
ALERT: Show closes June 22, 2025
When I was planning my trip to the Tony Awards in 2025, SMASH was the second show I booked (Redwood was the first), and SMASH was the first of nine shows I experienced during this trip. I had binge watched the TV series in early 2025 to prepare for the show, but watching the TV series first is certainly not a requirement. The Broadway production changes the story and some of the characters quite a bit. You can watch the TV series before or after the Broadway musical. They are both very enjoyable, even though they are different. I am aware some fans of the TV series were upset with the changes, and perhaps I am in the minority for enjoying both versions.
I saw SMASH on the Friday night of the Tony Awards weekend, so it was an energetic audience. I was most looking forward to seeing Brooks Ashmanskas, as I was familiar with his work in The Prom. I was also very excited to see John Behlmann, who I briefly met after Shucked on its Tony Awards Eve performance in 2023. I also watched John’s vlog, Jerry Duty, prior to my trip, and I found it to be a fun behind the scenes look at the show. You can watch it here.
For this show, I chose front row center mezzanine, which was a great choice to enjoy the spectacular choreography. I had been cheering for this nominated show to win the Tony Award for Best Choreography.
I walked into Imperial Theatre on Friday night and saw the notice, “The role of Nigel will be played by McGee Maddox.” Wait, isn’t Nigel the character that Brooks plays? I checked my Playbill, and sure enough, Brooks called out for my performance. This was a big disappointment, but at least the other big names were still in the lineup. This is a risk of seeing a show right before or after The Tony Awards. Audra McDonald was apparently out at her Tony Awards Eve matinee performance of Gypsy, and Nicole Scherzinger was apparently out at her Tony Awards Eve evening performance of Sunset Blvd. Nicole was also out at my Wednesday evening performance of Sunset Blvd. following the Tony Awards.
From the start of the show, you fairly quickly get to experience amazing vocals, and the choreography is top notch. Experiencing Robyn Hurder singing and dancing while being thrown into the air is impressive. How does she do this? Hard work. I know from my research of this show that Robyn is working so hard to pull off this performance, and the hard work shows.
I came into this show not knowing much about Robyn Hurder and being more excited to see Brooks, Krysta, and John, and I left this show being a huge new fan of Robyn. She is truly one of the best performers I have ever seen, and she blew away my expectations. The entire cast was fantastic, and McGee Maddox did a great job covering for Brooks.
The reality in a highly competitive season is that Tony Awards matter, and I am so disappointed that SMASH announced its closing after not winning its nominations. I am thrilled I got to experience this incredible show before it closed, whereas my Redwood performance was canceled and refunded after not receiving any Tony nominations.
SMASH is a Preview Night! Critic’s Pick, and I hope as many fans as possible get to see the show before it closes!
See more show reviews from 2025.