SMASH Post-Mortem

July 27, 2025
Bainbridge Island, Washington

By Brian Guy

I am aware I may be in the minority of theatre fans who really enjoyed the musical SMASH, which I reviewed here. When I am in the minority on my theatre views, I like to think about it and understand why, as I enjoy learning other perspectives. Another example was the national tour of To Kill A Mockingbird, which I disliked so strongly that I left at intermission. But that is another story for another day. The short version is I was outraged that it was made into a comedy, and it did not help matters that I had just watched the (perfect) movie. Most people enjoyed it, and I concluded there were about 20% of us who felt the way I did. The bottom line seemed to be that if you were familiar with the story, the tour was offensive, but if you did not know the story, then the tour show was funny and entertaining. The audience laughing non-stop during the show was a big part of my horror. Our entire front row of loge (the theatre regulars) had our jaws dropped in disbelief the entire first act.

In the case of SMASH, I now understand both why I liked it so much and also why others did not love it. It was early 2025 when I first learned about this upcoming musical, and it sounded fun. I was not familiar with the TV series, so I spent early 2025 binge watching the series. I liked it a lot. I started working on a Broadway trip for April with SMASH and Redwood as my first two shows to see. I ended up having to postpone my trip until June, due to emergency eye surgery that did not allow me to fly until then (that’s also another story).

During the time between when SMASH opened and when I saw it in June, I started reading the complaints about how the story had changed and how the characters were so different. I can see where this could be upsetting if a surprise, and I do think it helped my attitude about the show that I knew about these changes going in. In the TV series, Karen was one of my favorite characters, so I was indeed disappointed about how minor her role was in the musical. At the time, I understood why they changed the director character significantly, as they apparently wanted to make the show light and funny. I can imagine an internal discussion with the argument, “this is 2025, we need to give our audience an escape with as much comedy as possible!” I bought into this and enjoyed the show despite the significant changes, but I think we can all agree as Monday morning quarterbacks that this was a major and fatal mistake to change the characters so drastically. Even though the musical is indeed funnier than the TV series, we liked the drama of the TV series. It might be similar to staging Glee but taking out all of the conflict and drama. No. The bottom line lesson here might be either keep the characters the same, or do a completely different show. Do not call it SMASH if it is not actually SMASH. The other issue is there really is not much depth to the story in SMASH the musical, whereas there seemed to be more story in the TV series. Not every musical needs to have a deep story, and straight comedies are fine, but there was just too much competition in 2025 with incredible musicals (and plays) with deep stories. You can have both comedy and a deep story (exhibit A: Purpose), and it does not have to be one or the other (I realize this statement contradicts my complaint above about To Kill a Mockingbird, so perhaps I should have hung in there for Act 2). So for SMASH TV fans, the musical changed the characters they loved and did not provide a deep story. For patrons unfamiliar with SMASH, they got a lighthearted comedy without a deep story, and they might have wondered why people loved the TV show so much.

Next I will explain why I actually loved the musical. I first have to acknowledge this was the first show I had seen on Broadway since 2023, as I did not make it out to New York City in 2024. I did see probably 50 shows in 2024, but even the best locally produced shows in Seattle and the national tours are generally no match for Broadway. On Broadway, the smaller theatres, the lighting, the costumes, the talent, the sound quality, the sets, and the choreography can be intoxicating. The choreography in SMASH was just so outstanding. It was breathtaking at times. It was so good. And I went into this show not being familiar with Robyn Hurder, and she just blew me away with her talent. At the time, it was not significant to me that the story was light and fun and the story and characters had changed significantly. For me, the quality of the vocals, dancing, lighting, music, and acting made this an incredible experience. Sure, my response might have been different if I had just seen Purpose, Maybe Happy Ending, or Hadestown the day before, and perhaps less enthusiastic patrons had just come from one of these other incredible shows. So this show did have the advantage that I had not yet seen the other shows that I would end up enjoying even more. But I am allowed to love more than one show, and I did very much enjoy SMASH even though I would not call it my #1 favorite show of the trip. And there were other shows I enjoyed less than SMASH, but those, too, were still enjoyable.

It is clear to me that in hindsight, it would have been better to keep the characters consistent with the TV series, give Karen a larger role, forego adding any major new characters, and keep the drama and tension from the TV series. Alternatively, just do not use the SMASH name in order to eliminate all of the false expectations, but then they would not have the music, which is a very good part of the show.

I enjoyed the musical SMASH enough that I would actually see it again, which is not true of most musicals I see, but I do see what caused the show to fail.