NBC’s ‘Smash’ could transition from TV to stage

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Could a TV show about Broadway actually end up on Broadway? NBC’s musical drama ‘Smash’ is at least setting the stage for a potential New York run.

Our sister blog Company Town reports that before the scripted series about cutthroat theater life premiered on prime time, the network secured rights for a Broadway version.

‘Smash,’ a longtime passion project between NBC Entertainment Chairman Bob Greenblatt and Steven Spielberg, boasts a cast of producers and other behind-the-scenes creatives with theater backgrounds, starting with the series creator, playwright Theresa Rebeck.

Tony Award winners Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman were tapped to write the original score for “Bombshell,’ the fake musical featured in the series. They retain certain rights to the music that could carry over into a Broadway show.

So far, ‘Smash,” which NBC recently renewed for a second season, has racked up a 15-song soundtrack. Still, the onstage musical isn’t the show’s focus.

‘Since our creative team has been writing songs and snippets of ‘Bombshell’ scenes only to tell the stories of our characters in ‘Smash,’ there is no fully realized ‘Bombshell,’’ Greenblatt wrote Thursday in an email to The Times.

Greenblatt has theatrical credits of his own: In 2008, while at Showtime, Greenblatt produced ‘9 to 5: The Musical,’ which made its way from Los Angeles to the Great White Way. But for now, Greenblatt says he’s focusing on his day job.

‘I am working full time at NBC and it wouldn’t make sense for me to be a producer,’ Greenblatt told The Times, adding that, ‘Maybe I could produce ‘Bombshell’ when I’m long gone from NBC, which would be about the time that [a Broadway project] would come to fruition.’

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-- Jamie Wetherbe