RECAP: Does New Musical 'Smash' Live Up To Its Name?

For months, NBC has been plugging the premiere of its new Steven Spielberg-produced musical series, Smash, starring relative newcomers Katharine McPhee and Megan Hilty alongside pros Anjelica Huston, Debra Messing and Jack Davenport, and the show delivered impressive ratings on its Monday night debut following The Voice.

Smash, about the efforts of burgeoning Broadway stars to bring a biography of Marilyn Monroe to the stage, received a formidable 11.5 million viewers on its "opening night," though some people — ahem, Gleeks! — were surprised at the lack of comedy in the new musical that THR critic Tim Goodman calls "Glee for grown-ups."

"Our show isn't about singing and dancing," says Hilty, who plays the pivotal role of Ivy Lynn, who, in turn, is auditioning to play Monroe on the stage. "It's about the drama behind the drama," she said, reports ContactMusic. Part of that very meta drama involves the competition between Hilty's character and McPhee's Karen Cartwright, a girl straight off the bus from Iowa who has loads of raw talent but no experience.

The rest of the drama involves the behind-the-scenes characters — Messing's Julia and Christian Borle's Tom as the writers, Huston as the seasoned producer, and Davenport as the less-than-ethical director / choreographer, who isn't above letting … shall we say, personal relations? … determine which lovely actress gets the part.

Find out which character will get to portray the original blonde bombshell on Smash, which airs at 9 p.m. on NBC.

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