The Songs From SMASH's Fake Musical Become Popular

There's a fun piece on the TIMES City Room blog today about the growing popularity of songs from a Broadway musical that was never on Broadway. "Bombshell" is the name of the fictional show withint the NBC show SMASH, which follows the behind-the-scenes story of this fake musical's journey to the Great White Way.  While there has been much speculation about whether "Bombshell" might actually be a musical some day, that hasn't stopped patrons of piano bars from singing it's praises alongside standards from SOUND OF MUSIC or LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS. Marie's Crisis, one of my favorite village nightspots, gets a heavy mention in the piece as a joint where this trend is taking off.

There was a great detail in the story about the writers of SMASH's songs, Scott Wittman and Marc Shaiman. They been a couple since they met in the 1970s...at Marie's Crisis! (Talk about meeting cute for two songwriters.) Now their tunes from SMASH are well, a smash. At least with the gay piano bar crowd.  The songs have also not done too badly online either. In fact, later this month, there will be a real fake cast album released on iTunes for "Bombshell" with 22 tracks from the non-existent show. And the show itself starts its 2nd season tonight on NBC.

New Details On The New Season of SMASH

Out in Pasadena, the annual winter TV press tour is underway and yesterday SMASH got to have it's meet and greet with the critics.  The Hollywod Reporter has all the details but the major news is that the new season will feature a lot more music and a brand new musical too.  Jeremy Jordan, from the hit real Broadway show NEWSIES, has joined the cast and will be working on a show within the show called "The Hit List" while "Bombshell", the Marilyn musical from Season 1 will continue to develop.

There was also news that a full "cast recording" of the fictional "Bombshell" musical will be released mid-February with songs from both Season 1 and Season 2. The musical itself, however, is still fictional as it was confirmed last year that there is no book written and no current plans for an actual Bway show about Marilyn.  They haven't ruled it out but it seems unlikely that it will ever happen, given the history of Marilyn flopping on the Great White Way before.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to a new season of the show which many love to hate. I'll be honest--I just love it. A show about Broadway on network television? I mean seriously...what's not to like? :) Here's the trailer for Season 2--with some serious guest stars too. It all starts Feb 5th.