“Smash” offered viewers the rare thrill of original musical numbers written by a Tony-winning songwriting team expressly for network television, and simultaneously gave Tweeters a target to try to be witty in real time at the show’s expense. These two pleasures helped gain a loyal following for the TV series, although apparently not enough of one for NBC; it ran for just two seasons a dozen years ago.

“Smash” the musical has opened tonight on Broadway, with the same premise as the TV series — a behind-the-scenes look at the making of “Bombshell,” a Broadway musical about Marilyn Monroe — and almost two dozen of the same familiar, tuneful musical numbers from the series: Same songwriting team of Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman, and, critically, much the same staging by Emmy-winning choreographer Joshua Bergasse — ably aided by the design team.

The live stage show offers no opportunity for real-time Tweeting anymore – is it still even called Tweeting? – but now it’s the new musical’s book writers, Rick Elice and Bob Martin, who are trying to be witty. The story in-between the musical numbers has been changed from primetime soap opera into broad stage comedy. 

The musical is populated by a similar cast of characters (or character types) as the series but their personalities and their character arcs differ in large ways or small from that of their TV counterparts, and most are given different names. (Only one of the Broadway actors was also in the series, Krysta Rodriguez, who is playing a different character; she is now Tracy, co-writer of “Bombshell,” the character portrayed by Debra Messing, as Julia, on TV.) There are still an Ivy Lynn and a Karen (Robyn Hurder and Caroline Bowman respectively), who are vying to perform the role of Marilyn Monroe in “Bombshell,” but there is a new character, Chloe (Bella Coppola) who through a reworked twist in the plot also gets a turn as Marilyn. If they don’t all get the platinum wig, all three perform with golden voices and persuasively Marilyn moves.

The comedy, for better or for worse, mostly relies on two casting choices. The director of “Bombshell” in the TV series was Derek, a handsome straight man (in both senses of that phrase) portrayed by Jack Davenport. It is now Nigel, portrayed by the comic actor Brooks Ashmanskas, who pines for a chorus boy, and is given to one-liners — bursts of dramatic angst (“Shoot me. Fire me. Put me out of my misery”) and occasional allusions that are hilarious to insiders (“This is my 17th Broadway show. I’ve paid my dues. I was Joseph Papp’s associate on Hamlet in the park. So when you’ve pried a raccoon off Kevin Kline’s face, then you can give me directing tips.”)

Kristine Nielsen, a superb actress in both comic and dramatic roles,  here portrays a deliberately unappealing new character, Susan,  who is an expert in Method acting and becomes a Rasputin-like acting coach to Ivy Lynn: “The Method will lift you up! And the Benzedrine’ll help,”  she tells her, while handing over a pill. Her evil influence on Ivy Lynn, convincing her to personify the worst aspects of Marilyn on stage and off, is now a main driver of the plot.  

Other actors have their comic moments. The songwriting team of Jerry and Tracy (John Behlmann and Rodriguez) bicker and banter and keep on purloining songs and jokes for “Bombshell” from previous musicals of theirs, because, as they say, no one saw their older shows anyway.  Nicholas Matos makes a surprisingly memorable Broadway debut as the obnoxious assistant (here called Scott; in the original, the characer’s name was Ellis.) 

“Smash” can be viewed as a thought-provoking experiment in cross-platform adaptation.  Do the musical numbers, now that they’re actually on Broadway, feel less legitimate than they did when they were part of a TV show? Is the theatergoing experience now confused or undermined by the clash of tones between the relatively straightforward musical numbers and the flippant, farcical scenes in-between them?  Do the characters, albeit in the flesh, feel more shallow because they’re now participants in a comedy rather than a drama, and because we’re getting them for only two and a half hours rather than 32 (even though the backstories in the series were relatively shallow?)  Would “Bombshell” have worked as a standalone musical, rather than as a musical within a musical; could the numbers have been presented directly, rather than under the fiction that they are being performed during rehearsal or impromptu? If it’s not interesting enough as a musical, why are they asking us to invest our time and emotion in the fiction of making it?

“Smash” doesn’t engage directly with these questions. But in Act II, when the musical more or less runs out of plot, it does start exhibiting a clever kind of self-awareness, in what may be a backhanded acknowledgement of the role that social media played in the popularity of the original “Smash.” Scott is always glued to his smartphone, talking constantly about memes and trending and likes. There are some jokey unkind references to influencers. Above all, there are two montages of (made-up) social media posts, at first expressing competing membership in Team Ivy or Team Chloe, but eventually condemning “Bombshell” for the turn it takes – a turn that the producer Anita (Jacqueline B. Arnold) describe as “all this ‘depth’ we’re adding,” showing some of the dark side of Marilyn Monroe. As one poster puts it:  “200 bucks for a ticket. I can stay home and be depressed for free.”

What the show seems to be telling us:  Yes, “Smash” is a frothy entertainment capitalizing on brand awareness. Isn’t that what you really want?

Smash
Imperial Theater
Running time: 2 hours and 30 minutes, including intermission
Tickets: $84 to $329
Music by Marc Shaiman; Lyrics by Scott Wittman & Marc Shaiman
Book by Rick Elice & Bob Martin, Based on the series created by Theresa Rebeck
Choreography by Joshua Bergasse
Directed by Susan Stroman
Scenic Design by Beowulf Boritt; Costume Design by Alejo Vietti; Lighting Design by Ken Billington; Sound Design by Brian Ronan; Video Design by S. Katy Tucker; Hair and Wig Design by Charles G. LaPointe; Make-Up Design by Joe Dulude 
Cast: Robyn Hurder  as “Ivy,”  Brooks Ashmanskas  as “Nigel,” Krysta Rodriguez as “Tracy,” John Behlmann  as “Jerry,” Kristine Nielsen as “Susan,” Caroline Bowman as “Karen,” Jacqueline B. Arnold as “Anita,” Bella Coppola as “Chloe,” Casey Garvin as “Charlie,” Nicholas Matos as “Scott,” Megan Kane as “Holly.” Wendi Bergamini, Sarah Bowden, Jacob Burns, Deanna Cudjoe, Chelle Denton, Daniel Gaymon, Merritt David Janes, Ndaya Dream Hoskins, David Paul Kidder, Ian Liberto, Libby Lloyd, McGee Maddox, Connor McRory, J Savage, Jake Trammel and Katie Webber.