Where Are They Now: Catch Up With the ‘Smash’ Cast Before the Drama Hits Broadway
Talk about “bombshell” news: The cancelled-too-soon NBC drama Smash is headed to Broadway!
Like the TV show, Smash: A New Musical will focus on putting together a fictional Broadway musical titled Bombshell and will feature the characters Julia (played on the TV show by Debra Messing), Tom (Christian Borle), Ivy (Megan Hilty), and Karen (Katharine McPhee), but the upcoming production will also “depart liberally from the series,” according to Broadway.com.
The musical news came a day after People and The Actors Fund live-streamed a Smash cast reunion and a filmed version of the 2015 Bombshell in Concert Broadway event.
The big question now is, will any of the TV cast be in the Broadway production? Until we know, you can catch up with the series regulars and see what they’ve been doing in the seven years since the show went off the air.
Debra Messing (Julia Houston)
After Smash, Messing headlined the NBC procedural The Mysteries of Laura; starred in the TV version of Dirty Dancing; and returned to her most famous role, Grace Adler, in NBC’s revival of Will & Grace, earning a ninth Golden Globe nomination in the process.
Jack Davenport (Derek Wills)
Davenport has played two notable husbands in recent years: Jennifer Aniston’s estranged spouse in The Morning Show and Lucy Liu’s in Why Women Kill.
Katharine McPhee (Karen Cartwright)
McPhee, who rose to fame as an American Idol runner-up, starred as Paige Dineen in the CBS action series Scorpion. In 2019, she married music producer David Foster.
Christian Borle (Tom Levitt)
Since Smash, Borle has starred in The Sound of Music Live! and Peter Pan Live!, reunited with real-life ex-wife Sutton Foster in Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life and Younger, and appeared in Something Rotten and Falsettos on Broadway.
Megan Hilty (Ivy Lynn)
Hilty starred in Noises Off on Broadway (and earned a Tony nomination for her performance), guest-starred on both The Good Wife and The Good Fight, and played Patsy Cline in the Lifetime biopic Patsy & Loretta.
Angelica Huston (Eileen Rand)
Huston, known for her Oscar-winning turn in Prizzi’s Honor, has recently appeared in John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum and guest-starred in BoJack Horseman, Transparent, and Angie Tribeca.
Jeremy Jordan (Jimmy Collins)
Jordan starred in the films The Last 5 Years and American Son and in the first three seasons of Supergirl. In 2019, he returned to Broadway in the show Waitress.
Leslie Odom, Jr. (Sam Strickland)
Odom achieved Broadway glory with his performance as Aaron Burr in the hit musical Hamilton, a role for which he won the 2016 Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical. On the big screen, he’s appeared in the films Murder on the Orient Express and Harriet.
Andy Mientus (Kyle Bishop)
Mientus has spent his post-Smash career appearing in Les Misérables and Spring Awakening on Broadway, starring in the WGN America drama Gone, and recurring as Hartley Rathaway/Pied Piper on The Flash. In 2016, he married actor and director Michael Arden.
Krysta Rodriguez (Ana Vargas)
Coincidentally, Rodriguez costarred with Mientus in the revival of Spring Awakening. She also starred in the NBC mockumentary Trial & Error and in the Netflix post-apocalyptic dramedy Daybreak.
Jaime Cepero (Ellis Boyd)
Cepero led the cast of a re-staging of the Broadway musical Hair in Texas in 2017, co-headlined the Off-Broadway production Night of the Living Dead! The Musical! in 2019, and starred in a reimagining of the Broadway musical Godspell in Connecticut this year.
Raza Jaffrey (Dev Sundaram)
After Smash, Jaffrey starred in Code Black and The Enemy Within, recurred on Homeland and Lost in Space, and appeared in the film The Rhythm Section. In 2014, he married fellow Spooks alum Lara Pulver.
Brian d’Arcy James (Frank Houston)
James has starred in the Broadway productions Something Rotten, Hamilton, and The Ferryman; the films Spotlight, Molly’s Game, and First Man; and the Netflix drama 13 Reasons Why.
