Behind every musical is a hot mess.
“Smash,” the Broadway play that opened at the Imperial Theatre on April 10, has abruptly announced its final show date after struggling at the box office and suffering a 2025 Tony Awards shutout.
Executive producers Steven Spielberg, Robert Greenblatt and Neil Meron made the closing announcement on Tuesday. Playbill confirmed that the comedy’s final show date will be June 22 after a total of 32 previews and just 84 regular performances.
Inspired by the canceled NBC series of the same name, “Smash” is a musical about the making of a musical.
Directed by Susan Stroman and featuring music by Marc Shaiman, it follows a group of theater artists as they try to create a Broadway production about Marilyn Monroe called “Bombshell.”
But the box office numbers were not in the play’s favor, and the New York Times reported that the meta musical’s weekly grosses were down from $1 million at its peak to $656K the week ending June 8.
The outlet also reported that $20 million was invested to bringing “Smash” in Broadway to life, and so far, that money has not been recouped.
This marks the first Broadway production to shutter after leaving empty-handed at the 2025 Tony Awards on Sunday.
Although “Smash” was nominated for Best Choreography and Best Featured Actor, it didn’t win either.
Spielberg, Greenblatt, and Meron’s decision to close the musical after less than three months of regular performances comes after some behind-the-scenes drama unfolded at the Tonys.
Both “Smash” and “Boop! The Betty Boop Musical” were left fuming because the award show’s producers refused to let either play perform during the three-hour broadcast on CBS Sunday night.
“It’s bizarre,” one Broadway producer said, although neither “Smash” nor “Boop!” was nominated for Best Musical this year.
The Post exclusively confirmed that both productions were willing to pay the $300K that a Tony Awards appearance costs but were still rejected by the award show’s producers.
Spielberg, Greenblatt and Meron first announced that “Smash” was heading to Broadway in 2020, seven years after the NBC series ended in 2013 after just two seasons.
The trio also served as producers of the original show.
“‘Smash’ is near and dear to my heart, and it was always my hope that a musical inspired by the show would eventually come to the stage,” Spielberg, 78, said in 2023.
“We think we’ve come up with something the die-hard series fans will love but that will also be exciting for people who never saw an episode of the show,” Meron, 69, added.
“And above all else,” he continued, “it will be a valentine to the Broadway musical and the exhilarating rollercoaster ride of bringing one to life.”
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
