Jennifer Hudson Joins the Production Team of Broadway-Bound Smash Musical: ‘I’m so Excited’

Jennifer Hudson is experiencing a full-circle moment.

More than a decade after her unforgettable guest appearance on the second season of NBC’s cult favorite TV show in 2013. Breakthe EGOT winner announced Thursday that she will join the production team of the upcoming adaptation of the stage musical alongside executive producers Robert Greenblatt, Neil Meron and Steven Spielberg.

“That show meant so much to me, and obviously it meant a lot to others,” Hudson, 42, said on her self-titled talk show, explaining that her role as fictional actress Veronica Moore on the show was her first taste of what it would be like to be on Broadway.

The musical ‘Smash’ is heading to Broadway for the 2024-25 season

Jennifer Hudson as Veronica Moore and Katharine McPhee as Karen Cartwright in ‘Smash’.

Eric Liebowitz/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty

Years later, in 2015, Hudson would live those dreams into reality, playing Shug Avery in a revival of the Tony-winning film Purple. “Steven Spielberg was the producer,” she said of the production, which also starred Cynthia Erivo and Danielle Brooks. “I never would have guessed at that point that one day I would be able to be a producing partner with him.”

She went on to explain that the concert was a testament to the mantra she embraced called “nothing is fair.”

“I always say, ‘If you give me a chance, I’ll make it work.’ So I’m asking you to think the same,” Hudson said. “Just know that whatever you do, don’t be like, ‘Oh, I’m just doing it,’ because you never know what it might lead to next.’

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Jennifer Hudson announces on ‘The Jennifer Hudson Show’ that she will help produce ‘Smash’ on Broadway.

Show Jennifer Hudson/ Youtube

Break will open on Broadway in the spring of 2025.

Like the series, the musical will follow the action of the fictional musical called “Bombshell” about the life of the famous Hollywood icon Marilyn Monroe. Music comes from the Tony and Grammy winning duo of Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman (Some Like It Hot, Hairspray, Mary Poppins Returns, etc.), who famously wrote more than twenty songs for the television show.

Many of Shaiman and Wittman’s songs, including the Emmy-nominated “Let Me Be Your Star,” will appear in Break on stage. But the story will be quite different from the series, so those expecting a backstage battle between Karen Cartwright (Katharine McPhee on screen) and Ivy Lynn (Megan Hilty) are in for a surprise.

Two of Broadway’s most seasoned masters — Tony nominees Rick Elice (Jersey Boys, Peter and the Starcatcher) and Tony winner Bob Martin (Prom night, sleepy chaperone) — co-author of the book.

Katharine McPhee and Megan Hilty in ‘Smash’. Mark Seliger/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty

Five-time Tony winner Susan Stroman directs, while Joshua Bergasse — who won an Emmy for his choreography on Break — again behind Marilyn’s moves.

No Broadway dates or actors announced yet, but workshop presentations Break held in February in New York. The cast included a sea of ​​Broadway talent including Robyn Hurder, Brooks Ashmanskas, Alex Brightman, Krysta Rodriguez and Kristine Nielsen.

Community star Yvette Nicole Brown was also in the production, playing a role that, if reprized in the spring, will mark her Broadway debut.

Hudson has produced very successfully on Broadway in the past. She won a Tony Award as part of the creative team behind the best musical of 2002 A strange loopthe trophy that completed her EGOT title.

Besides working with Spielberg on Purple and her work on Break, Hudson has previously collaborated with Shaiman, Wittman, Greenblatt and Meron. She starred as Motormouth Maybelle in the NBC production Hairspray live! in 2016.

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Jennifer Hudson in the movie ‘Smash’.

Will Hart/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty

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Break it only had two seasons on NBC, after premiering in February 2012, but its popularity has grown in the years since.

The cast — including Debra Messing, Christian Borle and Jeremy Jordan — reunited in June 2015 to perform a charity concert of songs from “Bombshell” at the Minskoff Theater in New York. It sold out in fifteen minutes.

It was filmed and eventually aired during the early days of the 2019 pandemic as a benefit for The Actor’s Fund (Entertainment Community Fund).

For more information about Breakvisit the show’s official website.

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Source: HIS Education