Megan Hilty in NBC's "Smash"

The character Ivy Lynn on Smash, NBC’s new musical drama series, wants to be a star. Megan Hilty, the actress who plays her, already is. Having made her debut in Wicked a decade ago, the 31-year-old has also starred in 9 to 5 and just wrapped a role as Lorelei Lee in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes at City Center. Now, while recording her first solo CD, the Broadway luminary can be found in her Upper West Side neighborhood talking with fans. They are known to stop her on the street by yelling out one word, “Smash.”

(By Angela Barbuti)

When did you first grace Broadway?
I was just out of college and got the standby for Glinda in Wicked. I ended up making my Broadway debut standing in a bubble opposite Idina Menzel, which was amazing. I had just graduated college, so I must have been 23.

Would you consider Wicked your big break?
Oh, absolutely. I owe everything to that show and Joe Mantello [the director]. I spent four and a half years of my life in it. It was an amazing platform, both in New York and L.A.

What is a typical day like on the set of Smash?
It’s long, but really fun—especially for me and Kat [McPhee], When we’re not shooting, we’re in the recording studio, learning choreography or at costume fittings. It’s such a great group of people, so there’s a lot of laughter on set. We’re always goofing around.

Are there similarities between Ivy and yourself?
I would say the biggest is our ambition. I think Ivy’s willing to go a little farther [laughs] and sacrifice more to make her dreams come true. I think one really relatable thing about Ivy is that everyone knows what it’s like to be stuck in their jobs, dying to do anything to take that next step, and feel like people don’t see their full potential. I don’t believe you have to be a theater person to know that; I think that’s pretty universal.

Bernadette Peters plays your mother on the show. Is it true she is the only person you ever wrote a fan letter to?
It’s so true! I knew I was going to meet her when I performed for her at a gala while I was in college. I needed her to know how important she is to my career and life, so I wrote this big letter and handed it to her. There was no return address; I didn’t want her to do anything. She was nice when I told her about it; she pretended to remember it [laughs].

You have said you are not a great dancer. How do you fake it on television?
I would say that I move well, but the rest is Josh Bergasse. He’s an incredible choreographer and knows how to play to people’s strengths and make it look like we know what we’re doing—or at least me. Everybody else really does know what they’re doing!

Can you give us some hints about the next season?
Not really, because I don’t know of anything that’s actually been cleared to be written. I’m hoping that Ivy gets it together a little bit and gets to have something that she can really celebrate and not feel totally threatened and insecure about. And maybe a really cool boyfriend, who actually treats her nicely.

Were you surprised to learn that Ivy sleeps with her rival’s boyfriend?
That was one of the moments where my jaw hit the floor! I couldn’t believe that I didn’t see it coming, that ultimate betrayal. It was definitely one of the juicier moments of the season.

Describe the CD you are recording.
[It’s] all songs from the movies, so they’re recognizable, with new arrangements. Hopefully it will be out early next year.

You said that people notice you more now…
It’s great that fans are excited about the show, and I love talking about it with people. They have very strong opinions and have no problem coming right up and telling me! Sometimes they just scream “Smash” at me. I’m not quite sure what to do with that [laughs].

In your opinion, what is the best show on Broadway at the moment?
It’s a tie between Peter and the Starcatcher and Venus in Fur.

What role would you like to play on Broadway?
That’s another tie: Mrs. Lovett in Sweeney Todd and the Witch in Into the Woods.

How would you describe Broadway in one word?
Magical.

You recently tweeted that you dyed your hair blond. Are you a natural blonde?
Oh yeah, just not as blond as I have it now [laughs].

What advice would you give a young person trying to make it as an actor in New York City?
If you really want to be an actor, you have to figure out why. Ask yourself why your heart’s in it, because if it’s not in it for the right reasons, this town will eat you up. There’s a huge misconception that this job is glamorous, and it’s anything but. Even when you think you have the greatest job in the world, it could end tomorrow. And be nice. Not only is it nice to be nice, but you don’t want to burn any bridges. You never know if the person’s who’s getting you coffee one day could be your boss the next.
For more information on Hilty, check out www.meganhiltyonline.com.

Once the Giants won this year’s Super Bowl, it was time for another New York story to unfold on TV screens: Theresa Rebeck’s Smash, a behind-the-scenes look at Broadway that includes Steven Spielberg on its laundry list of executive producers. Ratings for the overhyped series were anemic to begin with, and five episodes have only continued to decline.  I’m all for the increased exposure of theater, as it can only help the industry and the players within it, but Smash has hit too many wrong notes. What went wrong?

Caption: Katherine McPhee in NBC’s Smash.

It isn’t Glee. Rebeck, Spielberg, and whatever other creative powers at be who convinced NBC that the success of the FOX show had pulled the rip-chord on a mainstream musical television audience throughout the country missed the point. The songs on Glee are almost entirely covers of pop songs past and present. They’re evergreens, songs with a built-in audience, chosen the way a wedding band picks which songs to perform and which ones to avoid like the plague. Some may be dramatically arranged or choreographed, but audiences applaud them because of their familiarity.

Smash does shoehorn in occasional covers as well, but composers Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman, have endeavored to write original show tunes for the show’s Marilyn Monroe-themed show-within-a-show (which, in a wily act of commercial desperation, Spielberg, et al, hope can become a real Broadway musical). Some (“Let Me Be Your Star,” “Let’s Be Bad”) are better than others (“Mr. and Mrs. Smith”), but few tap into the contemporary sensibilities that send Katy Perry and Flo Rida up the charts. Are they more qualified than those guys to do so? Yes. Should show tunes dominate airplay and downloads? Yes. There was a time when singles like “And I am Telling You,” “I Am What I Am,” and “Memory” were top-selling, Grammy-winning pop hits. But that day ended before most Glee fans and cast members alike were even born.

Moreover, while Glee features a bunch of theatrical teenagers, the focus is on their relationships. Creator Ryan Murphy’s skill in engineering the show is that the music is a conduit to the characters’ stories, which – inane and inconsistent as they can often be – are ultimately universal.  Glee is about the tentative connections the characters have with each other. It’s about their vulnerabilities; their unchecked ambitions and the fear that any of their dreams might not come true. People feel all of these sentiments more acutely in high school, when they are still coming to terms with who they are, than they do as professionals in adulthood. The characters in Smash, on the other hand, are mostly already established and rich. Their dreams have come true, and their bitterness is already inherent by the time we met them. The characters in Glee look forward to their future; the ones in Smash have a past.

That’s why when any of the students in Lima rejoices at the thought of eating out at Breadsticks, even those carb-counters in the audience can embrace the notion of going out to family-friendly chain restaurant. When Eileen (Anjelica Huston) gets her table at Bond 45, though, it’s a tell-tale elitist tag. These characters are rich and enjoy a lifestyle (I mean, those townhouses? Come on!) most people in any industry, let alone show biz, cannot. It’s also a reference that only a tiny fraction of the national audience might get. Murphy has opened up the world of Glee to celebrate and embrace all of its watchers, while Smash essentially closes the doors on its own. Its world remains hermetically sealed.

There’s one more problem with Smash: they picked the wrong girl. Broadway baby Megan Hilty’s Ivy got cast in the lead role of Marilyn in and on the show, but Katharine McPhee’s Karen is the series’ protagonist, as well as presumptive eventual replacement for Ivy as Marilyn. Karen is the underdog, though many have scoffed at the “Introducing Katharine McPhee” treatment Smash has laid out for her, as she’s been in the public consciousness since coming in second place to Taylor Hicks on American Idol more than a half-decade ago. This is the same treatment Bill Condon gave to Jennifer Hudson in Dreamgirls, but that worked because she played opposite Beyoncé Knowles, a bigger star playing a bigger star the whole time. Smash looks to synergize McPhee the star with Karen the character, but the parallel is disingenuous: Hilty is the real underdog here, and in having the audience root against Ivy, the series subverts its main plot, making whatever turns come in between now and season’s end feel like moot filler.

Still, a show could have all of these flaws and still be a hit. Maybe, for better or worse, the most alluring venue to catch a show about Broadway is…on stage.