NBC and Columbia Records have announced that the soundtrack from the first season of NBC’s musical hit SMASH (Mondays, 10-11 p.m. ET) will be released on May 1. The highly anticipated album will feature stars Katharine McPhee (Karen), Megan Hilty (Ivy Lynn) and other cast members performing the original music created for the show’s narrative and for the musical-within-a-musical. The freshman series already has been renewed for a second season.
Highlighted on the album will be the Broadway-caliber songs written for the series by Tony and Grammy winners Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman. The SMASH album will also include some of the pop tunes that have been adapted for the show, such as Christina Aguilera’s “Beautiful,” the show-stopping song that Karen sings so effectively for her audition that she is plucked, literally, from obscurity to audition for the musical’s starring role.
Among the songs included on the soundtrack are the charming “Mr. and Mrs. Smith,” sung by Hilty as the character of Marilyn and Will Chase performs as the actor playing her new husband, Joe DiMaggio. McPhee got pulses pounding when she was featured in a Super Bowl promo spot singing the sultry “Touch Me.” And one of the season’s most attention-getting songs has been the stunning “Let Me Be Your Star,” seen in the pilot and sung simultaneously by Hilty and McPhee. In addition, Hilty’s show-stopping performance of “Crazy Dreams” will also be included on the soundtrack.
Through March 26, SMASH is averaging a 3.2 rating in adults 18-49 and 9.1 viewers overall on NBC, nearly tripling what the network was averaging in 18-49 in the Monday 10-11 p.m. ET slot prior to SMASH in 18-49 (with a 3.2 rating vs. a 1.1) and generating an increase of 4.9 million persons in total viewers (9.1 million vs. 4.2 million). SMASH has delivered NBC's eight highest in-season adult 18-49 ratings in the time period since January 2011.
NBC’s SMASH celebrates the beauty and heartbreak of the Broadway theater as it follows a cross-section of dreamers and schemers who all have one common desire – to be a “Smash.” Evolving from an idea of executive producer and multiple Emmy and Oscar winner Steven Spielberg (“ER,” Schindler’s List), the series unites the hit-making Broadway writing team of Julia Houston (Debra Messing) and Tom Levitt with producer Eileen Rand (Anjelica Huston) to create a new musical based on the life of Marilyn Monroe, and seasoned chorus girl Ivy Lynn (Hilty, “9 to 5: The Musical”) vies with newcomer Karen Cartwright (McPhee, AMERICAN IDOL) for the role of a lifetime.
The cast also features Jack Davenport, Raza Jaffrey, Brian d’Arcy James (“Shrek the Musical”) and Jaime Cepero (“Porgy & Bess”).
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