In assembling “Smash,” NBC’s ”‘Glee’ for grown-ups” Broadway musical meta-drama (premieres February 6; download premiere episode for free now at iTunes), the network has taken no chances, peopling its “Marilyn: The Musical” making-of tale with Oscar darlings (Anjelica Huston), beloved Emmy winners (Debra Messing) and genuine movie stars (Uma Thurman comes aboard later this season). Add in executive producer Steven Effing Speilberg, and the pedigree alone should make this a slam dunk. But as the fictitious musical’s director (Jack Davenport, who will inspire hate-sex fantasies for weeks) astutely points out, “Without a Marilyn, you’ve got nothing.” Luckily, “Smash” has two: Ivy (mega-talented Broadway vet Megan Hilty), a long-suffering chorus girl on the verge of a breakthrough; and Karen (Katharine McPhee), a stunning nobody with a gorgeous voice. McPhee’s audition scenes – a formal song at a callback and an informal one at the director’s apartment – are worth the price of admission on their own, providing “star-is-born” moments for the character and the actress, who shakes off a six-year “American Idol” hangover and shames everyone (you know who you are) who ever voted for Taylor Hicks.
