Grace Gummer Set to Guest Star on NBC's Smash

It's official, NBC's new Broadway-filled series SMASH will premiere on February 6 at 10pm, and Grace Gummer has joined a long list of theatre veterans who willl guest star on the show, according to Variety. Gummer will play the daughter of Angelica Huston and Michael Cristofer's characters.

Gummer made her stage debut in 2008 in Lukas Bärfuss's The Sexual Neuroses of Our Parents. She starred as Anna Moore on the TeenNick show Gigantic, which premiered October 8, 2010. She most recently played  Chloe Coverly in the revival of Arcadia by Tom Stoppard at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre in New York.

The show, which is about a group of people who come together to put on a Broadway musicalwas developed by NBC's Robert Greenblatt, Steven Spielberg, and Broadway producing team Craig Zadan and Neil Meron. Broadway's Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman wrote the music for the show. Michael Mayer directed the project, and playwright Theresa Rebeck penned the script.

There's nothing more exciting than the opening night of a hit Broadway musical, except maybe what happens getting there. While Wicked and The Lion King pack audiences in on the Great White Way, Julia and Tom, a successful songwriting team played by Debra Messing and Christian Borle, begin work on a new musical based on the life of Marilyn Monroe. When a tenacious producer (Anjelica Houston) jumps aboard, so begins the difficult task of casting the silver screen icon.

Ivy Lynn, a tough Broadway veteran, seems like the obvious choice. But enter Karen Cartwright (Katharine McPhee), a young girl from Iowa with a dream of making it on Broadway who walks in and blows everyone away. So who will get the part and begin a journey that will change their lives? It's an age-old story, but a star just might be born once again.

While everyone is consumed with putting the show together, real life has a tendency of getting in the way. Julia and her husband are in the middle of a complicated adoption; the producer's husband begins divorce proceedings which could threaten the finances of the show; and the brilliant but womanizing director could derail everything if he puts the young star in a compromising position. This will be a rollercoaster ride that culminates on opening night when the audience gets to determine whether or not the show is a smash!

 

 

Photo Credit: Walter McBride/WM Photos

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