RECAP: Marc Shaiman, Megan Hilty, and Katherine McPhee Sang Songs from SMASH on STARS IN THE HOUSE

Stars in The House, benefiting The Actors Fund, continued Sunday night (8pm) for a BOMBSHELL/SMASH reunion with Katharine McPhee, Megan Hilty, Marc Shaiman, Scott Wittman, Neil Meron, and Robert Greenblatt.

Neil Meron, Robert Greenblatt, Scott Wittman, and Marc Shaiman began the show talking about working together on SMASH.

Katherine McPhee talked about how she got her role in SMASH. "When I was on AMERICAN IDOL, the season was so huge, it was like at the top of its numbers in terms of ratings and I got a call that Steven Spielberg wanted to take a personal meeting with me and if you can only imagine your mind is completely blown. I went into his office...and had a lovely sit down with him and he was asking me what my inspirations were, what I wanted to do. He said 'did you want to do Broadway?' I said 'yea I want to do Broadway one day, I want to act...' He said to me as I was getting ready to leave. He said 'I have an idea...' Then I got a script for it...and when they sent it to me and I didn't even read the script yet I knew exactly what it was and I knew this is the thing Steven Spielberg was talking about all those years ago. I auditioned for it in LA and before I knew it I was on a plane in front of Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman."

Katharine recalled one of her favorite 'mishaps' from WAITRESS. "My favorite story of things gone wrong was actually when I did it in London and this was when we were still in previews...the mean husband comes into the diner and he sits down and I'm supposed to be getting back to work but I'm putting a pie in front of him to get out of the way and to get back to work and I go upstage to get the pie and there's no pie there and I am slowly dying on stage because I'm realizing that there's no pie and the whole next five minutes of the show is about the pie so what am I to do? I basically have to find a pie very quickly so I start wandering around the stage...you couldn't adlib your way through it."

Megan Hilty then talked about a mishap she experienced during WICKED "It was a challenge to keep the comedy fresh, doing the same thing every night so one night I was really focused on the wand when I'm during her ballgown into a frock so I was like doing these deep pliés in seconds so my legs are spread wide apart going really far down and I'm looking really intensely at it and I go to blow hair out of my face as I'm pliéing but my microphone was right here so as I'm doing this deep plie all you hear is this pthhhhhh sound and it rang out in the theatre and it stopped the show, everyone was laughing. So I had to address it and I did it in a way Glinda would so I blamed Elphaba and I said 'excuse you.'"

Marc Shaiman sang "A Love Letter From The Times," Megan Hilty and her husband Brian Gallagher performed "Crazy Dreams," and Katherine McPhee sang "Heart Shaped Wreckage." All songs from SMASH.

Click HERE to watch the full episode.

Stars in The House continues this afternoon (2pm) with Guest Host Laura Benanti & Friends

Current and past episodes can be found on the website starsinthehouse.com, as well as a donate button linking viewers to The Actors Fund.

Photo Credit: Walter McBride / WM Photos

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