SMASH's Debra Messing on FUNNY GIRL Worship

In NBC's highly anticipated new series SMASH, Debra Messing plays a lyricist developing a brand new Broadway show about Marilyn Monroe, but according to a recent interview with the Hollywood Reporter she has also been inspired by musical theatre in real life. Messing revealed: "My prototype growing up was Barbra Streisand. That's how I saw myself more at the time, I wanted to be Funny Girl, literally on Broadway and in the real world." 

She added, "She (Monroe) didn't inspire me when I was young because I would have been delusional to think I looked anything like her, or that I could some day become a sex symbol in a similar way," she recalled.

To read the full article, click here.

SMASH, which is about a group of people who come together to put on a Broadway musical, was developed by NBC's Robert Greenblatt, Steven Spielberg, and Broadway producing team Craig Zadan and Neil Meron. Broadway's Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman - whose latest venture, CATCH ME IF YOU CAN, is now running at the Neil Simon Theatre - wrote the music for the show. Michael Mayer directed the project, and playwright Theresa Rebeck penned the script.

The pilot episode has been excitedly screened for NBC executives over the past weeks. The plot will follow an out-of-town tryout of a Broadway musical, and centers around a songwriting team (Debra Messing and Christian Borle) who write a musical about Marilyn Monroe based on an offhanded remark. They post a showstopping number on YouTube. When it's a viral hit, a producer (Anjelica Huston) who's looking to recapture success long past decides to produce the musical. There are two choices to play Marilyn: Karen (Katharine McPhee), a talented young newcomer, and Ivy (Megan Hilty), a theater veteran. Brian d'Arcy James has also been cast as Debra Messing's character's husband.