Jennifer Hudson Joins the Production Team of Broadway-Bound Smash Musical: ‘I’m so Excited’

“That show meant so much to me,” the EGOT winner said of her time on the NBC cult-favorite series

Over a decade after her memorable guest appearance on the 2013 second season of NBC’s cult-favorite TV show Smash, the EGOT winner announced Thursday that she will join the producing team of the upcoming stage musical adaptation alongside lead producers Robert Greenblatt, Neil Meron and Steven Spielberg.

“That show meant so much to me, and apparently it meant a whole lot to others as well,” Hudson, 42, said on her self-titled talk show, explaining that her her role as fictional actress Veronica Moore on the series was the first time she got to experience a taste of what it would be like to be on Broadway.

Jennifer Hudson as Veronica Moore and Katharine McPhee as Karen Cartwright in ‘Smash’.

Years later, in 2015, Hudson would live out those dreams for real, starring as Shug Avery in the Tony-winning revival of The Color Purple.

“Steven Spielberg was a producer,” she said of the production, which also starred Cynthia Erivo and Danielle Brooks. “I never would have guessed in that moment that one day, I would be able to be a producing partner beside him.”

She went on to explain that the gig is proof of a mantra she’s accepted called “nothing is just.”

“I always say, ‘If you give me the opportunity, I will make it work.’ So please think the same,” said Hudson. “Just know that whatever you do, don’t be like, ‘Oh, I’m just doing that’ because you never know what it may lead to next.’

Jennifer Hudson announces on ‘The Jennifer Hudson Show’ that she’ll help produce ‘Smash’ on Broadway.

Smash will open on Broadway in spring 2025.

Like the series, the musical will follow the making of a fictional musical called “Bombshell” about the life of famed Hollywood icon Marilyn Monroe.

The score comes from Tony- and Grammy-winning duo Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman (Some Like It Hot, Hairspray, Mary Poppins Returns, etc.), who famously penned over two dozen songs for the television show.

Many of Shaiman and Wittman’s songs, including the Emmy-nominated “Let Me Be Your Star,” will appear in Smash on stage.

But the story will depart liberally from the series, so those expecting a backstage battle between Karen Cartwright (Katharine McPhee on screen) and Ivy Lynn (Megan Hilty) are in for a surprise.

Two of Broadway’s most seasoned craftsmen — Tony-nominated Rick Elice (Jersey Boys, Peter and the Starcatcher) and Tony-winner Bob Martin (The Prom, The Drowsy Chaperone) — co-wrote the book.

Katharine McPhee and Megan Hilty in ‘Smash’. 

Direction comes from 5-time Tony winner Susan Stroman, while Joshua Bergasse — who won an Emmy for his choreography on Smash — will once again be behind Marilyn’s moves.

No Broadway dates or casting has been announced just yet, but workshop presentations of Smash took place in February in New York City.

Among the cast were a sea of Broadway talent including Robyn Hurder, Brooks Ashmanskas, Alex Brightman, Krysta Rodriguez and Kristine Nielsen.

Community star Yvette Nicole Brown was also among in the production, playing a role that if she replicates in the Spring will mark her Broadway debut.

Hudson has produced on Broadway in the past to much success. She won a Tony award for being a part of the creative team behind 2002’s best musical A Strange Loop, a trophy that completed her EGOT title.

In addition to her work with Spielberg on The Color Purple and her work on Smash, Hudson has collaborated with Shaiman, Wittman, Greenblatt and Meron before. She starred as Motormouth Maybelle in NBC’s production of Hairspray Live! in 2016.

Jennifer Hudson in ‘Smash’.

Smash only had two season on NBC, after premiering in February 2012, but it’s popularity has grown in the years since.

The cast — including Debra Messing, Christian Borle and Jeremy Jordan — reunited in June 2015 to perform a charity benefit concert of the songs from “Bombshell” at the Minskoff Theatre in New York City. It sold out in fifteen minutes.

It was filmed and eventually streamed during the early days of the pandemic in 2019 as a benefit for The Actor’s Fund (Entertainment Community Fund).