Anjelica Huston may have starred on the NBC musical series Smash, but she admits she didn’t feel happy on the show.
In an interview with People magazine, the actress reflected on starring alongside Katherine McPhee, Megan Hilty, Debra Messing and Jack Davenport on the TV show.
Huston played Broadway producer Eileen Rand during Smash‘s two seasons. The series was cancelled in 2013.
“I wasn’t very happy when I was on that show,” Huston told the publication. “I was living in New York and I wasn’t very happy living in New York for the obvious reasons. It was a cold winter, and I didn’t feel very prized in that role. I was a bit depressed by it. It was hard really; I didn’t really have a good time making it.”
While on the show Huston was also still mourning the loss of her husband of 16 years, Robert Graham, who died in 2008.
“Bob was very special and very irreplaceable,” she said. “A lot’s gone on since Bob died.”
Huston’s comments come amid a Broadway adaptation of the show that opened Thursday night. Robert Greenblatt, Neil Meron and Steven Spielberg are lead producing, with Susan Stroman, a five-time Tony Award winner for The Producers, directing.
The Broadway show stars Robyn Hurder, Brooks Ashmanskas, Krysta Rodriguez, John Behlmann, Kristine Nielsen, Caroline Bowman, Jacqueline B. Arnold, Bella Coppola and Casey Garvin. Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman wrote the score, which includes many of the songs the two wrote for the television show including “Let Me Be Your Star” and “Don’t Forget Me” as well as new material. Joshua Bergasse who choreographed the television series, returns as choreographer of the stage show.
The Broadway show has long been in the works, with Greenblatt and other team members first discussing bringing the show to a bigger stage after a 2015 one-night charity benefit concert version of Bombshell. It was originally announced for Broadway in 2020 but delayed, and the team held a developmental workshop of the show last summer.
The series centers on the approaching opening night for Bombshell, a new show about Marilyn Monroe. The synopsis of the Broadway show reads: “Nearly breaking under the pressure, legendary Broadway star Ivy Lynn causes a series of hilarious set-backs and surprises that brings a diva director, a bewildered producer, two exasperated authors, one eager understudy and an entire company to its knees. But the curtain’s going up, no matter what.”