NBC will be coordinating a new effort to keep musical theater alive concurrently with the upcoming premiere of the new musical series Smash. The peacock network is partnering with iTheatrics to launch Make a Musical, which will help to fund and encourage the creation and performances is schools across America. Take that, Glee.
The upcoming NBC series that has been drawing comparisons to the Fox hit follows a group of people trying to make a Broadway musical about the life of Marilyn Monroe. The series has Steven Spielberg among the producers and stars Debra Messing, Anjelica Huston, Katherin McPhee and several other well known names. The series producers deny it has any similarities with Glee aside from music.
Tying in with the series will be the Make a Musical initiative, which according to Playbill will start by providing 20 schools suffering from a lack of arts programs with the funding and the equipment to start up a musical theater program. These schools will be announced on January 13th at the Junior Musical Theatre Festival in Atlanta, and are found in cities including Seattle, Chicago, Atlanta, Cleveland and Boston. By fall the initiative expects to add a further 180 schools to the roster. Schools can apply for the fall program here. iTheatrics founder Tim McDonald has high hopes for the program:
”Through NBC's 'Smash': Make a Musical program, NBC is literally building the future artists and arts-supporters of tomorrow by giving schools the knowledge they need to create stand-alone arts programs in their communities.”
Smash premieres on February 6th on NBC and certainly has plenty to live up to in the shadow of Glee - whether or not the two series are similar has very little to do with the fact that they will be compared by fans and critics alike. The philanthropic initiative accompanying the series premie is sure to get this new musical series some attention if nothing else.
