\n<\/p>\n
On a recent morning at a rehearsal room on 42nd Street, the actress Robyn Hurder stood atop a pedestal, red lips parted, arms outstretched, blond curls vibrating as she sang the final notes of \u201cLet Me Be Your Star.\u201d Then she collapsed, breathless.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis number\u2019s hard,\u201d she said, her face glistening with sweat. \u201cWho did this?\u201d<\/p>\n
Well, plenty of people. \u201cLet Me Be Your Star\u201d was written over a dozen years ago for the pilot episode of NBC\u2019s \u201cSmash,\u201d a backstage-set nighttime soap about the hectic creation of a Broadway musical, \u201cBombshell.\u201d There were plans to bring \u201cBombshell,\u201d a biomusical about Marilyn Monroe, to the real Broadway, but those plans never came to fruition. Neither did \u201cSmash,\u201d which was canceled after two seasons.<\/p>\n
But \u201cLet Me Be Your Star,\u201d a classic \u201cI want\u201d song that its composer and co-lyricist, Marc Shaiman, has described as a \u201cneck-bursting showstopper,\u201d endures. Originally sung at the close of the pilot<\/a> by Megan Hilty and Katharine McPhee,<\/strong> the song, which was nominated for Grammy and Emmy Awards, has been covered by Andrew Rannells<\/strong> on \u201cGirls,\u201d<\/a> by Jonathan Groff and Jeremy Jordan at MCC Theater\u2019s Miscast benefit<\/a>, by Ben Platt and Nicole Scherzinger<\/strong> in concert<\/a> and by masses of fans (and the occasional Muppet) on Instagram<\/a>, TikTok<\/a> and YouTube<\/a>. Ostensibly a song about Monroe\u2019s life, it resonates for any actor \u2014 and really, anyone \u2014 who longs to shine.<\/p>\n Now it\u2019s been reimagined as the opening number of \u201cSmash,\u201d a new Broadway musical<\/a> that riffs on the TV show. Hurder plays Ivy Lynn, a Broadway actress tasked with playing Marilyn in \u201cBombshell.\u201d This opening version of \u201cLet Me Be Your Star\u201d is staged by the director Susan Stroman and the choreographer Joshua Bergasse (also a veteran of the TV \u201cSmash\u201d) as a Great White Way fever dream featuring elaborate harmonies, athletic dance and a brassy, big-band sound. The song recurs, in a very different style, at the end of the first act, though the producers are keeping those details secret. And it may return a third time.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n