Where to Watch Smash Before Seeing It on Broadway

Smash could be coming to Broadway. Deadline reports that a musical version of the TV show is planned for the 2024-2025 season. Robert Greenblatt, the creator of the NBC series, is producing the staged version along with executive producers Steven Spielberg and Neil Meron, and many other crew members from the original series, including composers Rick Elice and Bob Martin and choreographer Joshua Bergasse. No casting announcements have been made yet, but we can only assume that two Broadway hopefuls are battling it out for the lead as we speak.

While this is certainly exciting for fans of the show, that means it will be at least a year and half until we get another fix of the cult favorite. The NBC series, which aired for two seasons from January 2012 through May 2013 has been difficult to find on streaming without paying to rent or buy the series. NBC’s own site teases with a list of every episode, but clicking through, almost every video is “no longer available.” The one exception? The series finale, “The Tonys,” but the payoff isn’t quite the same without watching the other 31 episodes first.

The show’s producers say the plot will stray from the series’s, so watching the original isn’t required to enjoy the stage show. But for those who want to dive back into the series or check it out for the first time to see what all the fuss is about, here’s everything you need to know about watching Smash.

Where is Smash streaming?

Smash is streaming for free on The Roku Channel. Anyone can sign up for the free FAST Channel app, which is available via internet browser or download on Roku and Fire TV devices. The entire series is also available to purchase on Prime Video, Vudu, Apple TV, Google Play, and YouTube.

Also on YouTube is the full-length version of Bombshell the Musical Live, which was performed and recorded in June 2015 and was released as a livestream during the early days of the pandemic in 2020 to raise money for what was then called The Actor’s Fund (now the Entertainment Community Fund). This is currently the best reference for what the series’s move from screen to stage will look like.

Peacock, which is the home for many of NBC’s past and present series on streaming, doesn’t yet have Smash in its library. That’s a huge missed opportunity, and if the execs of the streaming platform knows what’s good for them, now would be the time to add the show. Peacock hosts a mix of NBC classics and more recent short-lived shows that have found new life thanks to streaming — Smash would fit right in in the archive. It could be enough to get Smash fans without a Peacock subscription to join the service, and the buzz building around the musical could lead to more interest in the series, prompting curious viewers to turn to Peacock first to check it out. 

What is Smash about?

Smash follows a group of Broadway creatives putting together a new musical all about Marilyn Monroe titled Bombshell. Julia Houston (Debra Messing) and Tom Levitt (Christian Borle) make up the veteran songwriting team writing the musical, Derek Willis (Jack Davenport) is the director who gets a little too cozy with his actors, and Karen Cartwright (Katharine McPhee) and Ivy Lynn (Megan Hilty) are the rising starlets competing for the role of Marilyn. As creation of the musical goes on, the rivalry between Karen and Ivy grows, and over the course of two seasons, the production is plagued by tawdry affairs, financial fraud, and some major bombs on stage. Throughout, the series is filled with original musical numbers that range from staged performances and rehearsals to more spontaneous (but still intentional and grounded somewhat in reality) musical outbursts taking place throughout New York City.

The Broadway musical will include many of the songs from the TV show, including the Emmy-nominated “Let Me Be Your Star,” alongside new music. However, according to Deadline, the musical’s plot will “depart liberally from the series.”

“Ever since the show ended in 2013, not a week goes by that someone doesn’t ask us when will they see Smash as a musical,” Smash executive producer Neil Meron said in a statement to Deadline. “We think we’ve come up with something the die-hard series fans will love but that will also be exciting for people who never saw an episode of the show.”

Smash Seasons 1 and 2 are streaming on The Roku Channel. Join the discussion about the show in our forums.

Brianna Wellen is a TV Reporter at Primetimer who became obsessed with television when her parents let her stay up late to watch E.R.