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NBC Snags Spielberg Musical

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Now that Glee has proven that there’s room on the small screen for musicals, it’s inevitable that more song-and-dance series will make their way to television screens. But I don’t think anyone expected Steven Spielberg to be behind the next one.

Spielberg has just sold a musical idea to NBC called Smash, which follows a group of characters as they put together a Broadway musical. Reportedly, new NBC honcho Robert Greenblatt first tried getting Smash on Showtime, where he formerly worked. But now NBC has greenlit the pilot, which was written by playwright Theresa Rebeck and is being produced by Broadway heavyweights Craig Zadan and Neil Meron of Hairspray, along with Spielberg and DreamWorks TV.

Unlike Glee, Smash will utilize original songs written for the show, from award-winning songwriters Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman.

Glee hit on such a unique formula: a situation that calls for music to believably enter the drama, witty/quirky high school characters, and fun remakes of established hit pop songs. I’m unconvinced that its success can be so easily replicated.

Two musical series follow in Glee’s footsteps

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Ryan Murphy stumbled on to a winning formula with Glee. He succeeded where other TV musical series failed like Hotel Babylon or Cop Rock. It may be because his deft mix of teen dramedy and contemporary songs reinterpreted as glee club numbers is just too catchy to ignore. With a runaway success like Glee expect copycats to emerge.

One copycat series is set to debut next year. Smash is a new NBC series that will revolve around Broadway, which is a topic that is as obvious as a high school glee club. The new series will star, among others, American Idol runner-up Katherine McPhee, who has been bouncing from one project to another looking for that one opportunity that will propel her to stardom. Will it be Smash? We’ll see.

Another copycat series has already debuted in Asia. The new series is predictably called The Kitchen Musical, but has a less obvious setting – the kitchen. The series will revolve around a cast of characters who are chefs working in the kitchen of a restaurant. This is going to be a pan-Asian production that will involve actors and singers from different Asian countries like Singapore, the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia. In an unprecedented move, it will also be aired concurrently in various Asian countries. This could bode well for the whole Asian entertainment industry since collaborations like this will result in great developments in all countries involved.

Will it find success in Asia? It most probably will. It’s not going to be a strong threat to Glee though.