* You're already sick to death of Fox's "Glee," and a show about the making of a Broadway musical sounds an awful lot like "Glee" for grown-ups.
Well, it is, and isn't.
"Smash," which sets out to trace the development of an original piece of theater about Marilyn Monroe, is more like "Glee" by grown-ups. The actors sing and dance, but whether singing or speaking, they're fully realized characters, not freakishly talented pawns, and their stories - and choices - reflect a real-life awareness I only wish "Glee" could muster.
Plus: No theme weeks.
* You figure you've already seen this show, in which Debra Messing plays a woman whose best friend is a gay guy.
It says something about how different, almost un-Messing-like, Messing's Julia, one-half of a successful Broadway songwriting team, is from Grace that I almost forgot there might be a "Will & Grace" comparison. In any case, her writing partner Tom (Christian Borle) is no more like Eric McCormack's Will than I am like Madonna.
Successful, married to a stay-at-home dad and in the process of trying to adopt a daughter from China, Julia isn't quite as much in control of her life as she seems at first, but next to Grace, she's the Rock of Gibraltar.
* You're tired of singing competitions. Especially "American Idol."
Much is made in NBC's sometimes spoilerish promos of the rivalry between "Idol" runner-up Katharine McPhee's ingenue character and Megan Hilty's Broadway veteran, but a considerable chunk of the magic of "Smash" is in its depiction of the creative process, not just the casting one.
It doesn't hurt that those catchy original songs Messing and Borle are pretending to write are actually by executive producers (and "Hairspray" collaborators) Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman.
