10 backstage Broadway secrets from the company of 'Smash'

The Smash musical, adapted from the hit NBC TV series of the same name, gives audiences a peek into the making of a fictional musical about Marilyn Monroe.

Broadway is known for its glitz, glamour, and grandeur. You see the talent of great actors live and up close, their performances complemented by polished visuals, music, and choreography. But what goes on behind the scenes? There's plenty of action, celebration, and even organized chaos the audience doesn't see.

However, the new musical comedy Smash is putting all that in the spotlight. Loosely adapted from the hit NBC TV series and featuring its beloved songs by Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman, the show centers on the making of a Broadway musical about Marilyn Monroe.

The cast of characters includes actors (played by Robyn Hurder, Caroline Bowman, and Casey Garvin), writers (Krysta Rodriguez and John Behlmann), directors and choreographers (Brooks Ashmanskas, with Bella Coppola as his associate), producers (Jacqueline B. Arnold, with Nicholas Matos as her assistant), acting coaches (Kristine Nielsen), and more.

Audiences get a firsthand glimpse at how all these people make a spectacle happen — and the drama that brews along the way. In the spirit of Smash, its cast and creative team shared some little-known facts about the world of Broadway beyond the stage. Take a peek behind the curtain, and see all the action live at the Imperial Theatre.

Get Smash tickets now.

Broadway performers get one day off per week.

Most Broadway shows play eight performances a week, scheduled over the course of six days. Only one day per week (usually Monday) is "dark," meaning no performances take place.

Since most theatregoers only see a show once, they often forget the performers have to maintain this schedule for months, if not more. The average contract for an actor in an open-ended show (as opposed to a limited run) is about a year.

"You just have to do it over and over again and still make it fresh and make it work," said Bella Coppola. The audience has to feel like they're seeing a totally unique performance — and in many ways, they are. Anything can happen from night to night!

There's as much action happening backstage as on stage.

"A complex Broadway musical is a really careful machine with lots of moving parts," said Smash co-bookwriter Bob Martin. He means it literally. "You can be killed by sliding set pieces!"

Co-bookwriter Rick Elice describes the backstage commotion as "choreography the audience never sees." For example, a 15-second costume change takes a village: "Somebody's holding the shoe and somebody's putting the wig on and somebody's fixing the mic and somebody's getting you some water, and then the [actor] walks out, all smiles."

All this often happens just out of the audience's view. Joked Jacqueline B. Arnold, "If we were off by an inch, you'd probably see naked people."

Broadway theatres are smaller than you think.

All 41 Broadway theatres have at least 600 seats. Sounds big, right? Not so much backstage. Actors have to squeeze past set pieces, crew members, castmates doing quick changes — and "100 years of dust," joked Krysta Rodriguez — to get where they need to go.

Dressing rooms aren't much more spacious, especially in smaller venues. But Kristine Nielsen said being in constant close proximity has an upside: "You get to know each other really well and invest in each other as people."

Dressing rooms are like actors' second homes.

In Nielsen's words, dressing rooms are to actors what dorms are to college students: a home away from home alongside their peers. Some actors even have dressing-roommates, and many bring their own trinkets and furniture to personalize the space.

"[On] a two-show day, I don't even see my husband. I don't even remember my husband!" Nielsen joked. Spending all day in the theatre multiple times a week is "like having another life."

Ensemble members get a special ceremony.

Every Broadway show hosts what's called a "Legacy Robe" ceremony on opening night. The whole cast gathers, and one ensemble member — the one who's done the most ensemble gigs — receives a robe decorated with patches from every Broadway show that opened that season.

"They have to run around in a circle three times and touch everyone's hand and then go to every dressing room in the theatre, and then the show is therefore 'blessed' on opening night," said Casey Garvin. The ceremony celebrates the hard work of ensembles and the community among all Broadway artists.

The orchestra doesn't always play in one place.

People commonly think of an orchestra pit as an area below the stage where the full live band plays, but the setup varies. Some venues only have a small pit where a few musicians can fit. Others have none. Some shows require musicians to play on stage. No matter what, the music team has to get creative.

"I've had shows where the drummer has been on two different drum sets in a dressing room in the back of the theatre," said Smash music supervisor Stephen Oremus. "The strings are on the sixth floor [...] and the other musicians are in the pit."

Live camera feeds help all the musicians see the conductor, and carefully synced audio systems ensure the music sounds seamless to the audience.

Broadway theatres are secretly connected.

In between some theatres are "secret tunnels," per Rodriguez, that connect nearby theatres' backstage entrances. The actress recalled using a passageway to watch her best friend perform in Les Misérables at the Broadhurst Theatre while she was offstage in A Chorus Line at the adjacent Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre.

Walking through those passages alongside others shows' casts, said John Behlmann, is "kind of like those movies where [...] they're on the Paramount lot, so you see people walking by in Roman soldier outfits and then other people walking in cowboy [outfits]."

Broadway shows take a long time to get to their final form.

Here's some quick theatre lingo: "Teching" means rehearsing the show on stage with all the sets, costumes, lights, sound, and props. "Previews" are the earliest performances for a paying audience, during which the creators can edit the show before the official "opening night," when reviews come out.

That in mind, here's how Garvin described the process of getting a show on stage: "[Smash] starts in March, but I start rehearsals in January, and we rehearse for four weeks, and we tech for two weeks, and we start previews for four weeks, where we're changing stuff during the day and doing shows at night, and then we finally open."

That's not to mention the months, years, and sometimes decades between a show's initial concept and the final product Broadway audiences see. Tons of drafts, readings, workshops, and pre-Broadway productions happen in between. The Smash musical, for one, has been in the works since the TV show's premiere in 2012!

You can't whistle backstage.

Broadway shows used to hire off-season sailors for their backstage crews. Sailors had applicable skills, like handling rope systems and patching up canvas. In both settings, they also communicated by whistling. Distinct whistles signaled when to raise, lower, and move set pieces.

So if you whistled backstage, "you could be hit by a sandbag!" said Brooks Ashmanskas.

The superstition persists to this day. "If you whistle, you have to leave, turn around three times, knock on the door, and ask to be let back in," said Robyn Hurder.

"The other one, we're going to keep to ourselves."

Ashmanskas doesn't want to spill all of Broadway's secrets — it's up to you to come to Smash and see more for yourself! Much of the show takes place during rehearsals and backstage, so you'll learn even more about what goes on behind closed curtains. But until then, to quote a Smash song, the rest is "our little secret, just us two."

Get Smash tickets now.

Photo credit: The cast of Smash on Broadway. (Photos by Jenny Anderson)