‘Smash’ Season 2 Scoop: Is Ivy Replacing Karen In ‘Bombshell?’

Fri, November 16, 2012 11:00am EDT by Andy Swift 19 Comments

Courtesy of NBC

Spoiler alert! A shocking on-set photo reveals a potential twist for Karen & Ivy.

Karen (Katharine McPhee) may have nabbed the lead role in Bombshell‘s out-of-town tryouts, but when the musical finally comes to Broadway, there could be a very different face donning that awful Marilyn Monroe wig. Smash is currently filming its second season, and HollywoodLife.com snapped a photo — it’s filming two feet from our NYC office — that implies two major shakeups for Bombshell.

Scroll down to see the photo, and prepare to have your mind blown:

Not only is Ivy (Megan Hilty) credited as the show’s star, but Tom (Christian Borle) has been promoted to director! Meanwhile, Derek (Jack Davenport) appears to have been downgraded to the show’s choreographer. If Tom really does become the new director of Bombshell, it would certainly make sense for him to replace Karen with Ivy, since he was always a fan of the buxom blonde.

What do YOU think about this poster? Are you glad Ivy is finally getting the role she was born to play, or do you suspect this is merely part of a dream sequence? Drop a comment with your thoughts and theories!

— Andy Swift, reporting by Eleanore Hutch

Follow @AndySwift

More Smash scoop on HollywoodLife.com:

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Hi everyone excuse me for my hawfull english I’m French. Last time I bought a french magazine with an interview of karen and megan, someone ask them who was the best singer and megan said then karen was much better then herself. So just for said she’s confess and she knows who his the better don’t need to argue!! Sorry again for my english ;-)

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Sarah, Megan Hilty (who plays Ivy Lynn in Smash) is a very kind and very modest person – she said Katharine McPhee (who plays Karen Cartwright) was a better singer, Michelle Williams was a better Marilyn, she never takes the credit due to her, this is a pattern of modesty she has shown in interviews since long before “Smash.” If you search Youtube, you will find clips of Hilty singing operetta with a true soprano, she has a full octave of range she has not used on “Smash.” You will also find clips of her alternating coloratura with barrel-house blues growls. She is a better singer than Katharine McPhee, whatever her kindness makes her say in an interview.

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I think it’s pretty obvious (and too bad for you haters of McPhee) that from the previews and from the first episode, Karen and Derek are going to have much bigger things going on that don’t involve Bombshell at all. It looks like there are two things going on, one of which involves Karen in what looks like a pop-star concert context.. Megan Hilty may be really involved in broadway, but we all know who the real star is. Let’s see… how many of you have heard of Beyonce, and how many have heard of Megan Hilty before this show? Enough said. There’s way more power in being a popstar- and there are bigger things in store for Karen.

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The real star . . . let’s see . . . would that be the person whose first album sold 381.000 copies, second 45,000, third 23,000, and was then dropped from her label? The one whose biggest screen role ended up canned for years, and has yet to be released? The same one, in fact, whose biggest gig in “Smash’s” off-season was singing for a Tide promotion, rather than the person who hadn’t time to perform every gig she was offered? Let McPhee have the adulation of the young and tasteless – Hilty will be remembered as a Broadway legend long after McPhee is relagated to a footnote in the annals of American Idol-atry.

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Uh yeah . . . How many different ways can we say “dream sequence?!?”

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So typical. . McPhans never actullyexercise anything resembling legitimate engagement with criticism of their favorite – they cannot, so they resort to jargon, mimicry, any cheap come-back with no actual refutation of any point made.

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@Ellen haters gonna hate

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Since Megan Hilty (and therefore Ivy Lynn) is an actual singing actress and a real Broadway star, as opposed to Katharine McPhee, a third-rate pop singer with a couple of failed films and TV pilots, who couldn’t even bring herself to attempt to slur a single word when playing a woman dying of drugs and alcohol, this is the only possible decision to save “Smash” from remaining a bad joke. The “Bombshell” numbers are mostly excellent (the exception being the execrable “Don’t Forget Me,” which does not even have musical consistency with the rest of the numbers), and they deserve a real Broadway diva. Ivy Lynn, as played by Megab Hilty, is one. Karen Cartwright in the real world would never have been permitted to finish “Beautiful,” a terrible audition choice, much less gotten even a callback. Never happen. NEVER.

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Wow at this comment shows that you have to heighten yourself by bashing..rudely bashing a person you do not know.

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I note you take offence at a critique of Katharine McPhee’s performance, but not at any of the mere gratuitous slurs against Megan Hilty. This illustrates perfectly the typical double standard of the McPhans.

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Oh yes, Katharine as Karen was so much better than Megan’s Ivy, that’s why all the critics praised her perform– oh wait! They didn’t!!!! The LA times entitled their season finale review “let MEGAN HILTY” be your star, and said several times Megan stole the show with her Ivy. If they will indeed have Ivy playing Marilyn during Broadway previews, then my faith in the show is renewed.

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ANYONE with a brain stem who was honest would tell you Karen was WAY better than the bland Ivy with one facial expression twit who only came alive if she was drunk or drugged.

BUT, no matter because Karen & Derek might have something else going on–something better and bigger!!!!

Karen is so much better than Ivy! People, just except it, you know it’s true!

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NOOOOOOOOOOOO Please let karen play marilyn.

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ANYONE with a brain stem who was honest would tell you Ivy was WAY better than the bland boring Mary Sue with one facial expression twit

Smash finally makes sense! Ivy was so much better than Karen. People, just except it, you know it is true. People are WAY too forgiving to Derek because they want Karen so they don’t care about all the mean things he does if it goes well for her.

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Karen was Derek´s muse to be Marilyn!
Stupid Tom! Now of course he is going to ruin everything and put Ivy as the lead.
Well I hope it comes to bite them later on!
I bet Karen and Derek have something up their sleeve! Another HOTTER musical maybe?

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