Smash cast reunites for Bombshell musical benefit concert

Smash stars including Katherine Mcphee, Debra Messing and Christian Borle reunited on Monday night (08Jun15) to present a real-life production of the faux musical featured on the cult program, Bombshell.

Members of The Actors Fund, an organization which provides funds for those in the creative community who are in need, launched a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter.com in March (15), hoping to raise $50,000 for the charity to cover the costs of the Bombshell production.

In just one day, fans of the canceled TV series surpassed the goal, eventually raising $800,000 for the one-night-only benefit concert, which took place at New York's The Minskoff Theater on Broadway.

Messing and Borle, who less than 24 hours before the concert won his second Tony Award for hit musical Something Rotten at Sunday's (07Jun15) prizegiving, were on hand to reprise their characters as producers of Bombshell, which told the story of Marilyn Monroe's rise to fame.

The duo introduced the show, with Messing noting the impressive amount fans raised for the concert, saying, "Maybe (U.S. network) NBC should use a Kickstarter instead of sponsors - we'd still be on the air!"

The concert kicked off with McPhee and Megan Hilty singing the show's anthem, Let Me Be Your Star, while other members of the cast, such as Jeremy Jordan, Brian d'Arcy James, and Leslie Odom, Jr., also took to the stage to perform numbers from the musical series.

Smash was canceled in 2013 after a two-season run, but became a cult favorite.