\'Bombshell\' Doesn\'t Exist, but Its Songs Are Real Hits

Richard Perry/The New York Times At the Monster, a bar in Greenwich Village, Phil Kadet played the piano and Paul Hagen, in checked shirt, sang along with other customers.

On any given night at Marie’s Crisis, a cozy singalong piano bar in Greenwich Village, the pianist can be reliably counted on to deliver a fistful of standards. Songs made famous by Broadway royalty â€" Barbra, Liza, Patti â€" come out to play.

But lately, a more unlikely set of ballads has crept into the mix at Marie’s Crisis and countless other piano bars and karaoke lounges. Unlikely, because the inspiration is an apocryphal musical that has nevr been performed on Broadway.

The songs are from “Bombshell,” a musical based on Marilyn Monroe’s life, but one that exists only in NBC’s “Smash,” a drama about putting together a musical.

On a recent night, Rebecca Rosen, 24, a waitress from Alphabet City, chose a song from the show’s 12th episode performed by Megan Hilty: “Second-Hand White Baby Grand.”

When Ms. Rosen sang the lines “for many years the music had to roam, until we found a way to find a home,” she winked at the pianist, who smiled back. Tender and lilting, her voice filled the small space as fellow patrons contentedly rested their chins in their palms and soaked it in. Nobody else knew the words, but there were murmurs of recognition.

“They actually bring the sheet music,” Adam Tilford, 32, a piano player at Marie’s Crisis, said of the “Smash” devotees. “It’s great. The songs really stand out.”

Mr. Tilford’s favorite regular “Bombs! hell” performer at the bar is Knox Bundy, 46, a network engineer from Herald Square. Fond of “Let Me Be Your Star,” the show’s anthem from its pilot episode and itself a Grammy nominee, Mr. Bundy belts it out in a sonorous baritone.

That particular song has also entered the rotation at “Musical Mondays” at Splash, a gay bar in Chelsea; John Bantay, a video jockey at the bar, characterized “Let Me Be Your Star” as “an ‘I want’ song.”

“Everyone loves those,” he said, comparing it to Broadway standards like “Defying Gravity,” from “Wicked”; “Maybe This Time,” from “Cabaret”; and “Don’t Rain on My Parade,” from “Funny Girl.”

Mr. Bantay said “Smash” is “‘Glee’ for grown-ups,” in reference to the Fox show about a high school a cappella group. But whereas “Glee” repackages familiar pop songs with canny cross-promotional wiles, “Bombshell”’s popularity has grown more organically. There isn’t even an official cast album et (although a 22-track “Bombshell” album is due Feb. 12, a week after the show’s sophomore season makes its debut Tuesday night).

“Stuff like this just never happens,” exclaimed Anthony Ellis, 33, a Marie’s Crisis regular and Fort Greene lawyer who majored in musical theater in college. “The last time was probably ‘My Best Friend’s Wedding,’” he said, referring to the 1997 film that starred Julia Roberts. For emphasis, Mr. Ellis then sang a few lines of Dionne Warwick’s “I Say a Little Prayer,” which was featured in the film.

“Smash” â€" and by extension, “Bombshell” â€" were created by theater heavyweights: the Tony-winning songwriters Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman (“Hairspray”), and the Tony-winning director Michael Mayer (“Spring Awakening”).

Upon hearing about his songs’ surprise stealth popularity, Mr. Wittman said, “Ooh, it’s gay Inception.”

Mr. Wittman and Mr. Shaiman, now married to each other, first met at Marieâ€! ™s Crisis! in the 1970s. They had heard rumors that Tina Fey liked to belt “Smash” songs at “30 Rock” cast parties, but Mr. Wittman said that having their songs performed at Marie’s Crisis topped even that.

“I couldn’t imagine a better compliment,” Mr. Shaiman said.

William Wesbrooks, the director of vocal performance in New York University’s musical theater program, said he hoped the “Smash” songs would stay precious. He recounted a single morning when he endured five different student renditions of “On My Own,” a ballad from “Les Misérables” that is having its own revival thanks to the new film version.

“What’s great about these ‘Smash’ songs is that they’re not ‘What I Did for Love,’” said Mr. Wesbrooks. “It allows for a new ‘What I Did for Love.’”

He said what draws singers to such songs is that they aren’t specific to any particular characters or plots, “and you can have, as a singer, a full moment, not just a piece of a larger stry.”

On a recent Thursday night, Paul Hagen, 32, a magazine editor from Greenpoint, set his martini on the piano at Monster, a Greenwich Village piano bar, and requested “Don’t Forget Me,” the grand finale in “Bombshell.”

The pianist, Phil Kadet, seemed practiced at the new tune. Mr. Hagen performed with brio, occasionally employing jazz hands or brushing aside nonexistent feathered tresses. With the last line â€" “Please let me be the star” â€" he held the final note as he raised his arms with the seriousness of “Evita”’s Eva Perón. His hands began to tremble as they rose, as if boiling until, having held the note for 11 seconds, they crashed against his temples. He whispered the word again: “Star!”

The agog audience, having begun applause mid-song, was stunned into silence until a jokester piped up: “Do you know ‘Whatta Man’ by Salt-n-Pepa”