When the Broadway-themed drama Smash began its two-season run on NBC in 2012, the entire theater industry, it seemed then, was entranced. The lingo, the faces, the concerns – all seemed, if not entirely authentic, then at least clever enough to create some backstage buzz. Even with the series’ quick decline in quality and ratings, some sort of stage adaptation came to seem inevitable.

Thirteen years later, Smash The Musical arrives on Broadway with some of the most talented creatives and actors working today. More inspired by than based on, more fan fiction or parody than homage, the production opening tonight at the Imperial Theatre is more oddity than anything else.

Possibly too dissimilar in detail and tone from the series to please diehard fans – and they must be out there somewhere – yet relying on a nostalgia, however newly minted, that likely won’t exist in the general population, Smash...