© Tristan Fuge
Tony Award and Academy Award winner Liza Minnelli (Cabaret) will guest-star as herself on the second season of NBC’s musical drama Smash, which returns to the air on February 5.
In the episode, entitled “The Surprise Party,” Minnelli will join Tony Award winner Christian Borle (Peter and the Starcatcher) to sing an original song written by the show’s Tony Award-winning composer and lyricists Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman (Hairspray)
Minnelli’s most recent Broadway show, Liza’s at the Palace, won a 2009 Tony for Best Special Theatrical Event. She also won Tony Awards for Best Actress in a Musical for Flora the Red Menace and The Act. She won the Academy Award for Cabaret and the Emmy Award for Liza With a “Z”.
The musical drama stars Borle and Debra Messing as a Broadway songwriting team, Anjelica Huston as a high-powered producer, Jack Davenport as a temperamental British director, Megan Hilty and Katharine McPhee as two young actresses who are both friends and rivals, and Leslie Odom, Jr. as a Broadway chorus boy.
Among the many actors set to appear on Smash this season are Oscar winner Jennifer Hudson, who will be featured in the season premiere, Andy Mientus, Krysta Rodriguez, Jeremy Jordan, Sean Hayes, Jesse L. Martin, Nikki Blonsky, Sheryl Lee Ralph, Daniel Sunjata, Wesley Taylor, Savannah Wise, Daphne Rubin-Vega, and Bernadette Peters.
