Smash Star Debra Messing Has Broadway on Her ‘Bucket List’

Emmy-winning Will & Grace star Debra Messing currently plays fictional Broadway composer Julia Houston on TV’s Smash, but despite her long list of screen and stage credits (including played a Valium-addicted Mormon housewife in NYU's first Angels in America: Perestroika) the actress still has yet to perform on the Great White Way. Broadway.com recently caught up with Messing to chat about her Main Stem ambitions and the upcoming second season of NBC’s Smash.

“I’ve had some fits and starts along the way,” Messing said of her attempts to make her Broadway debut. “There’s always been some scheduling issues.” Messing grew up starring in musicals like Annie and Grease, and attended New York University’s prestigious graduate acting program, before landing the breakout role of Grace Adler (opposite current The Best Man star Eric McCormack). “[Broadway’s] on my bucket list, for sure,” she said.

In the meantime, Messing is thrilled to be an honorary member of the Broadway community on Smash alongside Broadway favorites like Megan Hilty and Christian Borle. “We’ve been picked up [for a second season] and we’re over the moon,” Messing told Broadway.com. For the Broadway hopeful, the reaction from the theater community is the most exciting part about starring in the series. “The people who are Broadway fans, they feel like they’re finally represented in a way that shows the glory and the pain and everything that there is to being in this crazy world of acting on Broadway,” Messing said. “It’s been lovely.”