Brandeis Magazine

Actress Debra Messing worked with TV producer/writer and Broadway playwright Theresa Rebeck, M.A.’83, M.F.A.’86, Ph.D.’89, on “Smash,” a TV drama series about the production of a Broadway musical on the life of Marilyn Monroe. Debra stars as Julia Houston, half of a Broadway composing team. “I was just looking for a good script,” the former star of “Will & Grace” told the Los Angeles Times. “I read it, and the second I finished it, I called my representatives and said I have to be a part of it. I was so giddy. I mean, my first dream was to be in musical theater. I took tap dance when I was 3. I wanted to be a hoofer. I wanted to be ‘Funny Girl.’”