On Lexington & 52nd Street

"On Lexington & 52nd Street" (also "Lexington & 52nd Street") is an original song introduced in the seventh episode of the first season of the musical TV series Smash, entitled "The Workshop". The song is written by Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman,^[1] but in the show's universe, it is written by the songwriting team of Tom Levitt (Christian Borle) and Julia Houston (Debra Messing) for their Marilyn Monroe musical Bombshell.

"On Lexington & 52nd Street"
Single by Smash cast feat. Will Chase
from the album Bombshell
Released	March 19, 2012
Recorded	2012
Genre	Pop
Length	3:08 (Album Version)
Label	Columbia
Songwriter(s)	Marc Shaiman, Scott Wittman
Producer(s)	Marc Shaiman
Smash cast singles chronology
""Let's Be Bad"" "On Lexington & 52nd Street" ""Touch Me""

In "The Workshop", Michael Swift (Will Chase), playing Joe DiMaggio, performs the song as DiMaggio breaks up with his wife Monroe, while Michael is simultaneously breaking up with Julia.

The song was originally released as a single from iTunes and Amazon.com's MP3 story and is currently a track on the cast album Bombshell.

Critical reception

Series Regular describes the song as a "surprise" and notes "There is a passion and anger behind the music that was quite unexpected and refreshing to listen to. It is a major contrast to the other songs in the musical, and the performance of Will Chase is actually quite stellar."^[2] Broadwayworld.com describes the song as "striking and wholly stylistically unique", and "Will Chase’s best (and, apparently, last) showcase." It continues by saying "film noir with a pulsating, almost atonal, steely and terse tinge, this is the sort of character number that seamlessly presents plot development and character exposition simultaneously in a purely, thrillingly theatrical manner and the type of dramatic and musical merging of storytelling SMASH excels at above absolutely everything else, time after time after time after time."^[3]

Release History

Region	Date	Format	Label
United States	March 19, 2012[4]	Digital download - Digital Single	Columbia Records

References

1. "ASCAP Database Music Search - Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman songs". Retrieved 24 November 2023.
2. "Smash - The Workshop". Series Regular. Retrieved April 29, 2012.
3. Cerasaro, Pat. "SOUND OFF: Bernadette Peters, At The Corner Of Broadway & SMASH". Broadwayworld.com. Retrieved April 29, 2012.
4. On Lexington and 52nd Street iTunes ^{[dead link]}