The recent 150^th anniversary gala held by the Brooklyn Academy of Music brought out several of TV’s hottest stars:  Debra Messing and Will Chase of Smash, who also happen to be a couple off-screen.

Messing, who starred previously in another TV series, Will and Grace, and portrays a Broadway lyricist in Smash, admitted she has “wanted to be on Broadway since I was three.”

This has not occurred so far, she said, “not from lack of wanting.  It’s primarily been about scheduling and also considering the effect it would have on my son, because you disappear for a weekend and that’s a big deal.  It has to be something really, really special for me to be able to make that kind of sacrifice.  But it still is a dream of mine, a dream with a capital D.”

Looking ahead, Messing said executive-producing a TV show—which she did previously with another series, The Starter Wife, “down the line is something that is a natural place for me to be.  I think I have a head for producing.”

Chase, who previously appeared on Broadway in Billy Elliot and Rent, downplayed the allure of the stage, saying he was having “fun doing television at the moment.  Broadway musicals, especially, it’s a year of your life that you tie up.  I love to have my weekends and summers off, you don’t have a summer or a weekend in the theater.  There’s a lot of momentum right now for me in television, I love the medium.”

Messing, who moved to New York from Los Angeles to make Smash, said she loved the “culture that’s so readily accessible.  It’s very easy to be sheltered and to close yourself away from the world in Los Angeles.  New York doesn’t allow you to do that.  It’s allowed me to be more social, I’ve been getting out much more in New York than I did in Los Angeles.  I think that’s a healthy thing.”

BAM—whose anniversary gala Messing and Chase attended—is the oldest performing arts center in the United States, founded in 1861 in what was then the city of Brooklyn, the third largest city in the United States, after New York and Philadelphia.  Although Brooklyn is white-hot today, in those days it was considered a cultural backwater, dwarfed by the artistic achievements of Manhattan.  BAM initially offered classical music and famous actors, like Edwin Booth and Sarah Bernhardt, as well as speakers like Henry Ward

Beecher.  But over time it began to decline, and by the mid-1960’s, it was renting space to a judo school.

Harvey Lichtenstein, who took over BAM in 1967, came up with a new strategy for its revival:  presenting avant-garde performers, in music, dance, theater and the visual arts, often from overseas.  This philosophy continues under BAM’s current administration, which this season, for example, has commissioned performances by everyone from Kevin Spacey, starring in Shakespeare’s Richard III, to Questlove, drummer of The Roots, who recently created an “immersive musical experience celebrating and reflecting our current shuffle culture.”

BAM’s beginnings, decline and renaissance are traced in a photographic history it commissioned, BAM:  The Complete Works, as well as in a new documentary it produced, BAM150, which was screened at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival, will be broadcast on Ovation TV the week of May 21, and  have a free public screening at the BAM Rose Cinemas on June 4.

Its recent anniversary gala featured a concert by Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Dr. John—who had a three-week residency at BAM this spring–and fellow New Orleans musicians Irma Thomas, Ivan Neville, the Dirty Dozen Brass Band, Davell Crawford and Nicholas Payton.

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Debra Messing has spoken for the first time about her marriage breakdown.

The split coincided with Debra – who has a seven-year-old son Roman with Daniel – relocating from Los Angeles to New York to shoot new TV show ‘Smash’ and she admits the amount of changes in her life were tough for her to deal with.

In an interview in the June issue Ladies’ Home Journal magazine, she said: ‘It’s like 20 years. It’s a very long time. When I say the move to New York was traumatic, it was traumatic because every aspect of my life was going through a huge change.’

Although when Debra said her vows she thought she was marrying for life, she thinks the concept of marriage is becoming outdated because of changes in modern society.

She added: ‘I think the idea of a partner for life is incredibly romantic. But now we’re living to 100. A hundred years ago people were dying at age 37. Till death do us part was a much different deal.’

Debra is now believed to be dating her ‘Smash’ co-star Will Chase – who separated from his wife, Broadway star Stephanie Gibson, last year.

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Debra Messing will be the only cast member of NBC’s Smash submitted for consideration in the Lead Actress in a Drama Emmy category, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The rest of the Smash cast, including battling divas Katherine McPhee and Megan Hilty, will compete in the supporting performer categories.

Smash follows the trials and tribulations of producing a musical based on the life of Marilyn Monroe. In addition to Messing, McPhee and Hilty, the series stars Christian Borle, Anjelica Huston, Brian d’Arcy James, Will Chase, Jack Davenport, Raza Jeffrey, Jaime Cepero and more.

Messing is an Emmy winner for her role on hit sitcom Will & Grace, and has been nominated five additional times. The 2012 Emmy Awards will be held on September 23 at the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles.Emmy Award Eligibility Determined for Smash Stars Debra Messing, Megan Hilty & More

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Debra Messing is a smash hit in the new issue of Allure that features the magazine’s annual spread with celebs posing in the buff.

And while the Smash actress is thrilled that her fans are loving her seductive shoot (Anderson Cooper’s reaction: “Hubba, hubba!”), she can’t help but wonder why the mag wanted her now, even though she’s been on the Hollywood scene since 1995.

“This is Allure’s annual nude issue, and there are several of us, several actresses. Why they decided to wait until I was 43 to ask me, I don’t know,” she jokes to Cooper during an appearance on his show, which airs April 23.

Whether she’s portraying a quirky best friend to a gay guy or a messed up wife to a big time producer, Debra Messing always turns out memorable performances. The Emmy Award-winning actress now gets to showcase her renowned acting skills yet again as she stars in Diva Universal’s hit series, “Smash,” which centers on the making of a Broadway musical based on the life of Marilyn Monroe.

Debra plays Julia Houston, a writer who struggles to balance the relentless demands of Broadway with the needs of her husband Frank and son Leo. Making things more complicated for Julia is the return of her old flame Michael Swift.

Raised in a quiet community outside Providence, Rhode Island, Debra devoted much of her childhood to musical theater, and performed in numerous productions at both school and camp, which ignited her interest in the stage. The fact that “Smash” revolves around Broadway aroused Debra’s interest in the show.

“My first love was musical theater. I took dance lessons and singing lessons. That was going to be my path,” says Debra.

Talking about getting the part in “Smash,” she says, “I am completely overjoyed. This is a new adventure for me because this challenges me in ways I’ve never been challenged before. It’s something that makes me excited to go to work every day.”

Best known as Grace Adler in NBC’s Emmy Award-winning comedy series “Will & Grace” and Molly Kagan in “The Starter Wife,” Debra is one of Hollywood’s most admired and respected actresses. In 2001, she won TV Guide’s Actress of the Year in a Comedy Series award. She also received various Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild award nominations. In 2003, she won an Emmy award for her remarkable performance in “Will & Grace.” Despite the accolades, Debra still acknowledges certain challenges. In the show, she says the hardest part was when she and Anjelica Huston had to shoot in tandem. “That means we have to shoot two different episodes at the exact same time. And so one day we might be shooting one episode and the next day it might be, you know four days earlier,” says Debra.

A summa cum laude product of Brandeis University and London’s prestigious B.E.S.G.L. (British and European Studies Group in London) program, Debra also has a Master of Fine Arts degree from New York University, where she was accepted in the school’s elite Graduate Acting Program.

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