For her role as Ivy Lynn on the NBC musical drama “Smash” — which concludes with a two-hour series finale Sunday at 9 p.m. — Megan Hilty had to do a lot of singing along to playbacks in take after take. Friday at Symphony Hall with the Boston Pops she gets to do what she loves, sing live on stage, just as she did as the star of Broadway musicals like “Wicked” and “9 to 5: The Musical.”

“It’s something to give in to, you kind of get lost in it because it’s so beautiful,” she says of singing with an orchestra. “It’s a different kind of high getting to sing with that many musicians.”

We asked Hilty her five favorite things about singing with an orchestra.

Buchholz surrendered one run on five hits against Chicago and improved to 7-0 this season.

Timothy Murray’s sights may have been set on the governor’s office, but his plans were derailed by apparent missteps.

The director of operations for a wealthy Beacon Hill church was accused of raiding the coffers of the congregation.

In an attack that raised new fears of terrorism in Britain, a man walking near a military barracks in south London was hacked to death by two assailants.

Two days after a huge tornado barreled through, authorities allowed residents to search for belongings and assess damage.

Ms. Clift Jones, 72, offered insights to medical students and raised funds to support research into finding biomarkers for the disease.

Mayor Thomas M. Menino toured the new steel-clad “District Hall” on Wednesday, a victory lap of sorts.

Despite warnings about sun worshiping, melanoma rates continue to rise, especially among young women.

The Rangers have fans and sellouts and Original Six tradition — but there is no buzz in the city around them.

Disaster relief money isn’t well-spent if it goes to repairing damage without taking steps to mitigate the effects of future disasters.

North Korea’s move comes amid signs the country was trying to mend ties with Beijing and seeking breaches in economic and diplomatic pressure over its nuclear weapons development.

The official who disclosed the agency had targeted conservative groups denied she had provided false information.

Mr. Spiegel, 93, was one of the last surviving fighters of the Warsaw ghetto uprising of 1943,

the first armed urban rebellion in German-occupied Europe.

We like electricity and fresh faces: Deval Patrick, Scott Brown, Elizabeth Warren. It’s hard when you’ve been around as long as Markey.