LOS ANGELES –
 Singer-actress Megan Hilty recently wrapped her second, and possibly final, season of the TV musical “Smash.”

But there was no time for curtain calls.

A day later, she made her Carnegie Hall headline debut to a sold-out house. She spent this week racing around New York, getting the word out of her first solo album, “It Happens All the Time,” which was released March 12.

“It’s been a whirlwind,” Hilty said, with a sigh, speaking by phone from what she said was only quiet spot she could find: the lobby of Marriott Marquis hotel.

The Broadway veteran doesn’t ease on down the well-worn Broadway-diva CD-debut road, usually leading to a set of classic standards.

“While I love those albums,” Hilty said, “I wanted to do something unexpected.”

“It Happens All the Time” began as an album comprised of covers of songs previously recorded by other artists.

“But then, Columbia started sending original songs along, and things started to evolve,” she said.

The result is a collection of wide-ranging genres, including modern soul, 1970s pop, contemporary alternative.

Yet the record is thematically consistent.

“I guess it is a breakup album, but not a cry-your-eyes-out kind of album,” Hilty said. “That’s why we went with ‘It Happens All the Time’ as the title. People fall in and out of love all the time.”

Hilty, 31, said she is in a relationship, though she wouldn’t reveal details about her personal life, except to add that she lives in New York and is the proud parent of two Jack Russell terriers.

It wasn’t any easier getting Hilty to spill spoilers about “Smash,” NBC’s both revered or reviled saga of the rocky road for a Broadway-bound musical. More than one TV ratings analyst has dubbed the show “Crash” as some weeks of the series’ second-season viewership have marked new all-time lows.

“The feeling on the set, from Day One, was to work as hard as we can and enjoy each other,” Hilty said.