SCHMIGADOON! is must-see TV for anyone who has a Broadway musical soul. It is cleverly written and filled with huge, entertaining ensemble numbers. And the cast is sublime! So many established, creative, talented actors all together in one small, dream-like village.
The plotline is simple. A young couple Melissa (Cecily Strong) and Josh (Keegan-Michael Key), get lost and stumble across a bridge into the 1940’s town of SCHMIGADOON!. I can’t tell you anymore, but needless to say, their world turns upside down as they become immersed in the town’s musical. Filling out this fabulous group is Kristen Chenowith, Alan Cumming, Aaron Tveit, Fred Armisen, Dove Cameron, Ariana DuBoise, Martin Short, Jane Krakowski, to name just a few. It is directed by Barry Sonnenfeld and created by Lorne Michaels. Can you imagine the fun they must have had as they filmed these six episodes? Oh, to be a fly on that studio set!
I loved how the show opened, paying homage to how theatre credits were once splashed on the screen. Then the dull tones of reality broke into technicolor upon entering SCHMIGADOON!. The costumes were spot-on. The choreography was explosive. The singing was fabulous. I couldn’t stop my toes from tapping. The dialogue was crisp and cunning. There were acknowledgments to past musicals. I loved the references to OKLAHOMA, CAROUSEL, SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS, FINNIAN’S RAINBOW, WIZARD OF OZ, THE MUSIC MAN, and many more.
Ok. I admit it. I am an enormous, over-the-top theatre geek, but SCHMIGADOON! is what all of us need right now. It is something that takes us away from our ordinary lives where “men are men and cows are cows.” We can suspend disbelief and remember our past before we were quarantined. We missed Broadway. What a fantastic way to welcome it back in SCHMIGADOON! I am not planning on crossing that bridge to real life any time soon.
SCHMIGADOON! is available to stream on Apple TV+.
