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- [00:00]
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- [01:32]
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- [02:43]
Micky Jo
Shmeg a doon where the men are men, the cows are cows, and the children. It seems are taught to tap dance ahead of basic arithmetic. You. You have wished, you have waited, you have wandered in the woods, but finally you have found yourself at my full review of Schmigadoon on Broadway, where the two pressing questions are one what actually is corn pudding and how do I make it for myself? And two does this musical TV show actually work on stage? Because we musical theatre fans have been burned before, not looking at anyone in particular, but we're all thinking about Smash. On which note, let me tell you whether or not Schmigadoon fares any better. But before I do, a quick introduction to me for those of you meeting me for the very first time on oh my God. Hey, welcome to my theatre themed YouTube channel. Or hello to those of you listening to this on podcast platforms. My name is Mickey Jo and I am obsessed with all things theatre. I am an independent theatre critic and a content creator here on social media, and last month I traveled to New York to see as many new Broadway and Off Broadway shows as possible. Particularly, I was there to see all of the spring openings ahead of this year's Tony Awards, which take place in just a couple of weekends. And one of the four nominees and honestly, frontrunners for Best New Musical this year, as well as one of the jointly most nominated shows of the season, is Schmigadoon, the highly anticipated stage adaptation of the Apple TV series of the same name. For those of you who know nothing about this, I'm going to explain the story of Schmigadoon to you. For those of you who are already familiar, perhaps you've seen it on screen, I'm going to let you know how it's been adapted for the stage and whether or not it works. Because taking films to the stage is one thing. Taking TV shows to the stage and doing it successfully, that is something we're still kind of figuring out as an industry. Of course, we also have plenty of performances and creative choices to talk about, as well as the wider implications of doing a musical about musicals on Broadway versus doing it on tv. As always, I'm going to share all of my thoughts with you, but I would love to hear yours. If you have had the chance to see Schmigadoon either pre Broadway or on Broadway at the Nederlander Theatre. Let me know all of your thoughts in the comments section down below. And if you enjoy listening to this review and would like to hear my thoughts on the other 22 Broadway and off Broadway shows I saw last month, you can find some of those reviews here already. Wherever you are seeing my face or hearing my voice, or you can subscribe for for many more coming very soon, as well as my upcoming Tony's coverage. Before all of that though, it is high time I tell you what I thought of Schmigadoon. So let's begin for the benefit of the uninitiated, with a little bit of an explanation as to what Schmigadoon actually is. And like I said, this began its life as an Apple TV plus series created by Cinco Paul. However, as he informed me on the show's opening night carpet, it was actually always intended for the stage. And it depicts an ordinary couple living in New York whose names are Josh and Melissa. They are both physicians. They meet at work, they start dating, they commence a relationship, and then they hit something of a romantic speed bump. They go on a getaway weekend together, hiking through the woods in order to try and rekindle their spark and communicate better. But in the midst of an argument, they find themselves in the middle of a town called Schmigadoon. Greeted by an introductory musical number, they soon come to figure out that that they are actually inside of a musical. They have somehow found themselves trapped in the world of Schmigadoon. They are unable to leave. Every time they cross the bridge via which they arrived, they find themselves arriving once more. They are greeted by all of these different musical theater characters, all of them sort of golden age archetypes. The title, of course, makes reference to the classic musical Brigadoon, about people stumbling into a fantasy world. And Schmigadoon, the musical on Broadway, specifically adapts that first first season of the show, that entire narrative, the plot of every single episode condensed into one two act musical structure. We don't venture beyond that to Schmicago. Schmigadoon Season 1 was all about classic golden age musical theater, parodying shows like Oklahoma. And the Sound of Music and Carousel and so many more. A little bit of the music men in there as well. Finian's Rainbow, South Pacific, passingly. Season two took us from Schmigadoon to Schmicargo and we headed into the 70s and we had Godspell and we had Cabaret and we had A Chorus Line and a bunch of new references. Jesus Christ Superstar, Sweeney Todd, Annie. None of that though, makes its way into Schmigadoon on stage. And it would be really reductive to say this works as a musical because it's utterly faithful to the TV show. And Smash didn't because it wasn't. But there is some sense of correlation there in terms of not only making the fans happy, because what you're expecting and you know, hoping that Schmigadoon will be on stage is absolutely what it's delivering, but also if you have narrative that worked that people understood specifically with a TV show like this, where you have the gift of each season being a really self contained plot that can feel finished at the end of two hours, you don't have like a cliffhanger and sort of unexplored character arcs leading on to the next season, then it makes sense to utilize that when you're going to the stage. And Schmigadoon on Broadway is an utterly faithful adaptation of Schmigadoon, the TV series. There are a couple of new songs to just sort of flesh out moments. Some things are curtailed, but it's been brought to the stage so faithfully by one man band writer Cinco Paul, book, music and lyrics, as well as creative force director and choreographer Christopher Catelli, that you can't really see the seams or you can't recall what must have been left on the cutting room floor other than, and I'm only slightly mournful about this, the song sung by Jane Krakowski's Baroness Elsa Schrader. Send up character from the TV series that was a little bit of a reference to City of Angels and also Kiss Me Kate. The character still exists, the song does not. But the verdict that I'm dancing around here is that Schmigadoon really works stage. And I feel like we can take this at face value or we can analyze it in a little bit more depth. And the face value explanation is that it's a charming story. It's a joke that has been told enough times. What if life were like a musical? There's a long running Edinburgh fringe hit musical comedy cabaret show that explores that same idea. There was a Tony Awards opening number, the entire theme of which was that notion. It's been joked about on SNL sketches and in starkid shows whenever one person's lightweight. When did you all learn this choreography and these harmonies together? It's the sort of inexplicable thing of everyone bursting together into song and then putting a couple of characters who don't know the words or the choreography alongside them to show how ridiculous it is. The other thing, and this is exactly what struck me when I very first saw Six the musical on stage, is you're always gonna end up with a great show if you simply have one show stopping number after another. That is what six delivers and that is what Schmigadoon delivers as well. They have lined up on all of the right Broadway talent to hit each single number out of the ballpark. It is home run after home run. This is the last place you expected to hear a sports reference, but there it is. Every single number works. They all feel so solid and they are so in the exact right style. They are so at home on Broadway. It feels as though Schmigadoon makes perfect sense on stage. And like this was always its ultimate destination. I've been joking about because we didn't know whether or not the score was going to be eligible at the Tony Awards because Smash was not. It was something of a surprise when the Tonys committee revealed that it actually would be. But prior to that I had been saying that they ought to allow it to be eligible by thinking of the TV show simply as a pre Broadway out of town tryout that just happened to be on television. And Schmigadoon feels completely at home. Now if I were to over analyze it, I think there is something a little bit harder to convey about the inherent comedy of these two characters being in an unusual setting. Because on screen we can achieve naturalism a little bit more. We've been talking about this for decades. The whole like we don't mind someone bursting into song on stage. It looks a little bit unusual when you see it on film. It's why movie musicals all have to figure out how they're going to depict musical numbers. Are they going to be diegetic? Are they going to be dream sequences? Are we just going to lean into the concept? Is it going to seem too strange? There's something about seeing it play out on screen because we're more used to naturalistic action on television. It's hd, it's close ups. Whereas when you're on stage lit by these enormous lights, the makeup is garish, the facial expressions are broader, you're projecting. Everything is louder, the expressions are bigger, the props are enormous. For whatever reason. And so often, but not always, a certain amount of naturalism goes out of the window. And a show like Schmigadoon is challenged by that. Because on screen, Josh and Melissa really felt like normal people. And we had just seen the comparatively grey world that they had come from on stage. Even their introductory moments are within the context of a stage musical. We see them meet on stage under spotlights. She is wearing, for whatever reason, Sarah Chase. This is who is playing Melissa. This gorgeous, very musical theater sort of a coiffed wig. And they don't as much feel like regular people who have any right to be surprised that they are in a musical because from our perspective, they've been in a musical the entire time. And what we're seeing isn't quite as odd because they're the ones who are on stage and they have no right to complain about it. The only way, to my mind, that you could get around this is by having them, like, have seats in the beginning in the audience like Ponyboy does in the Outsiders, and then get into a fight in the theater and then somehow find their way on stage and they're trapped there. But you'd have to really rework the concept of what exactly schmigadoon is, as well as how we find out about their relationship. And that also isn't to say that I don't like the way that introduction is staged, but I'm heading towards a conversation about the material and the creative choices. So let's talk about those next
- [12:21]
Progressive Insurance Announcer
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- [12:51]
Grow Therapy Announcer
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- [14:00]
Micky Jo
Now I will talk about the framing of the whole thing and Christopher Catelli and his creative team. But I want to talk about Cinco Paul's work first because it is so joyous, the musical theatre parody that we get in this show. And I don't think you have to have a particular penchant for golden age musical theatre. That's not everyone's favorite type of pasta necessarily. I, like a lot of other people, found many of the references in the second season of Schmigadoon on TV to be more personally exciting to me. And I know had they had the chance to continue to season three, which was going to bring in into the woods and Phantom and Les Mis, but also Sideshow, that that would have been the most thrilling. But any kind of musical theater adjacent fandom I think gives you an awful lot of joy to extract from Schmigadoon because it works really on three different levels. You have these characters and these songs, and if you have no musical theater knowledge whatsoever, you can still go into this show and see the different types. You can still see the, like, conservative, uptight woman who's married to the reverend, who's very puritanical and shrewd. You can still see like the gigolo hanging around the carnival. You don't have to know who exactly they may each be based on. Then there's the next level where you can tell that he's doing Carousel and you can tell that like, oh, that's a reference to soliloquy. But you don't know every word to that song. And you can enjoy it nonetheless because it doesn't rely on a specificity of knowledge or understanding in order to land the joke. There is then the third level where you have an intimate knowledge and you can pick up on the slight little details in the orchestrations and a lyric here or there. And you can figure out every single show that is being referenced, everything that is being sent up and parodied here. And that is really thrilling. But I think every version of this gets to enjoy the show in one way or another. And make no mistake, it is incredibly smart work to be able to parody all of these shows and do so successfully and combine references from different places to be doing a song that is sort of based on a sort of a carousel type character or based on a music man scenario and pull in like a rogue South Pacific reference for a single line. To be able to find two characters from different shows and kind of bring them together so that you are just crafting something overall musical theater golden age feeling, rather than it being Like Disneyland. And each different neighborhood is a different musical. Like now we're going to walk down Sound of Music Street. That's not what we're doing here. So bravo to Cinco Paul for the exceptional, witty, genius, hilarious book, music and lyrics of Schmigadoon, wonderfully realized by Christopher Catelli. And I mentioned that opening number and it's an unusual preset that greets you when you head into the Needle Ender Theatre to see Schmigadoon. After all of the artwork that the front of house is decorated with, all of the merchandise booths, some of which I'm wearing right now, the playbill design. On stage, we see simply this lone vending machine. That is the place where Josh and Melissa meet during, I think, a night shift at the hospital where they both work. And they have this magical romantic moment where they figure out the trick to the vending machine together and everything falls down and we transition into a montage of their love and a little bedroom set gets revealed and things turn around. It's very inherently theatrical, the way that they depict this. So it's almost as though before they get lost in a musical, they're already in one to begin with. And you could take from that, like maybe Schmigadoon has always been their destiny. I ultimately think it's just a charming and witty and fun way of depicting these early moments before we head into musical theater land. Catelli's direction really thrives by allowing two things to happen at once, which is classic Golden Age material is happening and these two characters have landed in the middle of it. And they have their own style of comedy that kind of knocks against everyone who they encounter like bumper cars. Meanwhile, his greatest creative achievement here is the choreography. And because of the particular sub genre that we are invoking, he gets to do all of this classic, sort of Agnes de Mille esque. It's all kicking and leaping around. It's balletic, it's gorgeous, it's lively, it's full ensembles doing kick lines, unison movement. Of course, you have the introductory welcome to our little town Schmigadoo number that is directly referencing the title song from Oklahoma, Homer. You also have the whole corn pudding moment when everyone explodes into song and dance in the most stereotypical musical theater fashion. You have a beautiful dance solo for our Billy Bigelow character, played by Max Clayton, whose actual name is Danny. Danny Bailey. There you go. There is a dream ballet that actually makes its way into the stage musical at a fateful time in order to remind people of their love. There is a nod to the dream ballet in the TV show. But someone simply walks up to Cecily Strong as the sort of dream ballet version of her as Melissa and she says, oh no, no, we're not doing a dream ballet. They go on for too long and everyone hates them. Something to that effect. But on stage they do it. Act two opens with this fantastic tap number called with all of youf Heart. If you are looking for classic musical theater that feels fun and feels modern and lively, but is also nostalgic. Nostalgic and delivers all of those stereotypical Broadway things. Gorgeous costumes, beautiful sets, tap numbers, dance breaks, ballet, brilliant, charismatic leading men, empowered leading ladies, ingenues, character parts. All of that is present within Schmigadoon as it has to be. And a moment about the design before we carry on. Scott Pask's scenic design. Linda chose costumes all vivid and bright and colourful with the scenery in particular. This is really a throwback. This is nostalgic because we're not seeing screens on stage, which is what we tend to see in a lot of modern scenic design. We are seeing either hand painted or printed sets. We are seeing the use of perspective. It looks and take a shot every time I use this adjective. But classic and gorgeous and traditional. And it's wonderful to get to see design and art like that on Broadway. And craft. Especially in a time when AI is slowly destroying the world. Costumes also absolutely stunning. Familiar of the TV show that little bit more theatrically realized everything. It's just beautiful to look at. And just before I begin to climb the mountain that is telling you about the brilliant performances of this company, one more note that I have about the narrative of Schmigadoon and the material is that you go for charming musical theater parody and nostalgia and it is surprisingly affecting. Not only is it a story about people in a long term relationship figuring out how to improve their communication, how to really see one another, how to take that next step together. The moment when they really come together is quite a moving one. But also the effect that that has on everyone around them in Schmigadoon has always been the most beautiful part of the story. This. This could have just been a comedy show about them trying to get out of this world and like coming to be a little fond of it in the process. But the fact that they affect the lives of the characters who are living there, the fact that they affect social change and progress and compassion and momentum within this town and within a lot of these relationships is a really beautiful thing. And as such we end with a song that sounds as though we have moved from one era towards another. We have a lot of like Godspell, Stephen Schwarzy influences starting to come in. Feeling that little bit anachronistic as Schmigadoon tentatively moves forwards and more on that at the very end of this review. But before then, we absolutely need to talk about these
- [21:44]
Progressive Insurance Announcer
Insurance isn't one size fits all. That's why drivers have enjoyed Progressives name your price tool for years now, with the name your price tool, you tell them what you want to pay and they'll show you options that fit your budget. So whether you're picking out your first policy or just looking for something that works better for you and your family, they make it easy to see your options. Visit progressive.com find a rate that works for you with the Name your price tool Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates Price and Coverage match limited by state
- [22:13]
Grow Therapy Announcer
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- [23:17]
Micky Jo
performances. So to begin with, then we have our central couple, Josh and Melissa, portrayed by Alex Brightman and Sarah Chase. And you know, I didn't necessarily think I was going to walk away from Schmigadoon ready to personally hand the Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in the Musical to Sarah Chase for this character. Having seen the brilliant Cecily Strong on screen, Edge didn't think it was necessarily that strong a leading lady role because they're surrounded by all of these hysterical, cartoonish theatrical personalities. But she is so wonderful. She shines so heartwarmingly and endearingly and is so, so funny in this material. I think she's just perfect. It's that total kind of a baker's wife style of comedy where she's that little bit more modern when she's getting drunk at the picnic basket auction and then putting herself up for auction and refusing to play into the thinly veiled sort of metaphor of people bidding on the baskets rather than bidding on the women directly. It's hysterical. And she is perfectly cast in this. What's fun is to begin with, when they first arrive and figure out what it is that's happening, she's pretty excited. As a musical fan, Josh very much is not. And yet he, determined to find a way out of Schmigadoon, buys more and more into the concept and gets more involved and comes to genuinely care about it more. And she gets fatigued by everything around her, even though she ought to be able to navigate all of of this. And as we head into the second act and she grows more frustrated and sings a sensational little bit of a belty number, it really just solidifies what a strong performance this is. I do think there should be a wig swap. I think she should have more natural looking hair at the beginning. It's just a little bit too styled. It gives the game away the I know we're already looking at them on stage, but it gives the game away that they're heading into a musical theater world. It looks too perfect. If she's in the middle of a night shift, that can't be her hair. Josh, meanwhile, played by Alex Brightman, who I think think is fantastic and hilarious, is a deceptively difficult part to get right on stage. And because he is the curmudgeon and because he is indifferent to the idea of singing along and participating in what he initially believes to be some kind of like, local skit put on for tourists, he kind of suffers more in a stage version of Schmigadoon rather than a TV show. And I think it almost needed to be. Not that Alex Brightman isn't fantastic, but it almost needed to be someone from completely outside of the musical theater world. Like a lot of the men of Saturday Night Live have been making their way into theater, but don't necessarily have that kind of a triple threat musical theater background. Having gone from show to show to show, there's a moment towards the end, bit of a spoiler alert here. You may have already seen it on screen when after refusing to sing for so long, he finally sings a solo song straight from his heart to Melissa. It's the moment of the rekindling of their relationship after they kind of briefly go on a Ross and Rachel style break. And it's still lovely. But when we've heard Alex Brightman sing at a bunch of different Broadway houses, it doesn't necessarily carry the same weight as if it were a comedy actor who is truly singing for the first time. I wonder if there were a way to cast this role where that felt like a little bit more of a surprise and where he could really land the truthful indignation of I am having a horrible time. Alex. Alex Brightman's sort of comedy style is to smile his way through his resentment. And so it doesn't always come across that he's miserable and he's got to be miserable. It's funny that he's miserable. Meanwhile, there are oh so many fantastic supporting performances. I almost don't have time to tell you about them all. It is a joy, a sheer joy that Anne Harada is reprising her on screen performance. On the stage. She doesn't have quite as much material as I would like for her to because she is the brilliant Anne Harada, but it is a real treat to get to see her occupy and land every single second and every single line that she has on stage. She is reprising the role of Florence Menlove, wife of the mayor Aloysius Menlove, who is played on stage by Brad Oscar, a veteran of the musical comedy realm. He breathes on stage and we laugh, but there's a warmth and a softness and a sentimentality to his character as well as he sings the song Somewhere love is waiting for you. And it's a deeply charming rapport and chemistry that he builds with Malik Panchali, who is playing the Reverend Layton as well as the little pop up leprechaun character Isabel McKellar and Max Clayton, both giving pitch perfect versions of the character archetypes that they are playing. She is a Marian the Librarian from the Sound of Music type, fronting a tap dance number in addition to that and just so nailing this slightly confrontational but slowly warming to him relationship with Josh. While Max as Danny Bailey is giving you classic leading man charisma, his smile is going to reach all the way to the back of the balcony. Certainly so is his choreography. He is absolutely sensational on stage and someone who as a performer goes beyond just executing and nailing this choreography and does it with tone. When you can encounter a performer who can speak and sing and also dance with tone and with a sensation of the time period and the style that's being evoked and they just get it and it kind of oozes out of their paws because they're such a classic type. Robin Herder has the same thing. Max Clayton absolutely has this. One of the most scene stealing performances comes from rising star Mackenzie Kurtz, who picks up where the character of Betsy was put down on the TV series and just amplifies the whole thing. She makes it broader and bigger. She takes the ado. Annie Ness from Oklahoma brings in a little bit of Gertie Cummings as well, adding this deranged character laugh and this obsessive flirtatiousness. Very, very funny, as she always is. Nothing subtle about it whatsoever. And speaking of funny, Kristin Chenoweth's character, Mildred Layton from the TV series is now played on stage by Ana Gasteyer. And she has been so funny in so many things for years, but never more so than when getting to play a superior, haughty, snippy, dismissive villain type. Her performance of tribulation in the second act, which is a kind of a music man, you got trouble sort of a song, is brilliant. Everything she does with this character, I think she's just fantastic. I must shout out every member of this hard working ensemble. When you're doing Golden Age like this and you're doing high energy choreography, you have to do it. You have to do it perfectly, you have to do it with a pristine smile. And again, they understand the tone and the joy of what they're doing on stage. Schmigadoon is so silly and so joyous, but they can't play the joke, they have to play it with sincerity. And that's what's so charming about everyone on stage. And no one more so than Ian Diop, the young actor who I saw playing Carson. Adorable, hilarious and show stopping line readings, Great comedy timing, brilliant understanding of character. This is a young talent to watch. So Schmigadoon is a wholehearted recommendation on Broadway for me. Because if you're any kind of a musical theatre fan, as I suspect you probably are, if you are watching or listening to this review, then you're going to find it hugely satisfying. It is sweet, it is whimsical. You've got to give yourself over to the joy of it. There is no place for the skeptical in this audience. If there has been a question mark in your mind around whether or not it works on stage as well as it works on television, I actually, actually think for the most part it works better. There are parts of the Josh and Melissa insert into the story that we kind of just have to buy into that aren't as utterly convincing, but the whole thing is so much fun that by the time they're in Schmigadoon you forget that you cared. It is also a dynamite cast delivering quintessential musical theater. If anyone in your life or you personally is looking for that kind of a typical Broadway musical, look no further. And the question on my mind as the show experience extends into next year and very much could win the Tony Award this year for Best New Musical is are we ever going to see Schmicago, the second season of the show on television similarly adapted for the stage? And I know these things take an awful lot of time and money, but I can still dream that maybe this closes down in the spring next year so that they can retain the entire cast and have them play the same roles in a version of Schmicago that opens just in time for next year's Tony Awards. Then maybe we can finally get season three into the Schmoods, but on stage first. If we can't have it on screen, I'm just saying there is a roadmap to all of this, especially if they win the Tony. And if you are watching this after they already did or didn't, let me know in the comments. And as I conclude all of my thoughts about Schmigadoon, please also let me know in the comments what you thought of the show if you have had the chance to see it on Broadway. Thank you so much for listening to my full review. I enjoyed telling you about it and I can't wait to head back to New York to see it again for myself. If you enjoyed listening to this and would like to hear more of my reviews of Broadway musicals and all of the other theatre I see around the world, make sure to subscribe to my theatre themed YouTube channel. Turn on notifications so you don't miss any new videos or follow me on podcast platforms. And if you want to stay up to date with every single show that I have seen in my life and every single piece of content I have shared about it, then the easiest way to do that is to sign up to my free weekly substack email newsletter at the link in the description. For now, thank you so much for listening to this and I hope as always, that everyone is staying safe and that you have a stagey day for 10 more seconds. I'm Micky Jo Theater oh my God. Hey, thanks for watching. Have a Stagey Day. Subscribe
- [32:41]
Progressive Insurance Announcer
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- [33:47]
Grow Therapy Announcer
Instacart makes grocery shopping easier and just because you're not doing the shopping yourself doesn't mean you don't care how it's done. With Instacart, Shopper Notes, you can get particular about what you want right in the app, like rotisserie chicken that's extra crispy steak with marbling the Romans would have loved, and lettuce you'd actually pick yourself. Just leave a note for your shopper so they can get it right for you without having to ask. That way you can get groceries just how you like. Download the Instacart app and shop today.