Schmigadoon! Review

There are niche shows and then there are niche shows. Schmigadoon!, the musical comedy series that parodies classic musicals, certainly falls into the latter category. As a massive theatre fan, this series was right up my alley, but I suspect it won’t play nearly as well for audience members who aren’t as well-versed in the idiosyncrasies of shows like Brigadoon (where the show cribs its title and the basic structure of the series), The Music Man, Carousel, or The Sound of Music. Now, you certainly don’t need to know all about those shows to understand the general conceit here – but if you can’t recognize a patter song from a sweeping ballad, you might find the series a bit too cloyingly sweet and not biting enough to work. And if you hate musicals? Well, this one definitely isn’t for you.

So, what is Schmigadoon!? Well, it’s the story of Melissa (Cecily Strong, who is absolutely the star of the series – with a solid set of pipes to boot) and Josh (Keegan-Michael Key, who never quite comes across as wholly comfortable in the role), a couple that has hit a rut in their relationship (well, at least Melissa thinks they have – Josh thinks everything is perfectly fine, which is a clear sign that everything really isn’t ok) and who head off on a couples retreat. While backpacking through the woods, they stumble across a bridge that takes them to a magical world where everyone behaves as if they are in a classical musical (a big opening number greeting the pair, stringent moral standards for non-married couples, a town bad boy with a heart of gold (Broadway star Aaron Tveit), a repressed mayor (Alan Cumming), a spinster – who isn’t really a spinster – librarian (Ariana DeBose, who I would have loved to spend more time with), a Countess (Jane Krakowski), and a rigid town doctor who learns to open up (Jaime Camil), and a brilliant patter song about trouble sung by Kristin Chenoweth that is worth the price of admission). In order to leave this world and return to our reality, Josh and Melissa must find true love and walk back over the bridge. The only question is if they can find true love with each other – or will their match be with another of the town’s inhabitants?

There’s a lot to like about Schmigadoon! The songs are excellent parodies of some of the best musical theatre has to offer (the smart, snappy lyrics and great melodies are from showrunner Cinco Paul, whose love of musicals is clear in every inch of the series). I listened the series finale song over and over while watching the screener – I really hope there’s a cast album released. The problem with the series comes where it so often does with classic musicals: the book (or, for those not up on their musical theatre lingo, the story itself). While Schmigadoon! is only six episodes (which clock in around 35 minutes a pop), the story is too thin to really support a series of that length. Once the central conflict is revealed (Josh and Melissa need to find their true love), the series starts cycling through their options over the course of the remaining episodes. This creates an interesting issue for the series: how to give enough depth to characters who might not be the one true love of our stars. We don’t spend enough time with the potential paramours to really get an understanding of their characters beyond a surface level comparison to one or more characters from the musical theatre canon. Sure, everyone gets at least one good song out of it, but there’s no depth to the love interests and that leads to frustratingly bland interactions outside of their musical interludes.*

*Yes, that can absolutely be read as a commentary on how thin romantic leads were written in most classical musicals – after all, the pairs fall in love, fall out of love, and find each other again in the span of  a two hour show – but it’s the one glaring misstep for a TV show. Television, especially serialized shows – and Schmigadoon! is one – need to use their time to help us understand and fall for their characters. Here, we get to know Melissa a bit, Josh barely at all, and, surprisingly, the best realized character is Cumming’s Mayor Menlove, who gets a really lovely arc over the course of the six episodes. Schmigadoon! would have been a fun musical, but it doesn’t really work as well as a television series.

So, is Schmigadoon! worth your time? If you are a fan of musicals and you have AppleTV+ (and, really, with the quality of content they are churning out, you really should get it if you don’t), it’s absolutely worth your time. If you hate musicals with the passion of a thousand suns, yeah, this one is not for you. Casual musical fan who likes one of the show’s many star performers (the series also boasts Fred Armisen as Chenoweth’s husband and Dove Cameron as a young woman who catches Josh’s eye), give it a look. Listen, Schmigadoon! isn’t trying to be Breaking Bad, and it succeeds at being a fun, light musical comedy. While I may quibble about the depth of its characters and wish it spent a bit more time on character and a bit less on trying to cram in every possible musical reference it can, I had fun watching the show. I think a lot of you will as well.

Schmigadoon! premieres on July 16 on AppleTV+ with its first two episodes. Episodes will then be released weekly. All six episodes of the series were provided for review.