Schmigadoon season 2’s many musical theater references missed one crucial thing
Should Schmicago have committed to actually eating an orphan? I mean … maybe?
In season 1 of Apple TV Plus’ Schmigadoon!, two modern New Yorkers, Melissa (Cecily Strong) and Josh (Keegan-Michael Key), got lost in the Golden Age musical town of Schmigadoon, rekindled their love, and left it a more progressive place.
In season 2, the now-married pair start the season by dealing with career lows and fertility problems; so they set out to hunt for their Schmigadoon retreat. Unfortunately for them, the town has evaporated into the darker and sleazier Schmicago, with all that jazz of soul-searching ’60s and ’70s musicals. “Mystery and magic, endings that tragic,” croons the Narrator (Tituss Burgess, who sips and slurps drama like wine) in a “We Got Magic to Do” Pippin pastiche. No more pastels, nor joyous “Corn Puddin’.”
But it’s all good now, because the two sojourners leave Schmicago a sunnier place, too.
That’s not to say this sophomore (hopefully not the last!) season doesn’t shimmy-shake up the formula. Creators Cinco Paul and Ken Daurio crafted a musical aficionado’s dreamworld populated with stage luminaries and loving references, the kind whose mere presence can drive fans of the genre wild with applause in their own living rooms.
Schmigadoon season 2 (or Schmicago) is a layered cream cake of confluences of both stage productions and their film adaptations. Paul crafts clever mashups that blossom into origamis of influences, as choreographer Christopher Gattelli playfully spins dance homages (Bob Fosse, Michael Bennett, and Twyla Tharp, to name a few).
There are too many tributes to name (hi Dreamgirls!). Alan Cumming and Kristin Chenoweth (from the 1999 Annie) reunite to ham it up as Sweeney Todd and Mrs. Lovett
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