TV Review: Schmigadoon! Is A Place I Want To Visit
Schmigadoon! is right up my alley. It is a fun, joyous ode to the Golden Age of Hollywood Musicals like, Hello Dolly and Oklahoma, and is as original and Heaven-sent for theater nerds as Glee in its high time. Yes, Glee was a huge deal and an unabashed, guilty pleasure because it made Broadway cool and nerdiness a natural ID for high-school living. Schmigadoon!, similarly, uses theater nerdiness and bright wit to elaborate that adulthood can be as awkward as “teenhood.” In essence, there is nothing like a dance number and a catchy hook to remind a couple that they have no idea what they are doing with their lives or each other.
Immediately, it gave off a Ted Lasso goes to the Good Place vibes with its level of positivity and social snark. Cecily Strong (SNL) and Keegan-Michael Key (Key & Peele) are Melissa and Josh; a couple of successful doctors that are having trouble transferring that success into their relationship. While they were once in love, they have clearly fallen out of it. Why? Because on a hike during a couples’ getaway, they get stuck in a mystical, musical town, Schmigadoon!, of which they can’t leave until they find true love. The twist feels like the happiest plot turn of a Black Mirror episode. Honestly, if you got stuck in a musical town, would you find it creepy, fabulous, or a little bit of both? Created Ken Daurio and Cinco Paul, the characters are simultaneously annoyed and charmed by the vast music numbers that genuinely appeal to what they really feel.
What I love about this show is that it honors why people love musical theater. Something about these musicals help us not only embrace our lives, but feel like we can resolve them, which is why, for me, musical theater is one of the most emotionally honest genres EVER! While I laughed as Melissa exuberantly confronted the genre’s sexism with song and dance, and giggled as Josh begrudgingly submitted to a musical number or two, their journeys on the show exemplified the importance of a genre or song in helping people see what they have avoided looking at. These are two characters that gave up on not only loving each other but also themselves, and if that is not a musical theater premise I don’t know what is!
Of course, there are people that HATE musicals, of which those people are evil. No…. Just Kidding… or am I? My point is that Schmigadoon! is hilarious and vulnerable enough to be self-aware on the flaws and beauty of musical theater. Cecily Strong makes Melissa both awed and saddened by the fact that she is stuck in a world that doesn’t mind singing its feelings to the top of its lungs, while she is not, necessarily, ready to confront hers. Meanwhile, Josh’s journey will make you laugh and wonder as a man surrounded by guys like Aaron Tveit’s Danny Bailey, Alan Cumming’s Mayor Menlove, and Jaime Camil’s Doc Lopez whom so freely express what is in their hearts through their bodies and vocal belts. In essence, this couple is not only reshaping and confronting gender in musicals but also in their romance.
Does having a career block love? What should be the balance between loving yourself and someone else? Okay! These are really deep questions that Schmigadoon! confront through its leads as much as its “straight out of a Theater textbook” characters such as, the iconic Kristin Chenoweth’s Mildred Layton, Dove Cameron’s Betsy, and Jane Krakowski’s The Countess have their own epiphanies on how they have played to social tropes even within a world of high-kicks and tap-dances. Frankly, it is easy to lose yourself in life, but the presumption is that during or by adulthood you find who you are, especially if you have a stable partner or career. Yet, Schmigadoon both loves and laughs at musical theater because it truly is for the passionate.
Why be stable, when you can be soaring? This is the existisitential epicenter of Broadway Babies like myself. We don’t settle, we skyrocket, and Schmigadoon’s song and style is all about that essence, even when it challenges the flawed concepts that make classic musical theater SHOOK at a woman doctor. For all that can be regressive, musical theater can be progressive and have tons of heart, of which Schmigadoon! gives musicals a fresh heartbeat. Schmigadoon premieres on Apple TV Plus on July 16.
