Musicals date back to 1866 with The Black Crook, which is considered the pioneer of the genre that combines a narrative with dance and original music. Since then, from Broadway in New York City to screens inside your home, musicals have become a beloved niche of entertainment with Apple TV+’s Emmy winning series Schmigadoon! added to the iconic lineage of musicals.
Created by Ken Daurio and Cinco Paul, Schmigadoon!, which premiered in 2021, stars Keegan-Michael Key and Cecily Strong as Josh Skinner and Melissa Gimble, two doctors from New York who fall in love, but come to a roadblock in their relationship in season 1. During a couples’ retreat the pair stumble on a magical town called Schmigadoon where life is a musical. Overcoming some obstacles in the 6-episode arc, Josh and Melissa were able to find a way to leave the town happier and more in love than before.
Season 2 premiered Wednesday, April 5 on Apple TV+ with two half-hour episodes (“Welcome to Schmicago” and “Doorway to Where”), but the musical town is not exactly how Josh and Melissa remembered.
*Spoilers ahead*
A Darker and Sexier Schmigadoon
Schmigadoon! season 2 picks up right where season 1 left off, 10 seconds after to be exact. Josh and Melissa get married, buy a house, and are trying to start a family. They are happy for a while, until they aren’t as it’s evident how deeply Schmigadoon has impacted their lives and how much they miss it. The solution to their unhappy lives is to find Schmigadoon again. Josh and Melissa fail to find the picture-perfect town of Schmigadoon and instead stumble into the gritty, edgy, and sexier city of Schmicago where a murder occurs, and Josh is the prime suspect.
Melissa quickly points out that the type of musical they’re in now falls in line with Chicago (1975), Pippin (1972), and Cabaret (1966). Other musicals like Hair (1968) and Sweet Charity (1966) also have a clear influence on this season of Schmigadoon! Like the musicals mentioned above, season 2 of Schmigadoon! features not so subtle sexual innuendos and violence making the second season feel like a completely different series which is very entertaining to watch. The idea of using a variety of musical styles keeps a show like this fresh which could go stale very quickly, but since musicals are continuously evolving, the concept of Schmigadoon! could evolve as well. True love was a theme in season 1, which Josh and Melissa found, but now they must find “a happy end” if they want to leave the city of Schmicago. Defining what makes a happy ending will unfold in future episodes.
Familiar Faces, Different Personas
One of the components that makes Schmigadoon! work so well is the ensemble cast. Dove Cameron, Ariana DeBose, Aaron Tveit, Jaime Camil, Ann Harada, Jane Krakowski, Kristin Chenoweth, Alan Cumming, and Martin Short were all featured in the first season and return for the second with Patrick Page, Patti Allan, and Tituss Burgess joining the cast.
This time the returning cast members have shed their often-sunny Schmigadoon characters for different personas in the new season. Dove Cameron went from the devout farmer’s daughter Betsy McDonough to a sensual cabaret dancer named Jenny Banks seeking fortune and fame. Aaron Tveit goes from carney rapscallion Danny Bailey to peace and love hippie Topher, and Ariana DeBose went from wholesome schoolmarm Emma Tate to a racy Emcee.
Tituss Burgess as the Narrator is a brilliant addition to the cast with his musical prowess on full display and his comedic persona like his Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt character Titus Andromedon. His character adds so much more humor to the already comical series as well as seeing Key’s character Josh clearly enthused to be in this version of a musical compared to how he was in season 1. There are still many other characters to get to know since Chenoweth and Cumming’s were only featured slightly in the first episode.
Big Numbers and Glamorous Wardrobe
With original songs by series creator Cinco Paul, the city of Schmicago is giving the season 1 soundtrack of Schmigadoon! some stiff competition. “Corn Puddin” from season 1 earned a Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Music and Lyrics, but two episodes in and I feel there are some worthy songs that can be up for nomination. The opening song, “Welcome to Schmicago,” in episode 1 headed by Tituss Burgess, is a jazzy tune in the middle of the street introducing the new environment while Dove Cameron’s “Kaput” describes her past affairs with lovers and why they went sour as Cameron delivers a showstopping, captivating performance proving she’ll be one to watch this season.
Later in another episode, Cameron, DeBose, and Strong’s characters perform a number about breaking out of a relationship while shackled to one another glamorously dressed in striped outfits and Aaron Tveit’s character sings about finding himself while stuck in a prisoner cell with Josh. The songs are bolder and addictive as I found myself desperately searching Apple Music to see if they were available yet so I can listen to them on repeat. They’re that good.
What Schmigadoon! gets right is while the show clearly is paying homage to musicals before, it doesn’t hold back at poking fun at the absurdity of musicals from the past. The show adds its own commentary on what makes them a delight as you watch in amazement wishing you could stumble into a town that would make your life a musical.
New episodes of Schmigadoon! drop Wednesdays on Apple TV+ through May 3.
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Amber Dover is a multimedia journalist with over a decade writing about pop culture. Cat mom with a deep love of horror, you can follow Amber at @Glambergirlblog on Instagram and Twitter.
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