Schmigadoon! Finds Its Sweet Spot on Broadway
What felt like a one-note TV gag transforms onstage into something far more electric: a sharp, affectionate parody of classic musicals that only fully lands in a theater full of people who understand exactly what’s being sent up.
I was very much like, whatever, going into Schmigadoon! this weekend for a matinee of the niche TV underdog turned Broadway show, which opened at the Nederlander on April 20th. But all that changed as soon as the lights went down. For anyone who is uncertain, Schmigadoon! is a spoof of old American musicals and the way they are often performed with near-hysterical joy and a squeaky-clean veneer.
The plot is this: a young couple going through the seven-year itch ends up in a Twilight Zone–like town where the inhabitants live inside an old musical. Their personalities are tropes, they burst into song over almost anything, and nothing ever changes. Having grown up around and often in such shows (Carousel, Hello, Dolly!, Oklahoma!), I eventually checked out the series on Apple TV. I got it. Ha. Cute. But it felt like the same punchline every episode. The couple, Josh and Melissa, serve as audience advocates trying to understand what is going on in this strange place and how the heck they are going to leave. Melissa kind of enjoys it, and her fella Josh, of course, hates it, which exposes the rift in their relationship.
Strike two for Schmigadoon! on Broadway, for me, was when they did not open the house until after curtain time, leaving everyone lined up around the block on a cold, rainy day for half an hour. I asked an usher what happened, and they told me there had been a problem with the sound. It happens, but I was more excited to finally be inside than I was to see the show at that point.
The curtain rose on the scene where they meet, and we are sped through their relationship until, at last, they find themselves in the pastel-colored, high-on-life land of Schmigadoon. At that point, all was forgiven as far as I was concerned. For me, the bottom line was this: the material works much better on stage than on the small screen. Poking fun at the cartoonish joy of classic musicals is more fun in a theater full of people who truly get the joke than what felt, in comparison, like TV actors making fun of something they were not even a part of. Although, of course, the TV show is populated with Broadway greats. It is a good TV show, but it is a great Broadway show.
The cast, and especially the ensemble, seem to be bursting with an ever-so-slightly ironic energy. Threading the needle of making fun of something while still showing love for it can be tricky business, but the play manages it perfectly. It should be noted that, at the performance I attended, the audience was in on every joke and reference, and it was very apparent that I was not the only one who had once been yelled at to “smile!” while singing Guys and Dolls at the top of my adolescent voice.
I sometimes go on Reddit after I see a show to get any dirt there might be and to see what the little brains have to say. The main complaint seemed to be that it was a carbon copy of the TV show, to which I say, duh. It is the same material by the same creative team. Did we expect them to make huge changes? Why? So y’all could complain about that? It is the same story presented in a different medium. Others were vexed that the beloved Alex Brightman’s character refuses to sing the whole play, and when he finally does, it is actually a beautiful, tender moment. But it is a small song written for a character who cannot sing, and that is that. Might it have been fun to have him break into a huge eleven o’clock number? Maybe. But the eleven o’clock number, and most of the show, belongs to Ana Gasteyer, who plays Mildred Layton, the town’s uber-conservative Christian who disdains just about everything. You know the type. Her number “Tribulation” is certainly going to earn her a Tony nomination.
The critics were split as well. The Times’ Elizabeth Vincentelli, often a soulless human, loved it, while the Post’s Johnny Oleksinski called it a “tired parody.” Look, it is not Shakespeare, and you have to be in the mood for it. But if you are, and if you want a little escapist musical theater fun done right by some of the best on Broadway, then Schmigadoon! is the place to be.
