B'way Review: Schmigadoon!

Sara Chase, Alex Brightman, and cast in
Schmigadoon!
Credit: Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman 
for MurphyMade

You don’t have to have seen Schmigadoon!, the Apple TV + series, or even any musicals at all in order to enjoy—or be totally enraptured by, as I was—Schmigadoon!, the Broadway show. In fact, it helps if you haven’t seen the series because you’ll be surprised by songwriter-librettist Cinco Paul’s magnificent wit and deep affection for the genre he’s parodying. Paul has pared down the six episodes of the first season, keeping the majority of songs and plot elements while adding a few new ones. All of his changes and reserves work. So does the expert, integrated direction and choreography of Christopher Gattelli. The team has created a smart, hilariously funny masterpiece which simultaneously satirizes and pays tribute to the conventions and values of the major midcentury musicals we’ve seen on stages from the Main Stem to our high schools. You don’t even have to like musicals to love this show, because that viewpoint—musicals are artificial, nobody sings and dances out of the blue—is also represented.

Sara Chase and Max Clayton in
Schmigadoon!
Credit: Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman
for MurphyMade 

The ingenious premise from the series remains basically the same. Dating doctors Josh and Melissa have relationship issues—not just that she loves tuners and he hates them. She’s ready to take their live-in, unmarried status to the next level and he’s happy with things as they are. On a couples retreat, they get lost in the woods and happen upon the titular, secluded burg (first musical reference: Brigadoon) where the rustic citizens launch into a production number at the drop of a hat. The wrinkle is Josh and Melissa are prevented from leaving by magical forces until they discover “true love.” It seems they don’t have it together—yet. 

What follows is a crash course in the Golden Age of Broadway musicals with story threads from Oklahoma!, Carousel, The Music Man and The Sound of Music weaved into a crazy quilt of daffy, dazzling delight. Paul does not just mock the tropes and tricks of his targets a la Forbidden Broadway, he also lovingly acknowledges their worthy, homespun lessons. His songs feature clever lyrics (“homosexual” and “contextual” is a sample brilliant rhyme) and just the right spin on the traditional tunes they are parodying so they are original yet familiar.

Ana Gasteyer and cast in
Schmigadoon!
Credit: Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman
for MurphyMade

As Melissa and Josh, Sara Chase and Alex Brightman have the difficult task of portraying “normal” characters caught in a fantasy situation. Both commit to their characters’ objectives (to get out of Schmigadoon and to build their relationship) while gradually slipping under the spell of a musical comedy world with its own crazy rules. Chase is a bubbly dynamo, fighting fiercely for her happiness while indulging her love of musicals. Brightman has the harder chore of liming Josh’s distaste for the genre and of seeming silly, constantly refusing to join in the numbers. When his shell of cynicism finally slips and he lets himself vocalize to show his emotions, it’s extremely moving.

The rest of the expert cast create cartoonish versions of classic figures from these beloved shows without stooping to caricature and making them fully dimensional. I absolutely loved McKenzie Kurtz’s Betsy, a take-off on Ado Annie from Oklahoma! Here she is a flirtatious waitress who sends mixed signals to Josh, playing both innocent child and man-hungry vamp. Kurtz riotously conveys Betsy’s scheming manipulations and steely determination to land a husband. Max Clayton dances brilliantly and bursts with virile, roguish charm as Danny Bailey, Schmigadoon’s resident rapscallion, based on Carousel’s Billy Bigelow. Isabelle McCalla taps and croons her way into our hearts as Emma the school teacher, modeled on Marian the Librarian from The Music Man. Ivan Hernandez captures the town doctor’s rigid reserve (not unlike that of Capt. Von Trapp from Sound of Music), melted by Melissa. Ana Gasteyer scores numerous laughs as the town scold, especially in her big number, a tribute to “Trouble” from Music Man, expertly delivered in rapid-fire manner. 

Brad Oscar is delightfully sincere and heartbreaking as the closeted gay mayor and Ann Harada has several charming moments as his clueless wife. Malik Pancholy is endearing as the minister who may share the mayor’s secret, Afra Hines is frostily funny as a visiting countess, and Ayaan Diop is adorable as Emma’s little brother. 

Scott Pask’s cotton-candy-colored sets, Donald Holder’s sunny lighting, and Linda Cho’s humorous costumes provide the perfect physical setting for this perfect valentine to Broadway’s classical musicals.

April 20—Sept. 6. Nederlander Theater, 208 W. 41st St., NYC. Running time: two hours and 20 mins. including intermission. tickets.broadwaydirect.com.