Written by contributor Stephanie Lottes
Schmigadoon is a musical comedy on Apple TV+, which captures classic musical theatre and presents it in a novel, lighthearted way. The series follows Melissa and Josh who are on a camping trip to rekindle their love after having grown apart by focusing on their individual lives. They get lost and wander into a town called Schmigadoon, whose buildings and townsfolk are the caricature of many Broadway musicals of the last 50 years. Over the course of their time in the town, they will find love, meet new people, make new friends, and this will lead them back to each other in the end.
Melissa and Josh are a couple from New York City that stumble upon the town of Schmigadoon. They quickly discover this is not an ordinary town as the townsfolk greet them with a classic Broadway opening number (“Schmigadoon!”). A bit confused about what’s going on, they are introduced to the town characters in a traditional Broadway opening scene. A quirky group for sure, yet Melissa can’t help but sing along when another production number starts (“Corn Puddin’”). The people of Schmigadoon are easily identifiable as musical theatre characters with their own modern nuance. Mildred, the preacher’s wife, is the classic musical theatre character of town busy body who is in everybody’s business (think the pick-a-little ladies from The Music Man). Other characters in the town have inspiration from classic musical theatre characters as well, like the town doctor being inspired by Captain Von Trapp from The Sound of Music, and the school teacher being inspired by Marian Paroo, also from The Music Man.
The main plot of Schmigadoon is mirrored in traditional Broadway theatre, a love story with subplots that drive the scenes and the resulting musical numbers. One important subplot is Josh and Melissa kind of growing apart (à la Albert and Rosie from Bye Bye Birdie), and they become involved with others in the town. Melissa falls for Doctor Lopez, the doctor she is assisting, after the very modern one night stand with Danny, the town “bad boy.” Meanwhile, Josh becomes close with Emma Tate, the local school teacher. Josh starts off as Emma’s handyman (but not a very good one), doing repairs in her classroom. Emma and her students see something in Josh and they let him know through song (With All Of Your Heart). A classic musical has a love song for the lead couple, and with Melissa and Josh we get another modern twist where two couples sing about their newfound feelings for each other, a double duet (“Suddenly”). And what’s a musical without at least one reprise? We get one as Melissa sings of her growing feelings for the doctor (“Suddenly Melissa’s Reprise”). Other subplots drive the six episodes but in the end, like any musical closing number, the leads rekindle their love, and the screen is filled with the cast singing about how they grew and changed over the course of Josh and Melissa staying in Schmigadoon (“How We Change/ Finale”).
Schmigadoon draws from many other Broadway shows and its characters. Danny played on screen by Aaron Tevit, is a Billy Bigelow inspiration from Carousel, and demonstrates his “bad boy” persona with You Can’t Tame Me. Martin Short makes a guest appearance as a leprechaun right out of Finian’s Rainbow with Leprechaun Song The town ensemble have several numbers where they all sing about what they are feeling (“Tribulation”) or sing to reinforce the main plot (Lovers’ Spat). In a classic musical we also have dance with a large ensemble and smaller group numbers. One traditional nuance is to feature male or female-only dances (men in “The Jet Song” and women in “The Cell Block Tango”). Schmigadoon incorporates the female-only chorus in the song “Cross that Bridge”.
When adapting traditional musical theatre for a modern TV screen, you need to find the balance between being funny, serious moments, and clever music and lyrics the audience will enjoy. The writing in Schmigadoon blends these elements across the dialogue, lyrics, and dance. Schimigadoon is filled with funny quotes that bring classic musicals to a modern audience. Some of them reference musicals directly, and others are just a funny take on classic Broadway lines: “Have you not seen Sound of Music? Liesl is 16 going on 29” – Melissa. Comedy is sometimes in the ear of the viewer, where not everyone will find each gag funny. In the case of Schmigadoon, some of the gags will strike home with the true Broadway fan; for the casual fan, the humour will ride on the surface: most the classic musical theatre references make us laugh as a modern audience whether we’re a big fan or just a casual fan of musicals “Josh, you’re in a musical when you can’t talk you sing, when you can’t sing you dance” – Melissa.
