Pour yourself a bowl of corn puddin’ in celebration of season two of Schmigadoon!, premiering the first two episodes on Apple TV+ Wednesday, April 5.
This season, Josh and Melissa find themselves in Schmicago: a world full of ‘60s and ‘70s musicals. It’s a much grimier, more fanatical place from the pastels of Schmigdoon! and the musicals of the ‘40s and ‘50s. “When I first conceived of the show, I wanted it to go through different eras of musicals. So it was natural that season two would hit the ‘60s, ‘70s, and the darker musicals,” cocreator Cinco Paul tells Broadway Direct.
Some of the musicals represented this season include Chicago and Sweeney Todd, which are conveniently currently running on Broadway, along with Annie, Godspell, Oliver, Pippin, Cabaret, Hair, Jesus Christ Superstar, A Chorus Line, and Company.
“The theme of the season is, really, how do you find a happy ending in a world that seems determined to not let you get one?” Paul adds.
“I would literally do anything in this show. I love it. I’m so proud to be a part of it,” exclaims Ann Harada, last seen on Broadway this past fall in Into the Woods. “I feel like it’s such a beautiful way of bringing Broadway to a wider world.”
“If you’re a musical-theater nerd, you get all of the Easter eggs and all of the references,” explains Jamie Camil, who returns for season two and plays Sergeant Rivera. “But even if you don’t understand the theater world, you are going to thoroughly enjoy the show.”
All the other stars from season one — including Cecily Strong, Keegan-Michael Key, Ariana DeBose, Martin Short, Dove Cameron, Kristin Chenoweth, Alan Cumming, Jane Krakowski, and Aaron Tveit — are back for season two … only there’s a plot twist. They all play new characters. Patrick Page and Titus Burgess also join the roster of Broadway talent.
“To be able to bring everybody back was important to me, but as a different character,” explains Paul. “They put on one show in season one and now they’re doing another one.”
“This is my kind of show,” says Krakowski, who was last seen on Broadway in She Loves Me. “If I was the lady watching it at home, it would be me.”
This season, Krakowski plays hotshot lawyer Bobby Flanagan. “When I got to my first page, I lost it. I couldn’t believe it. I was dead. I was like, no way. They’re gonna play music every time I speak and every time I walk? Yes, dream come true,” she tells Broadway Direct about the role. “This season, what was so fun was knowing that we were changing locations and time periods in musical theater.”
Cameron knew early on that she would be channeling a version of Cabaret’s Sally Bowles. “There was a time when [Paul] was sort of more in a literal Chicago-world, where there would be a Roxie and Velma,” she says. “He was like, ‘Get ready to tap dance!’ I was like, ‘Not on your life!’ We actually did a sing-through with Cinco at his apartment and he told us who our characters were going to be. As soon as he knew I was going to be Sally Bowles, it was early enough to panic about getting it wrong. But early enough to also wrap my head around it.”
Harada plays Madam Frau, who runs the nightclub and the rundown hotel. “[Madam Frau] might be more like Fraulein Kost [Cabaret], you know what I mean?” she says. “I’m also like Zach from A Chorus Line. My vocal stylings were based on Lili Von Shtupp from Blazing Saddles, and Frau Blucher from Young Frankenstein. In my mind, I’m all of those women!”
Tveit went from a Billy Bigelow (Carousel)–type character in season one to Topher in season two. “’I’ve never played Pippin. I’ve never played Claude [Hair]. I’ve never played Jesus or Judas. So to get to scratch those itches from the musical-theater canon in this way is pretty special,” says Tveit. “I was very excited to do my version of childish Pippin and childish Jesus a little bit in the show.”
The musical numbers are also knockouts. Strong (Melissa) gets her own solo number, which she didn’t get last season. She’s also part of a trio number with DeBose (Emcee) and Cameron that pays homage to Company’s “You Can Drive a Person Crazy.”
“[DeBose, Cameron, and I] didn’t even get to rehearse together until maybe the day of. Dove and I got to rehearse once together,” says Strong. “They have no nerves, I assume. If I could move like that, I wouldn’t be nervous about anything in my life. But it was very nerve-racking for me. I think we pulled it off. Those are our feet.”
The big 11 o’clock number is Krakowski’s “Bells and Whistles,” which takes place inside a courtroom. It’s a bit “We Both Reached for the Gun” from Chicago and has nods to “Tits and Ass” from A Chorus Line.
“That’s why I chose to do a lot of those positions [from “Tits and Ass”], to give a nod to that, because it’s in there musically,” Krakowski teases. “When I got ‘Bells and Whistles,’ I was blown away by the musical number that Cinco knew I would die to pull off. I’m never happier than being in a rehearsal studio with a choreographer and a mirror. I get to fly on the trapeze. I roller skate. I tap dance. I do splits.”
“Jane can do anything and then she does everything. It’s amazing,” Harada adds.
Even Key (Josh) gets more musical numbers. “There was a lot of excitement attached to this season, because Josh is on board now. That was opposed to sitting back and incredulously observing everything. Now he’s really actively involved. He has the opportunity to get to sing more. I get to move around more. I say ‘move around’ because I’m not a dancer,” he admits.
As you watch the six-episode series, there are so many subtle nods to Broadway.
“I named one of the shops on the street in Schmicago, Herman’s Hummable Tunes,” says Paul. “That’s a very obscure reference to Jerry Herman’s acceptance speech when he won the Tony for La Cage Aux Folles.”
“What is fun about what Cinco writes is how smart all of it is, especially if you know musical theater,” says Krakowski. “Having Mrs. Hannigan and Mrs. Lovett combined and Sweeney Todd and Sally Bowles connected?! We’re all so many facets of that time period of musical theater.”
“One funny thing that Cinco was very insistent on, which I thought was adorable and shows how much Cinco loves these musicals, he was so dead set on me having the Sally absinthe-green fingernails,” Cameron says.
“I truly don’t understand how Cinco does it. Very easily all of these things could fall into parody or make fun of the source material. But it doesn’t do that. It really is a love letter,” Tveit adds.
Cameron and Tveit share quite a few scenes together this season. When asked what show they’d like to headline on Broadway together, they energetically said The Light in the Piazza.
“That’s the realistic one,” says Tveit. “We’d love to do Piazza.”
“We want to take Piazza back to Lincoln Center. We want to revive Piazza and take it back to Broadway,” Cameron adds. The Light in the Piazza is slated for New York City Center in June starring Ruthie Ann Miles, but additional casting has not yet been announced.
Even Krakowski said she would do Chicago, a show she has never done on Broadway.
“There have been times where it may have almost worked out and then didn’t,” she says. “It’s definitely one of the roles that’s on my bucket list and I would love to still play. So I hope it will come up at some point.”
