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I love musicals, both the Broadway and movie varieties. Musicals can be purely comedic or purely dramatic … and a combination of many different genres. Musicals can be set in the real world or in purely fantasy worlds … or both. One of my favorite musicals is the classic Brigadoon with Gene Kelly, Van Johnson and Cyd Charisse. The story places two hikers in Scotland in a town not on any map with the inhabitants of the town behaving as if they were living in an era two hundred years earlier. This purely fantastical realm made me want to visit Scotland some day. Maybe I will get there at some point.
Now creators Ken Daurio and Cinco Paul — who have some questionable writing gigs on the resumés from The Lorax to The Secret Life of Pets (and I have to give them credit for the cult classic Bubble Boy) — have taken the concept of Brigadoon and brought the main story into the present. The first episode finds two doctors, Melissa (Cecily Strong) and Josh (Keegan-Michael Key), having a ‘meet cute’ moment at a candy machine at the hospital. They quickly bond, go on a date and after a whirlwind relationship find themselves stuck in a rut three years later.
Josh is fine with the status quo of things but Melissa knows they are in deep trouble if they don’t find a way to reconnect to each other. So she books them onto some kind of relationship therapy retreat, which Josh is wholeheartedly not into and doesn’t know why Melissa is insisting they do this. At one point they are given heart-shaped rocks with their names on them and during a hike in the woods Josh loses Melissa’s rock. Which isn’t a big deal to him. It’s just a rock. To her it completely symbolizes their entire relationship and insists that they go back and hunt for it. As they get lost deeper in the woods, they come upon a stone bridge shrouded in fog but decide to see what’s on the other side.
There they find a colorful, cartoonish town and are greeted by a group of townspeople … in song. At first they think it’s just a traditional way of greeting newcomers, but as the song continues well into the main part of town, Melissa seems to believe they are in an actual musical, something else Josh is not thrilled about. Also not thrilled is the minister’s wife Mildred Layton (Kristin Chenoweth), especially when Josh and Melissa try to book a room at the hotel. They’re not married and they are not allowed to stay in the same room. But the rooms are cheap enough and they agree to separate rooms. Melissa even thinks a little time apart will benefit their relationship.
But they still can’t put their finger on what exactly is going on in Schmigadoon, and Melissa is not thrilled at all by the attention lavished upon Josh by Betsy, who is at the very least a decade too young for Josh. But she thinks he’s hilarious and invites him to the picnic basket auction which Melissa thinks is code for something else, at one point going on a drunken rant (she drank punch from the liquor-infused men’s bowl instead of the plain women’s) that the men of the town were buying the women for sexual favors. Mayor Menlove (Alan Cumming) is confused that Melissa doesn’t seem to grasp the concept of a picnic basket sale. But to push Melissa’s buttons, Josh buys Betsy’s basket … and gets a little more than he bargained for.
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Meanwhile, Melissa pays a visit to the carnival and meets up with the town bad boy Danny Bailey (Aaron Tveit) who offers to give her a free ride in the Tunnel of Love. Talking with Danny, Melissa realizes they have a connection and Danny breaks out into song, which Melissa loves. But Danny responds to her compliments with complete bafflement. He wasn’t singing. Melissa plays along but she finally realizes that Josh was right and there is something off about Schmigadoon. They try to leave but when they cross the bridge they’re just back in Schmigadoon. They are surrounded by Schmigadoon with no exit. Suddenly a leprechaun (Martin Short) appears and sings to them that they cannot leave until they find true love. They both say of course they are truly in love, but Schmigadoon isn’t buying it. How will they return to the real world if they are not each other’s soul mate? Will they find love in Schmigadoon, or is there something more sinister at play?
The first two episodes of Schmigadoon! perfectly set up the show’s premise and has a winning ensemble of actors known for their work in musicals (Cumming, Chenoweth, Tveit, Cameron and Jane Krakowski, who does not appear in these episodes), and the writing is just so on point both in the dialogue and lyrics. There is an entire musical number about corn pudding! Alan Cumming’s Mayor Menlove also gets a wonderful song that Melissa immediately recognizes as a veiled reference to the mayor’s sexuality (even though he’s very married to a woman). Cumming’s performance is wonderful and heartfelt, even if when she asks if he’s gay he takes it to mean ‘happy’. Chenoweth is great as the show’s villain, and Tveit smolders as he attempts (or not) to woo Melissa. Dove Cameron is also a lot of fun, but her pursuit of Josh is a little creepy. Keegan-Michael Key is the straight man in all of this, refusing to participate in any of the songs (although he almost can’t resist the corn pudding number), and Cecily Strong shows that she certainly has a career beyond Saturday Night Live.
Everything so far about Schmigadoon! is pure delight, but it’s also going to be frustratingly short, clocking in at just six episodes total. I was enchanted by the premiere and I can’t wait to see how it all ends. And if my initial suspicions about Josh and Melissa’s fates are correct. Even if you don’t like musicals, you should give Schmigadoon! a look.
New episodes of Schmigadoon! drop Fridays on Apple TV Plus. Subscribe through the link below.
What did you think of the premiere episodes? Give us your thoughts in the comments section below.
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