ADVANCE REVIEW: Schmigadoon! is a Fun Musical Comedy for All

Melissa Gimble and Josh Skinner (Cecily Strong and Keegan-Michael Key) have set out on a backpacking trip in hopes of bringing some spark back to their relationship. Along their trip, they stumble across a town, Schmigadoon, that’s stuck in a 1940’s musical. As they attempt to escape the musical town, the couple realizes the only way they can leave is to find their true love, but the question soon becomes, is Melissa and Josh’s love really “true love”.

The concept of AppleTV+’s new show, Schmigadoon! is a parody on the 1947 Broadway musical Brigadoon, where two New Yorkers travel to the Scottish Highlands and stumble across a town called, Brigadoon. There, they find that no one is allowed to remain in Brigadoon unless they truly love someone in the town. Instead of following down this same path, creators, Cinco Paul and Ken Daurio have crafted a story that takes the overall idea of two people stumbling on a musical town and turning it on its head. Each episode is continuously poking fun at the idea of a musical town and do it in such a way that is funny and not too campy.

But what makes a musical a great musical is the music. Paul wrote all the original music featured in the show and each piece will have you bopping you head along with it. Broadway alums, Kristin Chenoweth, Alan Cummings, and Aaron Tveit, have some of the best voices and can pretty much sing anything, so hearing them sing on this show will leave you begging to go see a Broadway show. Strong and Key don’t have the greatest of voices, but, for me, that only made their characters that much better. You could tell the two were having a blast filming alongside the Broadway vets and the other characters.

Cummings, Chenoweth, and Tveit do well as the Mayor of Schmigadoon (Cummings), the Reverend’s wife, Margaret/Mildred Layton (Chenoweth) and the town’s dreamy bad boy, Danny Bailey (Tveit). Dove Cameron and Ariana DeBose are wonderful additions as towners, Betsy McDonough and Emma Tate. Cameron, who starred in NBC’s live version of Hairspray, and DeBose, who appeared on Broadway, have great voices and had no problem keeping up with the Broadway vets.

I highly recommend checking out Schmigadoon! on AppleTV+. The show is extremely entertaining and is absolute nonsense, but in a good way. If you are looking for a show to just loose yourself in without feeling like you have to be fully invested in, this one is for you.