How would you want to search out your self residing inside a basic film musical? Your reply to which will very nicely decide how a lot you’ll get pleasure from Apple TV+’s new comedy Schmigadoon! (premiering Friday, July 16). It’s a really affectionate, very particular parody of Golden Age musicals, and theater nerds will undoubtedly adore it… however others may be delay by all of the extreme cheer. (The exclamation level within the title is there for a cause.) After watching all six episodes, although, I can say that it absolutely gained me over: The solid is top-to-bottom unbelievable, the passion is infectious, and the sharp jabs it takes on the style’s wheezy outdated clichés give it a distinctly meta edge.
Sketch comedy veterans Cecily Robust (SNL) and Keegan-Michael Key (Key & Peele) star as Melissa and Josh, a pair of docs who fell in love however have since drifted into an sad rut. They go on a {couples}’ retreat to revive their romance, and whereas they’re backpacking within the woods, they come upon a magical land the place the peppy residents greet them with an elaborate song-and-dance quantity. She’s a musical fan, so she’s charmed… however he’s not. And there’s a creepy, Twilight Zone-y twist, too: They will’t depart the city and get again to their lives with out discovering real love. (And so they haven’t discovered it with one another, apparently.)
Impressed by the likes of Brigadoon, Oklahoma! and The Music Man, the city of Schmigadoon is a triumph of creativeness — and of manufacturing design. Its residents are acquainted sorts, from the mustached mayor (Alan Cumming) and the whip-smart schoolmarm (Ariana DeBose) to the bad-boy bachelor who can’t be tamed (Aaron Tveit) and the little child with an lovely lisp (Liam Quiring-Nkindi). The colorfully elaborate units and costumes are definitely worth the worth of admission alone; they’re an absolute feast for the eyes. (The units are each splendidly immersive and barely synthetic, with a faint whiff of theatricality to them; we are able to nearly see the seams.) The unique songs mimic beloved showtunes, and the townsfolk fortunately carry out them in zesty, full-scale dance numbers. So for followers of basic musicals, it’s a delight simply taken at face worth.
This city has decidedly old school values, although… which is a pleasant means of claiming they’re all painfully regressive. (They will’t imagine Melissa is definitely a health care provider: “However you’re a woman.”) Kristin Chenoweth performs city scold Mildred Layton, who gained’t even enable Melissa and Josh to remain in the identical room on the native inn, since they’re (gasp!) single. Fortunately, Melissa is a musical professional, so she is aware of what to anticipate, and thru her eyes, the present gleefully takes goal on the musical style’s problematic clichés, with a number of realizing winks to the viewers. (“Girls had been so underwritten in early musicals,” she sighs.) Schmigadoon! manages to dissect the style and rejoice it on the identical time, stating its obvious flaws whereas nonetheless embracing its virtues.
The actors are clearly having a ball, too. Robust is nice and goofy right here, in one among her greatest roles but. (The Sound of Music-esque tune that Melissa sings to show the locals a few lady’s reproductive anatomy is a hilariously naughty spotlight.) We all know Secret’s a tremendously gifted comic, so it’s irritating to look at him principally play the humorless straight man right here, however he does have a couple of zany moments. And the supporting solid is sort of embarrassingly stacked: Tveit and Cumming are particularly good, as are Jane the Virgin‘s Jaime Camil because the dashing city physician and 30 Rock‘s Jane Krakowski because the glamorous Countess. Most of them solely get a scant couple of minutes of display screen time, although, sadly. I nearly needed the present to be longer than six episodes, simply so we may see extra of those nice actors inhabiting this bizarre world.
The story does get just a little cutesy and simplistic at occasions, nearly like a children’ film. (Co-creators Cinco Paul and Ken Daurio are greatest recognized for his or her work on the Despicable Me franchise, which makes a number of sense.) Many of the songs find yourself being too trustworthy to the style: They might match proper right into a basic musical soundtrack, however they lack an impressed comedic spin. I discovered myself wishing the present would go additional, hit tougher, comply with by means of on its extra savage instincts. Nevertheless it does construct to a satisfying end, echoing Pleasantville as the 2 outsiders kick off a series response of chaos on the town with their new-fangled methods. It simply goes to point out you: Even outdated tales can all the time be rewritten.
THE TVLINE BOTTOM LINE: Apple TV+’s Schmigadoon! is a colourful deal with for followers of basic musicals, with sufficient satirical chew to chop by means of the sweetness.