NEW YORK — I wish my life were more like the climax of a musical than its actual prosaic trajectory and that’s probably the No. 1 prerequisite for even showing up for “Schmigadoon!” the sweet satirical soupçon now at the Nederlander Theatre that extends Apple TV’s tribute to the optimistic pleasures of the art form to its mother source.
If you thought “Urinetown” and “Spamalot” were self-aware, the live version of “Schmigadoon!,” starring Alex Brightman and Sara Chase, takes the meta to a whole new level.
“Schmigadoon!” has scaled the pinnacle of pastiche! It’s a musical within a musical within a musical within a musical. (I think). Top that, future Broadway!
For those starved of Apple TV (the pour souls also missing “Ted Lasso”), “Schmigadoon!” is a TV series created by Cinco Paul and Ken Daurio that basically smashed up the plot of “An American Werewolf in London” with the book to the 1947 Broadway musical “Brigadoon,” best known for its stellar score (“Almost Like Being in Love”) and insanely improbable book, even by the standards of so-called Golden Age musicals.
In “Schmigadoon!,” a contemporary couple, Josh and Melissa (both doctors, ‘cause, why not?), try to repair their relationship by going backpacking. As one does. They somehow find themselves in the magical little titular town, which, as designed by Scott Pask, looks a lot like the set for “The Music Man,” with touches of “Carousel” and “The Sound of Music” and, of course, “Brigadoon.” It’s a populous place, this Schmigadoon, and the inhabitants therein sing, too. They favor songs that sound strikingly like the scores of said classic tuners, only the notes are a little different and the structure of the ditties just distinctive enough to evade any and all copyright protection. The parody defense serves the project well. No need to pay for any costly numbers here.
There’s a catch that will be familiar to anyone old enough to remember actual productions of “Brigadoon” (guilty, right here), but a novelty for the rest of the audience — the doctors cannot re-cross the bridge back into everyday reality until they have found their true love. Otherwise, choreography will become pretty much their only mode of movement.
So what passes here for dramatic tension revolves around whether this requisite true love can be achieved by the couple themselves, or whether it means new relationships with, say, Emma Tate (Isabelle McCalla) who looks and acts a whole lot like Miss Marion in “The Music Man,” or the devilishly handsome but emotionally stunted Doc (Ivan Hernandez), a dead ringer for Captain von Trapp in “The Sound of Music.” There are other candidates, including a Billy Bigelow-like romantic opportunity for Melissa, courtesy of Max Clayton. (Bad idea, Melissa).
Complications ensue from there. The whole thing is, of course, another version of the perennial strangers-in-a-strange-land formula and it shrewdly ensures that the audience always is one half-step ahead of the characters, which makes us all feel superior, which sometimes can be a marker of success on Broadway.
Although variations on that one theme, which only takes you so far, all of the comedy is most entertainingly and exuberantly wrought by the director-choreographer Christopher Gattelli whose guileless, endlessly hoofin’ company roars through the show, treating its wacky themes as if they were doing “Fun Home” or “Days of Wine and Roses.” Sprinkled along the way are fun cameos from the familiar Broadway faces Ana Gasteyer, Ann Harada, McKenzie Kurtz and Brad Oscar, all veteran musical actors whose very presence is all part of the show’s central joke. Collectively, they wear down whatever resistance one might have summoned and do all they can to compensate for the shows lack of a credible original score. At least in Act 1. Act 2 is a little more musically imaginative.
Frankly, I think this Broadway “Schmigadoon!” would have better advised to condense Season 1 of the TV show, which it mirrors surprisingly closely, and move to Season 2 after intermission. That’s when the TV “Schmigadoon!” took on darker, more cynical musicals and turned itself into “Schmicago.” Gattelli and this crew would have all kinds of fun there and the central Act 1 gag would not have felt a little stretched beyond its natural thickness.
Perhaps they are all hoping for a “Schmigadoon 2.” I’m not so sure about the viability of that, given the number of camp parodies competing on Broadway, although given the current state of the non-musical world, who knows?
Chris Jones is a Tribune critic
cjones5@chicagotribune.com
At the Nederlander Theatre, 208 W. 41st St, New York; schmigadoonbroadway.com
