‘Schmigadoon’ Season 2 overview: Welcome to the darker, sexier Schmicago

Whereas you paid shut consideration to the musical references in Schmigadoon! Season 1’s closing quantity(Opens in a brand fresh tab), you knew exactly where Apple TV’s theatrical comedy would be taking us next.

Whereas the first season straight parodied Golden Age musicals luxuriate in Oklahoma! and The Sound of Song, the point to’s enormous nearer “How We Alternate” drew on the sound of later Broadway composers. With that musical evolution, Schmigadoon! makes the leap into its 2d season — and a brand fresh, darker generation of musicals, from the likes of Stephen Sondheim, Stephen Schwartz, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Tim Rice, John Kander, Fred Ebb, Bob Fosse, Gerome Ragni, James Rado, and further.

Schmigadoon! gets a entire fresh world to play in in Season 2.

Schmigadoon! Season 2 picks up about a years after the terminate of Season 1. Melissa (Cecily Solid) and Josh (Keegan-Michael Key) gain settled into married lifestyles, but they can’t shake the feeling that they need to be famous, famous happier. A return day shuttle to Schmigadoon looks luxuriate in factual the solution they need to ranking a chuffed ending. Finally, what might maybe furthermore be greater than a chuffed music and dance quantity conducted by an ensemble of Broadway greats?

Then again, when the two stumble relief into the musical world, they’re in for a coarse awakening. Long previous are the rolling hillsides and quaint homes of Schmigadoon. They’ve been replaced by the seedy nightclubs and flawed courtrooms of the metropolis of Schmicago, where the musicals of the ’60s and ’70s advance to lifestyles.

It’s a famous stylistic twist, but it indubitably’s factual the honest high kick within the pants Schmigadoon! needs to remain fresh and stress-free. Darker, grittier reveals luxuriate in Sweeney Todd, Cabaret, and, for sure, Chicago all ranking their intellectual 2d within the spotlight. Unlike in Season 1, musical-loving Melissa is less acquainted with these references, preferring her reveals light and stress-free. This departure from Schmigadoon!‘s initial system offers a welcome change for Melissa and Josh to naively wreak havoc during Schmicago.

Whereas the metropolis of Schmicago is a wildly different ambiance from the village of Schmigadoon, nearly your entire metropolis’s inhabitants are acquainted faces from Season 1. Even even when here, they’re taking half in fully different characters.

Kristin Chenoweth is an orphan-hating flawed between Annie‘s Omit Hannigan and Sweeney Todd‘s Mrs. Lovett, while Alan Cumming performs a cleaver-wielding butcher with similarities to a sure razor-wielding barber. Schmigadoon! pays tribute to Cabaret through Dove Cameron’s snappy-talking, chair-dancing Jenny Banks and Ariana DeBose’s gain shut on the enduring Emcee. In several locations, Aaron Tveit leads a tribe of parable loving-hippies pulled straight from Hair with a sharp speed of Jesus Christ Star, and Jane Krakowski gets many potentialities to razzle dazzle us as a gender-swapped Billy Flynn from Chicago. When Josh is framed for murder, she might maybe furthermore be the handiest person who can set him from the electrical chair.

Schmigadoon! furthermore adds two enormous fresh guest stars to its already out of the ordinary solid. First up is the consistently-hilarious Tituss Burgess (Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt)(Opens in a brand fresh tab) as Schmicago’s resident narrator. He welcomes us to the story with commence hands, channeling Pippin‘s Leading Participant, but lickety-split turns into angry by Melissa and Josh’s fixed questioning. Any time these three bicker, you are in for a stress-free time.

Then, there is Patrick Online page as the villainous Octavius Kratt, whose sharp suits and industrial ventures can’t advantage but name to suggestions Online page’s flip as Hades in 2019’s Hadestown. (I know Schmigadoon! will not be in our most modern musical generation yet, however the likeness is startling.) Online page brings his signature deeper-than-deep affirm to this menacing feature, giving us this season’s most chilling antagonist.

Schmigadoon!‘s musical numbers and Easter eggs are highlights of Season 2.

As any individual who prefers ’60s and ’70s musicals to those of the Golden Age, I admit that I’m biased as soon as I voice that I loved Season 2’s musical numbers even bigger than Season 1’s. The songs don’t are susceptible to be overly satirical — aside from one quantity that might maybe well were surprising by ’60s standards but which earns a in actuality polite “oh, frigid” from Josh and Melissa. So you can occasionally slay up wishing the parody amounted to extra. Quiet, you ranking Cumming and Chenoweth doing Sweeney Todd; Solid, Cameron, and DeBose doing Cabaret; and Krakowski doing a surprising mash-up of Chicago and Firm. Discuss referring to the absolute very top Broadway fanfiction ever! Add choreography and staging that pays glorious comedic tribute to the customary, and as well you’ve gotten got got several standout numbers to your hands.

The tributes don’t quit at the musical numbers. Dialogue calls to suggestions iconic music lyrics or questions musical mores of yore. Storefronts and road indicators are affected by references to approved composers of the generation, while the costumes, in all their lingerie and bowler hat-wearing glory, straight away clue you into what point to Schmigadoon! is referencing.

Schmigadoon! might maybe per chance chance being nothing but a string of parodies one after the opposite. However this season is held together by a sweet storyline about training happiness — not factual for Josh and Melissa, but for everyone within the metropolis, too. Sure, as a simply it’s miles a tad simplistic, and six episodes don’t give Schmigadoon! too famous time to in actuality delve into every of its characters’ lives. Then again, that does not quit Schmigadoon!‘s tear through the ’60s and ’70s from being a total blast. I mean, at the same time as you occur to’ve gotten got got a solid this unbelievable and songs this delectable, is it in actuality imaginable to hurry mistaken?

The first two episodes of Schmigadoon! hit AppleTV+ Apr. 5, with fresh episodes streaming weekly on Fridays.(Opens in a brand fresh tab)

UPDATE: Apr. 4, 2023, 6:00 p.m. EDT The overview first and foremost ran March 28, 2023. It’s been republished to gain an very perfect time the point to’s debut on Apple TV+.