{"id":2382231,"date":"2026-04-21T02:05:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T02:05:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2382231"},"modified":"2026-04-21T02:05:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T02:05:07","slug":"schmigadoon-review-tired-parody-of-broadways-golden-age-is-been-there-doon-that","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/schmigadoon-review-tired-parody-of-broadways-golden-age-is-been-there-doon-that\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Schmigadoon!&#8217; review: Tired parody of Broadway&#8217;s Golden Age is been there, &#8216;doon that"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content%2Fuploads%2Fsites%2F2%2F2026%2F04%2Fnewspress-collage-yyy5bfp1l-1776721775677.jpg?quality%3D90%26strip%3Dall%261776707537\" \/><\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"inline-module inline-module--review alignleft\">\n<div class=\"inline-module__inner\">\n\t\t<span class=\"inline-module--review__eyebrow subsection-heading-semi__label\"><br \/>\n\t\t\tTheater review\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"inline-module--review__title subsection-heading-semi\">\n\t\t\tSCHMIGADOON!\t\t<\/h2>\n<div class=\"rating\">\n<div class=\"rating__stars\">\n<div class=\"rating__star rating__star--filled\"><?php \/**\n * Review star.\n * \n * @package nyp-editor\n *\/\n\n??><\/p>\n<style><![CDATA[\n\t.review-block-star {\n\t\t--review-block-star--empty-color: #585858;\n\t\t--review-block-star--fill-color: #000;\n\t}\n]]><\/style>\n<p><svg class=\"icon-star review-block-star\" stroke=\"var(--review-block-star--fill-color)\" fill=\"var(--review-block-star--empty-color)\" stroke-width=\"0\" viewbox=\"0 0 16 16\" height=\"13px\" width=\"13px\">\n\t<defs>\n\t\t<lineargradient id=\"half-gradient\">\n\t\t\t<stop stop-opacity=\"1\" offset=\"50%\" stop-color=\"var(--review-block-star--fill-color)\"\/>\n\t\t\t<stop stop-opacity=\"1\" offset=\"0%\" 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stop-color=\"var(--review-block-star--fill-color)\"\/>\n\t\t\t<stop stop-opacity=\"1\" offset=\"0%\" stop-color=\"var(--review-block-star--empty-color)\"\/>\n\t\t<\/lineargradient>\n\t<\/defs>\n\t<path d=\"M3.612 15.443c-.386.198-.824-.149-.746-.592l.83-4.73L.173 6.765c-.329-.314-.158-.888.283-.95l4.898-.696L7.538.792c.197-.39.73-.39.927 0l2.184 4.327 4.898.696c.441.062.612.636.283.95l-3.523 3.356.83 4.73c.078.443-.36.79-.746.592L8 13.187l-4.389 2.256z\">\n\t<\/path>\n<\/svg>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"rating__star rating__star--empty\"><?php \/**\n * Review star.\n * \n * @package nyp-editor\n *\/\n\n??><\/p>\n<style><![CDATA[\n\t.review-block-star {\n\t\t--review-block-star--empty-color: #585858;\n\t\t--review-block-star--fill-color: #000;\n\t}\n]]><\/style>\n<p><svg class=\"icon-star review-block-star\" stroke=\"var(--review-block-star--fill-color)\" fill=\"var(--review-block-star--empty-color)\" stroke-width=\"0\" viewbox=\"0 0 16 16\" height=\"13px\" width=\"13px\">\n\t<defs>\n\t\t<lineargradient id=\"half-gradient\">\n\t\t\t<stop stop-opacity=\"1\" offset=\"50%\" stop-color=\"var(--review-block-star--fill-color)\"\/>\n\t\t\t<stop stop-opacity=\"1\" offset=\"0%\" stop-color=\"var(--review-block-star--empty-color)\"\/>\n\t\t<\/lineargradient>\n\t<\/defs>\n\t<path d=\"M3.612 15.443c-.386.198-.824-.149-.746-.592l.83-4.73L.173 6.765c-.329-.314-.158-.888.283-.95l4.898-.696L7.538.792c.197-.39.73-.39.927 0l2.184 4.327 4.898.696c.441.062.612.636.283.95l-3.523 3.356.83 4.73c.078.443-.36.79-.746.592L8 13.187l-4.389 2.256z\">\n\t<\/path>\n<\/svg>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"rating__star rating__star--empty\"><?php \/**\n * Review star.\n * \n * @package nyp-editor\n *\/\n\n??><\/p>\n<style><![CDATA[\n\t.review-block-star {\n\t\t--review-block-star--empty-color: #585858;\n\t\t--review-block-star--fill-color: #000;\n\t}\n]]><\/style>\n<p><svg class=\"icon-star review-block-star\" stroke=\"var(--review-block-star--fill-color)\" fill=\"var(--review-block-star--empty-color)\" stroke-width=\"0\" viewbox=\"0 0 16 16\" height=\"13px\" width=\"13px\">\n\t<defs>\n\t\t<lineargradient id=\"half-gradient\">\n\t\t\t<stop stop-opacity=\"1\" offset=\"50%\" stop-color=\"var(--review-block-star--fill-color)\"\/>\n\t\t\t<stop stop-opacity=\"1\" offset=\"0%\" stop-color=\"var(--review-block-star--empty-color)\"\/>\n\t\t<\/lineargradient>\n\t<\/defs>\n\t<path d=\"M3.612 15.443c-.386.198-.824-.149-.746-.592l.83-4.73L.173 6.765c-.329-.314-.158-.888.283-.95l4.898-.696L7.538.792c.197-.39.73-.39.927 0l2.184 4.327 4.898.696c.441.062.612.636.283.95l-3.523 3.356.83 4.73c.078.443-.36.79-.746.592L8 13.187l-4.389 2.256z\">\n\t<\/path>\n<\/svg>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<p>Two hours and 30 minutes, with one intermission. At the Nederlander Theatre, 208 West 41st Street<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>In the early aughts, it was all the rage on Broadway for musicals to send up other musicals.<\/p>\n<p>First there was \u201cUrinetown\u201d and \u201cThe Drowsy Chaperone,\u201d two nerdy parodies that were very funny and had teeth. In 2005, \u201cMonty Python\u2019s Spamalot\u201d had David Hyde Pierce sing \u201cYou won\u2019t succeed on Broadway if you don\u2019t have any Jews!\u201d And much later in 2015 the Renaissance-set \u201cSomething Rotten\u201d put a Shakespearean spin on the sub-genre. After that, the musicals-about-musicals moment felt finally kaput.<\/p>\n<p>Well, wait a Schmig. The formerly dormant trend is active once again with \u201cSchmigadoon!,\u201d the blinding new show at the Nederlander Theatre based on the cancelled Apple TV comedy series about a New York couple whose relationship is put to the test when they become trapped inside a musical.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>Alex Brightman stars in \u201cSchmigadoon!\u201d as Josh, a man who gets trapped inside a musical. <span class=\"credit\">Matthew Murphy<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Can\u2019t say I missed it. Been there, \u2018doon that.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"single__inline-module aligncenter\">\n<div class=\"inline-module inline-module--more inline-module--columnist inline-module--more--thirds\">\n<div class=\"inline-module__inner\">\n<h2 class=\"inline-module__heading subsection-heading subsection-heading--single-line \">\n\t\t\tMore From\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"subsection-heading__sub\">Johnny Oleksinski<\/span><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/h2>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p>\u201cSchmigadoon!\u201d is pleasant \u2014 incessantly so \u2014 with a cast full of skilled comics like Ana Gasteyer, Ann Harada and Maulik Pancholy from \u201c30 Rock.\u201d Familiar theater faces Max Clayton and Isabelle McCalla are wonderful, too.<\/p>\n<p>Old-fangled to a fault, the show will hold some appeal for the traditional set who bristle at this season\u2019s revivals only winding the clock back as far as 1975.<\/p>\n<p>But the musical with a book, music and lyrics by Cinco Paul is confused as to what it\u2019s supposed to be. <\/p>\n<p>If it\u2019s an ode to Golden Age classics, why does it make them seem so cloying and stupid? If it\u2019s a cutting parody of the likes of \u201cBrigadoon,\u201d \u201cOklahoma!,\u201d \u201cThe Music Man,\u201d \u201cGuys and Dolls\u201d and \u201cThe Sound of Music,\u201d why is the tone Hallmark schmaltzy and the jokes surface-skimming, basic and unclever? Maybe on TV, mocking musicals for merely containing singing and dancing is enough to get laughs. On 41st Street, you\u2019ve got to do a lot better than that.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>\u201cSchmigadoon!\u201d sends up Golden Age classics such as \u201cOklahoma!,\u201d \u201cThe Music Man,\u201d \u201cCarousel\u201d and \u201cBrigadoon.\u201d <span class=\"credit\">Matthew Murphy<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Yet that\u2019s Paul\u2019s go-to gag: \u201cHere they go again!\u201d He has one of the displaced main characters, Josh (Alex Brightman), whine every time he hears the pit orchestra strike up.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOh no! It\u2019s a song. You just started another song!,\u201d Josh moans before the annoying company number \u201cCorn Puddin\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Listening to one of a huge catalogue of unmemorable-but-insistent tunes that have been crammed in \u2014 an entire television season\u2019s worth of \u201cShipoopi\u201ds \u2014 I was inclined to agree with him.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>Melissa (Sara Chase) and Josh learn that to escape Schmigadoon, they need to find true love. <span class=\"credit\">Evan Zimmerman<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Judgy Josh winds up far, far away from the five boroughs with girlfriend Melissa (Sara Chase) when they walk across a mysterious bridge in a Catskills forest that leads them to Schmigadoon, a little Land of Oz where the aesthetic is 1890s Easter egg and the lingua franca is watered-down Rodgers and Hammerstein ripoffs.<\/p>\n<p>Long together but unmarried, the couple is already on the rocks. The twee town of Schmigadoon only piles on the tension. Melissa is a Broadway buff, so she\u2019s in heaven. Josh, however, is in a 5-6-7-8th circle of hell. He likes the Yankees \u2014 not \u201cDamn Yankees.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The alarmed pair, unable to leave, learn from a mysterious leprechaun that the only way out is if they find true love, a k a learn an important lesson. It\u2019s as if \u201cGroundhog Day\u201d was made into a musical. Oh, wait\u2026<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>Isabelle McCalla is touching as school teacher Emma. <span class=\"credit\">Evan Zimmerman<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Chase and Brightman are dry and sarcastic, if with rather safely written parts, and make personable guides through this Pleasantville of amped-up loons.<\/p>\n<p>Funniest is \u201cSNL\u201d alum Gasteyer as a stern and ambitious reverend\u2019s wife named Mildred who gets the best number: \u201cTribulation,\u201d a winning spoof of \u201cTrouble\u201d from \u201cThe Music Man.\u201d And I wish Afra Hines hadn\u2019t arrived so late in Act 2 \u2014 she\u2019s a snooty delight as Countess Gabrielle Von Blerkom, a send-up of \u201cSound of Music\u201d\u2019s frigid Baroness.<\/p>\n<p>Clayton, a terrific dancer, turns Billy Bigelow from \u201cCarousel\u201d into dumb-hunk Danny, a carnival barker and innuendo machine who hits on Melissa.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s too bad that Harada, a phenomenally funny actress who reprises her role from the TV series, wasn\u2019t given more to do as the mayor\u2019s airheaded spouse. And McKenzie Kurtz is over-caffeinated playing Betsy, an Ado Annie type who comes off too modern for this milieu \u2014 more \u201cShucked\u201d than \u201cSchmig.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s a lot of hyperactivity here, not least from director and choreographer Christopher Gattelli, who throws in fast, aerobic dancing wherever he sees the smallest gap. Why such an abundance? You feel exhausted for the ensemble. And I guarantee you there is not a single Golden Age musical with this many dance numbers. Gattelli\u2019s best contribution, and most in the spirit of whatever this is, is a dream ballet in Act 2.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>Max Clayton, a terrific dancer, plays Danny. <span class=\"credit\">Matthew Murphy<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>As the second half leaps to a close, \u201cSchmigadoon!\u201d shifts from a cotton candy freight train to a sentimentality dump truck. But the touching McCalla, as Marion-the-librarian-inspired Emma, makes the change-up work by giving one of the few performances with some intellect and nuance behind it. Playing Emma\u2019s shy younger brother Carson at select performances, little comedian Ayaan Diop steals the show.<\/p>\n<p>In the end, it turns out it\u2019s the naive townsfolk who have learned a thing or two from Melissa and Josh \u2014 what a shock \u2014 and they unleash a bunch of facade-busting secrets. A couple guys come out of the closet for some cheap crowd cheers and one woman owns up to being socialist.<\/p>\n<p>Melissa and Josh are ready to leave Schmigadoon. And so are we. I walked away contemplating if somewhere buried in there is a smart, hilarious musical that questions, and not so sappily, the point of old musicals today.<\/p>\n<p>But what\u2019s the use of wond\u2019rin?<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><em> \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em> \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source celebrity.land \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Theater review SCHMIGADOON! Two hours and 30 minutes, with one intermission. At the Nederlander Theatre, 208 West 41st Street In the early aughts, it was all the rage on Broadway for musicals to send up other musicals. First there was \u201cUrinetown\u201d and \u201cThe Drowsy Chaperone,\u201d two nerdy parodies that were very funny and had teeth. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2382232,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25174],"tags":[344468,21741,345885,24047,345886],"class_list":["post-2382231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gossip","tag-broadway","tag-entertainment","tag-musicals","tag-theater","tag-theater-reviews"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Schmigadoon-review-Tired-parody-of-Broadways-Golden-Age-is-been.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2382231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2382231"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2382231\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2382233,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2382231\/revisions\/2382233"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2382232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2382231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2382231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2382231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}