Critic’s Notebook: Musical Mania With ‘Schmigadoon!’ Sequel & ‘Grease’ Prequel

I have come to speak on behalf of those for whom traditional musical-comedy is their happy place. For these lucky souls, I bear the great news that the delightful Emmy-winning Schmigadoon! has once again landed on Apple TV+ with its love for the form evident in every spot-on parody lyric from inspired composer and series co-creator Cinco Paul.

In Season 2, however, when contemporary couple Melissa (Saturday Night Live’s Cecily Strong) and Josh (Keegan-Michael Key) seek respite from their disappointment in the real world — reason enough to retreat to the world of musicals — they are stymied in their attempt to revisit the Brigadoon-like 1940s fantasyland of upbeat Rodgers & Hammerstein-style show tunes. (You’d think Melissa, a musical buff, would know the rule that Brigadoon, a Lerner & Loewe creation, only appears once every 100 years.)

Instead, they are plunged into a sexier, more sinister underworld of tantalizing tunes. “Welcome to Schmicago,” purrs the mischievous new narrator (Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt’s Tituss Burgess, channeling Pippin’s Ben Vereen), whose introduction reminiscent of “Magic to Do” promises “mystery and magic … endings that are tragic.” As Melissa explains to her husband, “Clearly, we’re in the next era of musicals.” The late 1960s-early ’70s, to be exact, a time when Bob Fosse’s sinuous jazz-hands choreography ruled and the subject matter was a lot less wholesome.

Working with most of Season 1’s all-Broadway-star cast, each in new roles (except for Martin Short’s feisty leprechaun), Cinco Paul has studied his Kander and Ebb well, with seductive vamps setting up brilliant send-ups of Sweet Charity, Cabaret, and Chicago as the story introduces a Sally Bowles-like free-spirit chanteuse (Dove Cameron) and a murder trial manipulated by dazzling celebrity lawyer Jane Krakowski.

Apple TV+

Much of the fun of Schmigadoon/Schmicago lies in anticipating which classic Paul will tackle next. Here a snippet of A Chorus Line, there a taste of Burt Bacharach’s Promises, Promises (complete with crooning girl chorus), a swish of the gown to Dreamgirls (courtesy of Oscar winner Ariana DeBose), and in the most gleeful mash-up, Sondheim’s grisly Sweeney Todd collides with (of all musicals) Annie when Alan Cumming’s vengeful butcher Dooley Blight and Kristin Chenoweth’s harried Miss Coldwell conspire to rid her orphanage of tykes who are “good enough to eat.”

Little wonder that Melissa, who becomes the reluctant object of desire of arch villain Octavius Kratt (Hadestown’s boomingly sepulchral Patrick Page), decides, “This is not the kind of musical I want to be in.” We beg to differ.

Six brisk half-hour episodes hardly seems enough to cover fertile musical territory that includes the wave of pop-rock musicals embodied in Aaron Tveit’s hippie-dippy tribal leader Topher, an amalgam of Hair, Pippin, Godspell, and Jesus Christ Superstar. I could go on, but I wouldn’t want to ruin the surprises so bountiful in this virtuoso display of talent.

Related

Not Guilty! Josh Gets Framed for Murder in 'Schmigadoon!' Sneak Peek

If Schmigadoon/Schmicago leaves you wanting more, the same can’t be said for a regrettable exercise in “intellectual property” exploitation beginning Thursday on Paramount+: Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies, a heavy-handed prequel that lacks the original show’s occasional flashes of nostalgic wit, leaning instead on noisy and overly frenetic production numbers that aren’t so much catchy as contagious. Worse, many of the episodes clock in at an indulgent 50 or so minutes, sluggishly wearing out its welcome.

A fable of female empowerment that reveals how a quartet of Rydell High outsiders came to don those pink jackets and become an infamous “girl gang,” Pink Ladies shrieks its message in original songs that feel more like overamped manifestos with spastic choreography that couldn’t be less suited to this or any period. The show may want to score some points about class, race and gender, but if you can’t make even the irrepressible Jackie Hoffman (as the cranky assistant principal) funny, it’s all going to fall on ears deafened and deadened by mediocrity.

Of the leads, only Cheyenne Isabel Wells (as sultry Olivia) exhibits star-is-born potential, worthy of touching the hem of Stockard Channing’s Rizzo (here, that character is still waiting for her moment in middle school).

Grease: The Rise of the Pink Ladies is, sorry to say, not the one that I want. I am, however, hopelessly devoted to Schmigadoon!

Schmigadoon!, Season 2 Premiere (two episodes), Wednesday, April 5, Apple TV+ (five stars)

Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies, Series Premiere (two episodes), Thursday, April 6, Paramount+ (one and a half stars)