First things first: Yes, Virginia, there is a Season 3 of Schmigadoon!, the musical theater-based comedy that ran for two toe-tapping seasons on Apple TV. But for now at least, those episodes only exist on creator Cinco Paul‘s laptop. “The season’s written, and the songs are all written,” Paul confirms to Gold Derby, cautioning that he can’t make like Santa Claus and gift all of that material to us on his own. “I’m an optimist, so I still believe that someday those songs and maybe the episodes will get out there — but it’s not entirely up to me!”
None of those yet-to-be-heard Season 3 songs will be part of the version of Schmigadoon! that’s playing now on Broadway. Instead, Paul and his collaborator, director and choreographer Christopher Gattelli, compressed the six-episode first season into a theatrical experience that lovingly sends up ’40s and ’50s -era musicals — think Brigadoon, Oklahoma!, and Carousel. “Season 3 spoofs the ’80s and ’90s, so it wouldn’t fit in this world,” notes Paul, who crafted a second season that used ’60s and ’70s shows like Chicago and Pippin as its creative inspiration.
But rest assured that fans of the TV show will hear all of their favorite songs live and in person, from “Cross That Bridge” to “With All of Your Heart.” And you’d better believe that the Emmy-winning “Corn Puddin'” is part of the fun, now in a version tailored especially for the stage. “It’s got everything you love about the original with even more corn, more puddin’ and more joy in your belly,” Paul teases. “We’ve been expanding the dance numbers, because when you’re in the room with the dancers, you can really go for broke.”
Paul even wrote new musical material for the Broadway version, including songs that deepen the stakes for both lead characters, Josh and Melissa, played here by Alex Brightman and Sara Chase, taking over roles that were originated by Keegan-Michael Key and Cecily Strong on the small screen. As in the series, the couple heads into the woods hoping to heal their fracturing relationship and end up taking an unplanned detour into the titular town where everyone sings their feelings… now matter how private.
“As I was looking at the script, I realized we were missing a big moment for Melissa, so I gave her a big song,” Paul says. “The way I’ve approached this whole process is to treat the TV show like an out of town tryout. And now this production is a great opportunity to create the best version of Schmigadoon! ever.”
For her part, Chase says she’s relishing the chance to debut Paul’s “beautiful” new song. “There should always have been a moment [in the story] where Melissa can’t express what she wants to say about Josh, and so she sings it,” she observes. “That moment makes so much sense and feels so rewarding.”
And it’s one of the few songs that Josh would actually want to hear. As in the streaming series, Melissa’s partner is a musical theater cynic — a characterization that now comes with a meta-edge given that he’s now being played by the boisterous Tony-nominated star of mega-musicals like School of Rock and Beetlejuice. But Schmigadoon! demands that Brightman not sing and dance, a challenge he describes as “weird.”
“I have been doing shows like School of Rock, Beetlejuice, and Spamalot, which are these really irreverent, loud performances,” he says. “But here, I have what I would call a pretty quiet performance, which is bliss on a technical level and vocal health level. But it’s strange for me to fight joy in a musical, because I have such reverence for the art form. It’s a new muscle to flex, and I’m still trying to flex it by being openly proud of my friends onstage, but also having to reject and resent them in a way. I get to enjoy all of it, but from behind a very stoic mask.”
But Paul promises theatergoers that Brightman does get a moment to cut loose. “His songs are all of his comic asides, but we did find a way to expand things,” he teases. “We found a way to show what’s going on in Josh’s mind when he realizes he’s missing Melissa. But Alex’s comic instincts are also so great that he’s hilarious not singing.”
While Strong isn’t part of the Schmigadoon! Broadway cast, the Saturday Night Live connection remains in place courtesy of Ana Gasteyer, who plays the town busybody, Mildred — the part that Tony winner Kristin Chenoweth embodied on Apple TV. “I deliberately didn’t watch Kristin’s performance, because she’s so good it was going to make me get in my own head about myself,” Gasteyer admits. “But I play really mean and bossy people a lot, so I’m enjoying finding my own version of that.”
Schmigadoon! marks Gasteyer’s sixth time treading the boards on Broadway, and it’s a distinctly different kind of live show experience than the one she had weekly in Studio 8H for six years. “I’m a comedian, so I usually just sing like a funny person,” she says, laughing. “But here, there’s something incredibly emotional about singing with other people, even though it’s a comedy! The Broadway work ethic brings everyone together. It’s so physically demanding that every night I get home, and I’m sore all over.”
Knowing that Gasteyer’s friend and former SNL co-star Will Ferrell is also a fan of musicals (as evidence, watch his Netflix comedy Eurovision, if you haven’t seen it 50 times already), it’s fair to ask when the duo might convince Lorne Michaels to let them bring their singing-inclined teachers, Marty Culp and Bobbi Mohan-Culp , to Broadway. “It’s a great idea,” she muses. “I love musicals, Will loves musicals and [SNL writer] Paula Pell, who writes those sketches with us, loves musicals. But no one has ever talked about it!
“We have talked about taking the Culps on the road in a movie kind of situation,” Gasteyer teases. “We also talked about an album briefly last year. But maybe that’s for the next decade. We’ve got 10 more years until we’re actually the age that they appear!”
And hey, maybe by 2036, we’ll have seen Schmigadoon Season 3 as well.
