Released July 16, 2021 at 10:18 AM CDT
DAVE DAVIES, HOST:
This is FRESH AIR. Today the streaming service Apple TV+ premieres a new six-part series that’s rather unusual. It’s a TV musical called “Schmigadoon!,” utilizing the Broadway musical “Brigadoon” as an establishing point. Our TV critic David Bianculli has this testimonial.
(SOUNDBITE OF CINCO PAUL’S “SCHMIGADOON! MAIN TITLE”)
DAVID BIANCULLI, BYLINE: You don’t need to be a follower of musical cinema to enjoy “Schmigadoon!” The story and also the enjoyable are easy enough to latch onto. Keegan-Michael Key and also Cecily Solid play Josh as well as Melissa, two New York physicians who have been an enchanting couple for a couple of years currently. While on a remote treking trip, they accidentally roam away from the group as well as finish up in a wonderful, old-fashioned community where everyone burglarizes song once in a while. It’s a globe from which the new visitors can’t run away, at the very least not till they locate real love, which apparently they’re not experiencing presently with each other.Even if you don’t
recognize the tale of”Schmigadoon! “as a lively variant of the 1940s Broadway musical “Brigadoon,” there are some exceptional TV precedents that you may know. NBC’s recent “Zoe’s Phenomenal Playlist” provided a delightful weekly musical series in which the central personality thought of those around her all of a sudden rupturing right into emotionally disclosing tune and also dancing regimens. A classic episode of the TELEVISION collection “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” did a comparable thing involving a curse that had everyone interacting in track. And also I can not help mentioning the astonishing musical miniseries by Dennis Potter, whose significant work of arts “Pennies From Paradise” as well as “The Singing Investigative” showed just how much you want reusing old music recordings from the ’30s and ’40s.
In “Schmigadoon!,” the personalities of Josh and also Melissa, it’s quite clear, aren’t precisely fans of the music style. But the program’s creators and also writers, Ken Daurio and Cinco Paul, definitely are. And also that informs each and every single scene – not only the music and lyrics but the method the numbers are organized, choreographed as well as also cast. So when Josh as well as Melissa first stumble into the community of Schmigadoon, they’re consulted with individuals who appear like the townsfolk of “The Music Guy,” collect around the new visitors like the munchkins surrounding Dorothy in “The Wizard Of Oz” and also sing a happy welcome comparable to the opening of “Oklahoma!” It’s a whole lot to take in at as soon as, but it all works, particularly with Josh and Melissa acting understandably puzzled.
(SOUNDBITE OF TELEVISION PROGRAM, “SCHMIGADOON!”)
KEEGAN-MICHAEL TRICK: (As Josh Skinner) OK, what is this? Why is music originating from everywhere?UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR # 1:(As
personality, vocal singing) Welcome to our little town.UNIDENTIFIED STAR # 2: (As character, vocal singing) Where
pals are all you meet.UNIDENTIFIED STAR # 1:( As character, vocal singing )And you will certainly never see a frown.AMITAI MARMORSTEIN
:(As Pete the Milkman )Hey, everyone.UNIDENTIFIED TEAM:(As personalities, singing )Hey there, Pete. We wager you’re probably questioning what we call one of the most lovely, fantastic, magical area of all.KEY: (As Josh Skinner) What is happening?CECILY STRONG:(As Melissa Gimble )It have to be something they provide for tourists like Colonial Williamsburg.UNIDENTIFIED GROUP:(As personalities, singing) Schmigadoon, where the sunlight radiates brilliant from July to June as well as
the air’s as pleasant as a macaroon -Schmigadoon.BIANCULLI: Barry Sonnenfeld, the director that made the”Male In Black” movies as well as ABC’s”Pushing Sissies”so amusing to look at, does the same below. And also the sustaining actors is loaded with Broadway music veterans that make the many of their respective turns. Alan Cumming from the outstanding rebirth of “Cabaret” plays the community mayor.” Pressing Daisies” co-star Kristin Chenoweth flaunts her huge Broadway abilities by doing a number playing off Robert Preston’s high-energy “Problem”track in” The Music Guy “and does it astoundingly in one unbroken camera take. And Also Martin Short has an apparent blast playing a leprechaun that shows up from no place to begin Josh and Melissa on their journey while singing a song that’s 100%presentation.(SOUNDBITE OF TELEVISION PROGRAM,” SCHMIGADOON!”)MARTIN SHORT: (As Leprechaun, singing)As soon as you have entered Schmigadoon,’t is real you won’t be leaving quickly. Within its borders you are bound until at last real love be located. Till you locate it, you need to remain where life’s a music every day.KEY:
(As Josh Skinner )Was that a leprechaun?STRONG:(As Melissa Gimble)
Yes. He said something. What did he say?KEY:(As Josh Skinner) I do not recognize. I was much more concentrated on exactly how he was shattering my entire construct of what’s genuine as well as not actual worldwide since he was a freakin ‘(ph )leprechaun.BIANCULLI: This brand-new six-part Apple TV+collection additionally features very strong turns by, amongst others, Fred Armisen and also Dove Cameron. The
performances, the script by Daurio as well as Paul, the tracks by Paul, the choreography by Christopher Gattelli, the instructions by Sonnenfeld- each aspect feeds off the others.”Schmigadoon!”is created by Lorne Michaels of “Saturday Night Live, “and also present cast member Cecily Solid and current visitor
host Keegan Michael Key truly draw this off.”Schmigadoon!”is being referred to as a parody, but it’s a lot a lot more sincere and also complicated than that. Like such tongue-in-cheek Broadway musical as” The Book Of Mormon “and also”The Producers, “it’s a wonderful production that’s not only very, uproarious in teasing the music genre but additionally is a fantastic addition to it.DAVIES: David Bianculli is a professor of television studies at Rowan College in New Jacket. On Monday’s show, writer Akash Kapur talks about paradises, the impulse to develop a better world and also what happens when dreams collision against reality. He was elevated in a speculative neighborhood in India, left for institution in the U.S. at age 16 and later went back to increase his very own family. His brand-new book is”Better To Have Gone: Love, Death, As Well As The Mission For Paradise In Auroville. “I wish you can join us.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARTURO SANDOVAL’S “JOY SPRINGTIME “) DAVIES: FRESH AIR’s exec producer is Danny Miller. Our technological supervisor is Audrey Bentham with extra engineering assistance by Joyce Lieberman, Julian Hertzfeld and also Al Banks. Our meetings as well as evaluations are produced and also edited by Amy Salit, Phyllis Myers, Sam Briger, Lauren Krenzel, Heidi Saman, Therese Madden, Ann Marie Baldonado, Thea Chaloner, Seth Kelley as well as Kayla Lattimore. Our associate manufacturer of electronic media is Molly Seavy-Nesper. Roberta Shorrock routes the
program. For Terry Gross, I’m Dave Davies.( SOUNDBITE OF ARTURO SANDOVAL’S” DELIGHT SPRINGTIME”)Transcript supplied by NPR, Copyright NPR.