‘Schmigadoon!’ is a Love Letter to Broadway’s Golden Age
The Kennedy Center's "Schmigadoon!" delivers a tap-happy trip to a well-cast wonderland of first-rate musical comedy.
The Kennedy Center’s Broadway Center Stage continues its hot streak with the World Premiere production of Schmigadoon!, a rousing musical stage adaptation of the Emmy-winning Apple TV series.
Series co-creator Cinco Paul, who wrote all the songs for the two seasons of the loving sendup of musicals, also wrote the book, music, and lyrics translating Schmigadoon! from TV to stage. Condensing season one of the series into a robust two acts, Paul provides the streamlined vessel, and director-choreographer Christopher Gattelli (Death Becomes Her) expertly steers it to the magical town of Schmigadoon and back.
Gattelli also choreographed both seasons of the series, and knows his way around these songs, these characters, and this wacky little burg where life is like a Golden Age musical, with showtunes and situations inspired by Oklahoma!, The Music Man, The Sound of Music, Brigadoon, and more.
Gattelli’s staging has a knack for moving and grouping the large cast of townspeople around Scott Pask’s playfully theatrical sets, drawing focus to exactly where it needs to be. Often that focus is on the high-kicking choreography, well-executed by an energetic, in-sync ensemble.
Schmigadoon! hits a home run with its cast, down to the youngest performer in the lineup, eight-year-old Ayaan Diop, making his professional debut as well-informed town cryer Carson Tate, the much younger brother of schoolteacher Emma Tate, a role sung and danced beautifully by Isabelle McCalla.
Emma and Carson’s story mingles comedy and pathos sweetly, as does the journey of Brad Oscar’s appropriately-named Mayor Menlove and his dear, dim wife Florence, played by Ann Harada, delightfully reprising her role from the series.
Broadway vet Harada, among a cast overflowing with Broadway talent, is the only TV cast member to return to Schmigadoon!. It must have posed a tricky challenge recasting roles that fans of the series will continue to associate with the likes of Alan Cumming, who played Mayor Menlove onscreen, or Kristen Chenoweth and Fred Armisen, as town scold Mildred Layton and her meek husband, Reverend Layton.
Onstage, Emily Skinner makes a strong impression as snooty busybody Mildred, and recent Some Like It Hot standout Kevin Del Aguila might be this show’s secret weapon as the timid, but not tamed, Reverend. Portraying New York City doctors Josh and Melissa, who stumble into Schmigadoon and then can’t leave, Alex Brightman and Sara Chase persuasively limn the central love story of two regular folks who find themselves trapped in a fantastical land.
Brightman, best known to D.C. audiences for world-premiering his livewire Beetlejuice at the National Theater before that show went to Broadway, appears a bit hemmed in by Josh’s role as musical-hating straight man to the daffy denizens of Schmigadoon. The part entails underplaying this scenario, but he overplays underplaying it.
Forced to find true love to find his way back home, Josh does eventually get to sing and dance his feelings. Even then, the character doesn’t spring to life.
Yet, the production — lushly supported by the Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra — is bursting with vitality, from the exhilarating opening number “Schmigadoon!” to the knee-slapping fun of “Corn Puddin'” and even more exhilarating second-act opener “With All of Your Heart.” As town rapscallion Danny Bailey, Ryan Vasquez serves up a swaggering “You Can’t Tame Me,” and Oscar and Del Aguila have a gay old time with the duet “I Thought I Was the Only One.”
The latter is a new song written for the stage, joining favorites from the series, including Music Man homage “Tribulation” and the hilarious lament “I Always, Always, Never Get My Man” performed by Angel Reda’s self-aware Countess. Paul’s score resounds with romance, tongue-in-cheek humor, and a genuine love for the musicals the show is lampooning.
Every element of Schmigadoon! taps to the same lively beat in a production that proclaims with all its heart that life is fuller when you can “Be who you really are, not just the role you play.”
Schmigadoon! (★★★★☆) runs through Feb. 9, at the Kennedy Center Eisenhower Theater. Tickets are $99 to $315. Call 202-467-4600, or visit www.kennedy-center.org.
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