Streaming Review: SCHMIGADOON/SCHMICAGO Schmamelessly Delicious Theivery On Apple TV+

Welcome to another installment of our thoughts on some streaming entertainment, this time coming to you from the fab children at Apple TV+! So jump in the stream with Bobby, and let's see if our rainbow lands on a pot of gold.

This week, dear lovely readers, Apple TV+ premiered season 2 of SCHMIGADOON, re-dubbed SCHMICAGO, a fabulously produced parody of all we hold dear - musicals. SCHMICAGO features Season 1's central couple, Josh & Melissa, played with terrific comic understatement by the UBER-talented Cecily Strong and Keegan-Michael Key, as well as last season's SCHMIGADOON denizens - Arianna DeBose, Kristin Chenoweth, Alan Cumming, Jane Krakowski, Martin Short, Aaron Tveit, and Dove Cameron - a veritable Who's Who of musical talent. Just that short list of players alone represents 6 Tony Awards & a spate of nominations, a couple of Emmys, a BAFTA, and an Oscar... So, with talent like this, who needs a script? The fact is, these people do, and they have been given a DOOZY by show creators Ken Daurio and Cinco Paul, who have brilliantly crafted characters that ride that very fine line of parody while keeping SCHMICAGO from devolving into Schmupidville. For those not in the know, last season told the story of Josh & Melissa, a complacent couple nearing the end of their relationship, who stumble/bumble into a magical, mystical town that is the American Musical Theatre trope graveyard. The happy-go-lucky residents of SCHMIGADOON were all familiar Broadway stereotypes from the golden age, singing songs and speaking lines that sounded so familiar and yet were just different enough to give all the fans the giggles. Not to delve into spoiler-land here, my dears, but, suffice it to say, Josh & Melissa are trapped in this strange burgh until they find what they are looking for and can leave. Fast forward 10 seconds to this new season and our heroes go back to their humdrum life together in the "real world" and find, after a while of the humming and the drumming, they need to beat that drum again and, so, rather than face the facts of real life, they go looking for their magical getaway and their toe-tapping, park-and-belt-a-song friends from somewhere to the left of a very gay rainbow (did somebody say rainbow?). Here is where things go wrong in ways that are oh-so-right.

After stumbling through the obligatory mists between our world and the world we would all like to live in - musicals - Josh and Melissa find they have slipped sideways, and the bright and cheerful residents of their beloved SCHMIGADOON are now occupying the dark and dismal city limits of SCHMICAGO, and, so, we all take a leap from the Golden Age to the darker, grittier, Tarnished Silver era that was Broadway of the 1960s and 70s. Where SCHMIGADOON was a mish-mosh-mashed-potato salad of shows like OKLAHOMA, CAROUSEL, BRIGADOON (see what they did there?), and THE MUSIC MAN, SCHMICAGO's schmeighborhood is that of SWEENEY TODD, A CHORUS LINE, CABARET, HAIR, PIPPIN, SWEET CHARITY and... one other... Oh, the title escapes me ... right on the tip of my... oh well - ya know, la-dee-da, and all that jazz, my dearlings.

Now, that is all little Bobby can really tell you about the stories of SCHMIGADOON & SCHMICAGO because - SPOILERS! What we will say is this, since we are operating off just the first 2 episodes of SCHMICAGO (Ep. 3 is due this coming Wednesday), one might think that giving a review on so short an acquaintance might be premature, but one would be wrong. Between last season and Eps 1 & 2 this season, Daurio & Paul have delivered some of the finest parody comedy that television has seen since THE CAROL BURNETT SHOW and all those hilarious dream sequences from THE DICK VAN DYKE SHOW. Each of the slightly to completely sinister characters in this alternate universe is drawn with broad strokes, allowing the superb cast to fill in detailed layers from their own comic sensibilities and expertise. They are all playing and singing parts modeled after famous musical theatre characters from the Silver Age, with standouts being Ann Harada, whose just hokey enough faux German accent as Madam Frau, along with her fab face pulling, cracked our faces off completely, Jane Krakowski, whose fast-talking, press-bamboozling Lady Lawyer, Bobby Flanagan, puts the CHICAGO in SCHMICAGO, and then there is Titus Burgess as the hilarious narrator, who makes us laugh by annoying the crap out of the cast, especially Josh. Casting Directors Kristian Charbonier, and the great Bernard Telsey are to be commended for putting together the talent to fill the roles so brilliantly. Another off-camera member of the company is Tony Award Winner Christopher Gattelli, who brilliantly borrows from the ghosts of choreographers past (& present) to make each musical number so familiar, strange, and wonderful that even his obscure dance references are obscurely hilarious... Just watch this preview number, DO WE SHOCK YOU.

Here is where Bobby must give an ((((AUDITION CALLOUT)))) to the score. Paul has created so many songs so near to their inspirations that, when the songbook/sheet music is published (soon we hope) there will be a bumper crop of funny tunes appropriate for any actor out there to use for classic productions of classic shows. "Well, is SCHIGADOON/SCHMICAGO for non-musical theatre fans, Bobby?" we can practically hear you shouting, and the truth is, dear ones, we are deducting ½ a rainbow because it is not... not remotely. "But IS this show mother's milk for the rest of us who ARE devotees?" You bet it is. It is one of those so near the bullseye send-ups that it is completely irresistible. "Well, is it worth getting Apple TV+ just to see it?" you screech from the balcony... You bet it is, and we also bet that if you spend the $6-7 bucks the streaming app costs for a month, you will not only consider SCHMIGADOON/SCHMICAGO worth it, we just know you will find many other television offerings there that you will absolutely enjoy, like the super-popular Ted Lasso. So, if you have thought about it, let us encourage you to take in this hilarious show - whether you stay with the service or not, it will be totally worth it because Bobby gives SCHMICAGO

4 ½ Out Of 5 Rainbows

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