From Leprechauns to Corn Puddin’: All the Musical References in’ Schmigadoon! ‘

On Friday, Schimgadoon! —A absurd musical comedy series—Microsoft has entered Apple TV+. Created by Cinco Paul and Ken Daurio, Schmigadoon! is a love letter to yore musicals, completely saturated with references to Golden Age musicals like Conveyor and Oklahoma! Cecily Manh and Keegan Michael Key plays Melissa and Josh, a pair of doctors whose romantic relationship is fractured when they accidentally get lost in a world of music – the magical stage from which they can’t escape.

No Evil, Hamilton, or To Evan Hansen in this universe. Schimgadoon! Obsessed with your grandmother’s favorite musicals, from The sound of music come Music Man. See Schmigadoon! will be taken back to the chorus of your high school’s problematic production about King And Me. So put on that character’s shoes and start the chorus of “red-skinned, yellow-skinned,” because we’re traveling into the past — and disrupting how Golden Age musicals overlap with their parody pastiche covers.

Episode 1

The central premise is based on Brigadoon (1954)

If you can’t tell from the title, Schmigadoon! is a modern parody of the musical Golden Age by Lerner and Loewe Brigadoon– most famous for introducing today’s classical jazz standard “Almost like being in love.” Brigadoon tells the story of two American travelers, Tommy and Jeff, who stumble upon the famous mysterious Scottish village that shows up for a single day every 100 years.

Although the town of Schmigadoon isn’t part of the Scottish Highlands, it seems to appear out of nowhere and trap the show’s two main characters in a mysterious musical village until they both find true love. (Sigh, if only it were that easy.) Brigadoon hasn’t been revived on Broadway since the ’80s, but those curious about the source can check it out Film adaptation in 1954 starring Gene Kelly and Cyd Charisse, the film is full of beautiful dance sequence, bagpipes, and tons of tartan.

“Schimgadoon!” is “Oklahoma!”

Schmiiiiiiiiiiiii-gadoon! The opening number describes the Schmigadoon, “where the sun shines from July to June / and the air smells as sweet as marzipan”, as Melissa suspects, not, as in the words of Colonial Williamsburg, but rather the consignment of theme song from Oklahoma! (first staged in 1943).

From the melody to the smiling, dancing chorus to the super-long first vowel, “Schmigadoon” spoofs “Oklahoma” brilliantly, depicting a particular place with great pride.“Schmigadoon: where men are men and cows are cows”) and introduce the town’s quirky characters (“he does unspeakable things to pigs”) with the same euphoric and cheerful spirit as Rodgers and the more closely parodied Hammerstein. While Josh certainly isn’t in, any Golden Age music fan will tap their toes and repeat the final, repetitive chorus of “schmiga, schmiga” and dictation. “Schmigadoon” for many days to come.

Aaron Tveit’s Danny Bailey is Billy Bigelow from Conveyor (In 1945)

Probably the most notable parody of the beloved, Tony Award-nominated musical theater archetype Aaron TveitDanny Bailey’s direct sender Conveyor leading man Billy Bigelow—immediately his job as a carnival barker and his reputation as the town’s resident bad man. In true musical theater fashion, the geeky, manly, yet extremely non-dangerous guy (see: cap, turtleneck, and high-waisted pants) Danny Bailey has a crush on Melissa, but sings a song anyway. interesting singing and dancing about how he was destined to be a bachelor for life is called “You can’t tame me.

There are plenty of examples of men singing about how they refused to love a girl in musical theater just to do it—but on topic, this particular song has a lot in common with “I will never get married” from the 1960 musical Greenwillow. Stylistically, the soft shoe vibe and dreamy yet upbeat rhythm, as well as the goofy choreography, have much in common with “All I need is a girl” since 1959 Gangster.

“Corn Pudding” is “A Real Nice Clambake” from Conveyor

A silly song about a good food, SchmigadoonThe closest “Corn Pudding” knee slaps to another of the aforementioned gems Conveyor: “A really nice pastry.” “You put the corn in the pudding, put the pudding in the bowl. You put the bowl on your stomach, ‘because it’s good for the soul,’ sing the nameless townspeople of Schmigadoon after Cameron pigeonWaitress Betsy McDonough asked Josh to order the town’s famous corn pudding.

In Conveyor, the townspeople decided to open II by singing about how good their clam chowder was, naming all the delicious seafood dishes they probably ate during the break. “Corn Pudding” is a lot of ilk. It’s silly, stupid, and completely unrelated to the plot, but a good time. Think “Shipoopi” from music man, or “Oom Pah Pah” from Oliver! for other examples of a fun tune that is completely unnecessary but undeniably.

Elves are Og from Finian’s Rainbow (In 1947)

At the end of the test set, Martin Short spontaneously appears as a singing elf who explains Schmigadoon’s magic (and curse) to Josh and Melissa. While you might assume that there haven’t been any musicals from the Golden Age featuring magical belted goblins, you’d be wrong. The 1947 musical by Lerner and Lowe Finian’s Rainbow is actually about an elf named Og and his attempt to get his stolen pot of gold back.