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Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
This week on Consider This, NPR investigates a Republican lawmaker from New Hampshire. He officially proposed a known Holocaust denier join a state commission overseeing history lessons in public schools. A story about extremism normalized and creeping into mainstream politics. This week on Consider This, listen on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.
This is Fresh Air. I'm TV critic David Bean Cooley.
S-E-H-M-I
Earlier this week, the musical Schmigadoon opened on Broadway to lots of applause and rave reviews. The New York Times called it a blast, which it is. I saw it in previews last Friday and loved it. It's also a blast from the past, a warm-hearted embrace and spoof of classic Broadway musicals, from Oklahoma and the Sound of Music to Carousel and the Music Man.
The title Schmigadoon is a play on another musical classic, Brigadoon, in which two tourists stumble upon a magical village with its own eccentric inhabitants and rules. In Schmigadoon, the tourists are a loving couple, Josh and Melissa. They're in love, but after a few years of living together, they're also in kind of a rut.
Schmigadoon originated in 2021 as a six-part miniseries on Apple TV+, co-created by Cinco Paul and Ken Dario. Cinco Paul, who wrote the music, lyrics, and book for the Broadway version, has reshaped and condensed those six TV episodes into one night of theater, but has retained all the key songs, characters, and plot twists.
The original TV version began when the two doctors, Melissa and Josh, met cute at a hospital vending machine, then jumped into bed. On Broadway, the vending machine turns into a bed, a clever transition that saves time and makes the same point, only funnier.
Director and choreographer Christopher Gatelli also choreographed the TV version, so everything I loved about the full ensemble staging of such infectiously giddy numbers as Corn Puddin' has arrived on Broadway intact. Corn Puddin', which sets the tone early in the show, is confident in the way it both echoes and winks at old musical conventions, and that confidence is well earned.
Corn Puddin' won an Emmy for Paul that year for Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics. On Broadway, Josh is played by Alex Brightman, a Tony nominee for his starring stage roles in Beetlejuice and School of Rock. Melissa is played by Sarah Chase from TV's Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. Their comic timing together is flawless, and the supporting cast features a lot of standouts.
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Chapter 2: What is 'Schmigadoon!' and how does it relate to Broadway?
The second season of Schmigadoon ran two years later, featuring most of the cast members returning in different roles. The twist was that when Melissa and Josh returned to Schmigadoon, it's now populated by the next generation of musicals, typified by echoes of Sweet Charity, Chicago, Hair, and Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street.
The second season was called Schmuckago, and it featured the same cast, most of them in new roles, which the Broadway production could blaze a new trail by emulating. There's no reason Broadway's new hit musical in time shouldn't have a sequel ready and waiting in the wings, with cast members from Schmigadoon ready to sign up for Schmuckago.
Not, for example, with songs like Do We Shock You, in which the ladies at a nightclub line up on stage, as in Bob Fosse's Sweet Charity, to sing some provocative lyrics. Although Josh and Melissa, in the audience, are anything but outraged.
Do we shock you? Make you ill at ease? Do we offend your tender sensibilities? There's no norm, we won't transgress. Look, there's a man, and he's wearing a dress. I mean, I've literally seen every season of Drag Race, so. Do we scare you?
In time, Schmuckago may make the transition to Broadway, just as Schmigadoon has. But for now, you can get tickets to Schmigadoon or watch both seasons on Apple TV. Meanwhile, here's an interview Terry Gross conducted with Cinco Paul when the TV musical first premiered.
Back in 2021, when he spoke with Terry, Paul had written all the songs for the TV version of Schmigadoon and had co-created and co-written the series with his writing partner, Ken Dario. Previously, the two of them had written the animated films Despicable Me, The Secret Life of Pets, and the Dr. Seuss adaptations Horton Hears a Who and The Lorax.
In the original TV version of Schmigadoon, the small town of the title looks like a stage or movie set from the early 20th century. The women are wearing prairie dresses with long petticoats, and the men are dressed like they're in a barbershop quartet. It turns out that in this town, life is a musical.
Let's pick up on the scene in which Melissa and Josh, played by Cecily Strong and Keegan-Michael Key, first encounter the townspeople of Schmigadoon. The people start singing about their town, which makes Melissa smile and Josh cringe. See if you can guess which musical inspired this particular number.
Schmigadoo, where the sun shines bright from July to June And the air's as sweet as a macaroon Schmigadoo A dune where it's warm and safe as a new cocoon. And our hearts all glow like a harvest moon. Shigadoon. Shigadoon. Where the men are men and the cows are cows. And the farmers smile as they push their cows. And the trees are tall and we call it Shigadoon. Cinco Paul, welcome to Fresh Air.
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Chapter 3: Who are the main characters in 'Schmigadoon!' and what are their dynamics?
Well, it's kind of crazy. I had the idea for this almost 25 years ago. And it was while I was watching the movie An American Werewolf in London, of all things, one of my favorite movies. And it opens with two friends hiking through the desert. the wilderness and they're hiking over the countryside. And I suddenly thought, wow, the opening to this is very much like the opening to Brigadoon.
And then I thought, what if these two modern guys, instead of stumbling on a town that has a werewolf stumbled on a town that was in a musical? And that was the germ of the idea, but I didn't really know what to do with it. So it was one of those that I just filed away. But what really cracked it for me was, oh, instead of two friends, it should be a couple.
So that it is more of a romantic comedy and it can be more about what does love mean? What's true love really mean? I think that's why for 25 years, nothing happened with it because it was, it needed that addition to really crack it.
So the Cecily Strong character loves musicals. The Keegan-Michael Key character hates musicals. Why did you want him to hate musicals?
Well, I thought it was really important. I mean, first of all, it's really funny to have someone who hates musicals be stuck in a musical. But also for him to be the eyes and ears of the people, unlike me, who don't love musicals.
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Chapter 4: How did Cinco Paul adapt 'Schmigadoon!' from TV to Broadway?
And in many ways, that was Ken. And in many ways, it's my wife.
Oh, boy, you're trapped.
I'll tell you, Ken and I played music all the time when we were writing, and whatever musical theater song would somehow pop up in my mix, he would say, skip. So it was really important for the show to have that perspective.
Some musicals have really corny scenes in them. And the kind of scene that always bores me is the picnic scene, where it's like, this was a real nice clam bake. I'm really glad we came. It's like, can we skip that? Can we skip that and get to the good stuff? And I never really understand the function that they serve. And you kind of have a song parodying that called Corn Puddin'.
Yes.
And so the reason why they're singing about corn pudding is it's their first morning in town and they're sitting on the porch and about to have breakfast. And they're asked if they want some corn pudding and they don't even know what corn pudding is. And then the town just starts singing about how great corn pudding is.
So I'd like you to talk a little bit about what you think of those moments in musicals where you have to sing about food or a picnic or a clam bake.
Yeah.
Yeah, I mean, Corn Pudding came out of, initially I was thinking, what is the song that is most going to annoy Keegan's character? What would be the worst possible song to subject him to, you know? And it's just, oh, a song just about food. And Corn Pudding suddenly came to me as just, it's kind of the perfect representation of these sort of songs. Like, it's a real nice clam bake.
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Chapter 5: What themes are explored in 'Schmigadoon!' regarding love and relationships?
Mrs. Menlove, forgive me for asking, but how much do you really know about your husband? That's a good question. He's a hard man to know, it seems. different some men like to fight and curse they smoke and drink and yell leave you flat or even worse they stay and make life hell but my man is gentle as soft and sentimental as any lace adorned a valentine he's a queer one that man Oh honey.
Some men stumble home at dark, want dinner and dessert. Other men have eyes that spark at every passing skirt. But my man loves cooking. I've never caught him looking at other gals more young, petite, or fine. He's a queer one. That man This was literally me in high school. Show me any other man more tender or expressive. I only wish that nightly he were slightly more aggressive. There it is.
Sometimes it may seem like he is too good to be true. There's a man that I can't see just achin' to break through. I wish I could free him so I could finally see him the way he truly is and let him shine. He's a queer one, that man, oh my. Oh, that's really, it's a funny song, but it's also, it's a lovely song. It's a nice melody.
Yeah.
Yeah, I mean, that was the intention. I never wanted the songs to be too jokey, if that makes sense. You know, I really wanted them like, oh, that could genuinely have been a song sung in an undiscovered Rodgers and Hammerstein environment.
musical and and then it ends in a very you know and does an amazing job with a song and it ends in a really sweet spot right where she sort of wishes he could be who he really is she suspects that he's not being his true self she doesn't know what that actually means but she really wishes the best for him and loves him
Cinco Paul speaking to Terry Gross in 2021. Coming up, we'll continue their conversation, and film critic Justin Chang reviews the new film Blue Heron. I'm David Bianculli, and this is Fresh Air.
Oh, no. No, no, no, no, no, no. Please, no song. I'll do anything. Guys, we're actually in the middle of something.
You can't plow a field without hitting something.
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Chapter 6: What inspired Cinco Paul to create a musical about musicals?
Sasha's parents are sensitively played by Adam Tompa and Iringo Reti, who show us a loving marriage that's come under all kinds of strain. There's Jeremy, of course, but there are also the challenges of settling into a new home in a still fairly new country.
sasha's father spends a lot of time working on his computer and his wife is frustrated at having to do most of the housework and child-rearing but romvari doesn't exaggerate these pressure points nor does she overplay jeremy's behavior The film is meticulous about showing the family's genuinely happy times, including those rare moments when Jeremy cracks a smile and comes out of his shell.
It's as if Ramvari wants to be fair to Jeremy, to not let his diagnosis of oppositional defiant disorder define him. In time, though, as Jeremy keeps acting out, the situation becomes untenable. and a social worker, one of many professionals brought in to help, recommends that Jeremy be sent away.
In its dramatic restraint and psychological insight, Blue Heron reminded me of two exceptional recent films about parents and kids, Aftersun and Janet Planet, both of which were also partly inspired by their director's childhoods. Rumvari's film is the most carefully constructed memory piece I've seen in some time.
You get the sense that she's trying to put together what she remembers as precisely as she can, right down to the clunky 90s Windows interface on Sasha's dad's computer. Ramvari treats the camera as an instrument of subjectivity. For the most part, we see mainly what Sasha sees and how she sees it. Key moments are glimpsed from odd, oblique angles.
Events that Sasha never witnessed, or perhaps forgot, are not dramatized at all. At times, the camera pans idly from left to right, a movement that simulates the act of sifting through the past.
at roughly the halfway mark blue heron makes a daring leap suddenly we are following an older version of sasha played by amy zimmer who is now like romvari a filmmaker keen to make sense of her family history But the way she goes about it triggers a surprising twist that gently toys with our sense of time and reality.
In asking what she or anyone could have done differently, Ramvari laments the imperfections of memory, the effects of mental illness, and the limitations of even the most loving family. This beautiful and perceptive film feels like something summoned from deep within her consciousness and piped directly into ours.
Film critic Justin Chang reviewed the new film Blue Heron by Sophie Romvari. On Monday's show, actor, writer, and carpenter Nick Offerman. He stars in the new critically acclaimed TV show Margot's Got Money Troubles, based on the popular book of the same name.
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