Susan Granger’s review of “Schmigadoon! Season 2” (Apple TV+)
If you loved the first Emmy-winning season of the inventive musical comedy parody “Schmigadoon!” – which premiere’d in the summer of 2022 – don’t miss the second season, titled “Schmicago!”
Created by Don Kaurio and Cinco Paul, the team behind the “Despicable Me” franchise with a score by composer Christopher Willis, it follows the misadventures of Melissa Gimble (Cecily Strong) and Josh Skinner (Keegan-Michael Key) who – after leaving wholesome, candy-colored Schmigadoon – are transplanted into Bob Fosse’s debauched Schmicago.
They’re trapped in a murder mystery at a seedy nightclub run by Madame Frau (Ann Harada), featuring sexy chanteuse Jenny Banks (Dove Cameron). She’s surrounded by razzle-dazzle characters inspired by the jaded inhabitants of edgy late-1960s and ‘70s musicals like “Cabaret,” “Chicago,” “Sweeny Todd,” “Annie,” “A Chorus Line,” “Pippin,” “Sweet Charity,” “Hair,” “Jesus Christ Superstar,” “Godspell” and “Oliver!”
As the musical motifs unfold, Alan Cumming embodies the dastardly, cleaver-wielding, blood-thirsty butcher Dooley Flint while Kristin Chenoweth embodies demented Miss Codwell whose orphaned children could become his new meat supply.
(FYI: The idea of selling poverty-stricken children to wealthy patrons as food came from Irish humorist Jonathan Swift’s 1729 essay, “A Modest Proposal.”)
Yet the highlight is slinky Jane Krakowski’s slyly show-stealing “Bells and Whistles” dance number in which she whirls on a trapeze; if you recall, she won a Tony doing something similar in 2003’s “Nine.”
As the playful plot evolves with its inside jokes and myriad melodic references, Melissa realizes that almost everyone in Schmicago has made choices that they thought would make them happy but didn’t work out – including Josh and herself. So – at the suggestion of the Leprechaun (Martin Short) – she tries to rectify that.
On the Granger Gauge of 1 to 10, “Schmigadoon! Season 2” is a snarky, satirical 7 – with all six episodes streaming on Apple TV+.
