SCHMIGADOON! Previews- Page 2

[CJRochester]

Posted: 4/6/26 at 11:18pm

Just got out of the second preview. This is probably the most perfect musical around right now. Other than a few mic glitches the show is in great shape. I enjoyed it on Apple TV a few years back, and was a bit skeptical it could work on Broadway. Watching it tonight made me realize this material is absolutely MEANT to be seen in a theatre, with an audience. 

The cast is overall fantastic. The standouts for me were Max Clayton as Danny Bailey, and Ana Gasteyer as Mildred Layton. Each could/should get some Best Featured awards recognition. PS: it was fun watching Josh Burrage recreate those Newsies flips I first saw him do ten years ago.  

Updated On: 4/7/26 at 11:18 PM

[Call_me_jorge]

Posted: 4/8/26 at 2:04pm

CJRochester said: "This is probably the most perfect musical around right now."

Lol, they use your quote in the 4th slide. 

[CJRochester]

Posted: 4/8/26 at 8:06pm

Call_me_jorge said: "CJRochester said: "This is probably the most perfect musical around right now."

Lol, they use your quote in the 4th slide."

That link doesn't work. 

 

[Call_me_jorge]

Posted: 4/9/26 at 9:10am

Looks like they deleted the post, unfortunately

[Ensemble1698878795]

Posted: 4/11/26 at 5:10pm

Just saw the matinee. This is definitely a contender for Best Musical. It will win best Book. Choreo and costumes are competitive though I doubt it’ll beat Cats. Worth a $45 lottery ticket. Well done. 

[pagereynolds]

Posted: 4/11/26 at 6:12pm

Ensemble1698878795 said: "Just saw the matinee. This is definitely a contender for Best Musical. It will win best Book. Choreo and costumesare competitive though I doubt it’ll beat Cats. Worth a $45 lottery ticket. Well done."

Two Strangers probably had Best Book locked up months ago, being (I think) the only original book.

[DaveyG]

Posted: 4/11/26 at 6:23pm

I think Titanique wins Best Book.

[musikman]

Posted: 4/12/26 at 12:52pm

Well, I thought this was a an absolute delight from start to finish.  Another shoutout to the physical sets (those painted flats!!).

[communitytheatergal88]

Posted: 4/12/26 at 1:37pm

I enjoyed S1 of Schmigadoon but REALLY enjoyed/preferred S2.  Regardlesss, this cast looks great and the show loks fun so may have to geta ticket

[Ensemble1698878795]

Posted: 4/12/26 at 2:05pm

pagereynolds said: "Ensemble1698878795 said: "Just saw the matinee. This is definitely a contender for Best Musical. It will win best Book. Choreo and costumesare competitive though I doubt it’ll beat Cats. Worth a $45 lottery ticket. Well done."

Two Strangers probably had Best Book locked up months ago, being (I think) the only original book."

I thought the same. Audiences are laughing way more at Schmigadoon. It’s a laugh track. Two Strangers had more a consistent chuckle. 

[musicthatmakesmedance]

Posted: 4/12/26 at 2:12pm

Did not care for the TV show but thought this was a total delight. Act 1 is definitely the stronger act, but I was pleasantly surprised by the entire affair. Wonderful choreography and orchestrations!

[RexInLights]

Posted: 4/12/26 at 2:13pm

I saw this last night and for the most part really enjoyed it. It scratches the itch of the old fashioned musical comedy we don’t see so much anymore while also poking fun at it. It walks the fine line between homage and parody really well. The show is beautiful, the sets and costumes are handsome. The highlight is the dance numbers. The choreo is very strong and the entire cast is dancing their butts off. I was particularly impressed with Max Clayton, Ana Gasteyer, and Sara Chase, though everyone is doing solid work. 
 

The show is very funny. If I have one complaint it’s that at some points it feels like the same joke being told again and again, but it’s a good joke so I didn’t much care. It adapts the first season of the show very well. It’s not breaking new ground, but in a weak season for new musicals this is towards the top. It’s a charming and enjoyable show that should leave you smiling. 

[Call_me_jorge]

Posted: 4/14/26 at 12:16pm

From the “Corn Puddin’” clip, the choreography seems to be completely derivative of the tv show(Gattelli also served as the choreographer there). How much of the rest of the choreography is derived from the tv show and is there a possibility it will be ineligible for a Tony Award nomination?

[Call_me_jorge]

Posted: 4/14/26 at 12:17pm

CJRochester said: "Call_me_jorge said: "CJRochester said: "This is probably the most perfect musical around right now."

Lol, they use your quote in the 4th slide."

That link doesn't work.

"

Looks like they posted it again and I completely missed it! Your quote is now on the 3rd slide.

Updated On: 4/14/26 at 12:17 PM

[CJRochester]

Posted: 4/14/26 at 3:21pm

Call_me_jorge said: "Looks like they posted it again and I completely missed it! Your quote is now on the 3rd slide."

Thanks for pointing that out! It shows at least some Broadway folks do look at the reviews on this forum. 

 

[djoko84]

Posted: 4/16/26 at 12:44am

I found the show very enjoyable. It's definitely a crowd pleaser. I'm still deciding if I liked this more than Two Strangers. I think I'd pick Schmigadoon over Two Strangers because I'm in my big splashy musical era. I found McKenzie Kurtz to be the standout in the show.

[CukorLover]

Posted: 4/19/26 at 9:34am

Ensemble1672852633 said: "was at the invited dress tonight…boy was this unfunny. The audience seemed to love it, although even the creators cameout before curtain to thank the hundreds of die hard fans in the audience who made the show possible in the first place so take their reaction with a grain salt.

i watched a few episodes of the tv series and thought they joke played itself out very quickly and didn’t think episodic form was right for it, but I did think a full film or a two act stage musical might actually work and be charming….not this production, however.

the joke still got old very quickly.

Cheesy, cutesy, camp gets old very quickly and it’s the base of every number in this show. Gattelli’s ideas (usually great) are repetitive, overdone, tropes and bits about small town behind the times folk that are ironically behind the comic times themselves. This needs a far more uniqueobservation about this kind of life and a JOLT of subversive comedy alla trey Parker and Matt Stone.

The cast seemed out of gas and almost limpingin parts. But the book writing and tagging didn’t help them at all. Everything was meta about classic musical tropes which really stifles the journeys of the couple who gets stuck in schmigadoon because all they get to do is comment on how weird it is that people are Singing. And the fact that they don’t get to sing (him at all in the first act, her not until almost the end of act one) doesn’t help develop or solve their dilemma. Even a usually very funny Anna Gastyer well cast in a mean miss glutch type can’t make the lame lines funny… “you belong in a library. Because you have no spine” 🙄

Plus the set looks cheep and isn’t surprising or creative in the slightest.

I don’t get why this is on broadway at all. I understand if people liked the series, but if IP is all that matters these days to get a bway musical on in nyc I’m worried about art form all together. It’s giving Timothy chalamet was right vibes.

skip it unless you’re a fan."

Thanks for saving me the time—I agree with everything you said. If this was ‘running out of gas’ two weeks ago, it’s long past empty now. A slog to sit through.
 

 

[whatever2]

Posted: 4/19/26 at 10:46am

CukorLover said: "Thanks for saving me the time—I agree with everything you said. If this was ‘running out of gas’ two weeks ago, it’s long past empty now. A slog to sit through."

I'm confused: if you didn't see it ("thanks for saving me the time"), how do you know it's a "slog" to sit through?

fwiw, my husband did NOT want to see this -- hated the TV show -- but afterward said that he thought it was well done and he enjoyed himself.

[quizking101]

Posted: 4/19/26 at 10:57am

Call_me_jorge said: "From the “Corn Puddin’” clip, the choreographyseems to be completely derivative of the tv show(Gattelli also served as the choreographer there). How much of the rest of the choreography is derived from the tv show and is there a possibility it will be ineligible for a Tony Awardnomination?"

I don’t think there is any explicit rule about being made ineligible if the choreographer is adapting their own original choreography. I had the same question last year when Joshua Bergasse was (in my opinion, undeservingly) nominated for SMASH because the choreography, aside from a few bits and bobs, was largely identical to the TV show. 

[Ensemble1698878795]

Posted: 4/19/26 at 11:45am

I don’t get why this is on broadway at all. I understand if people liked the series, but if IP is all that matters these days to get a bway musical on in nyc I’m worried about art form all together. It’s giving Timothy chalamet was right vibes.

skip it unless you’re a fan."

Thanks for saving me the time—I agree with everything you said. If this was ‘running out of gas’ two weeks ago, it’s long past empty now. A slog to sit through.

Don’t allow one narrow review to deter you from checking this out. When I saw it the audience sounded like a laugh track. Does it reinvent the wheel? No. Is it an entertaining well crafted Broadway show, yes. In a seasons of duds, this is worth a rush or lottery ticket. 

 

[getatme]

Posted: 4/19/26 at 11:54pm

Saw this on Friday evening after enjoying it quite a bit in DC.

The production has upgraded its design elements, it looks really beautiful in a very old-fashioned way. 

It's silly and goofy and a little stupid, but I was entertained start to finish and for my money I find this to be the most coherent of the new musicals. It is the most successful at what I think it sets out to do.

The performances are really firing on all cylinders, with highlights for me being Sara Chase, McKenzie Kurtz, and Ana Gasteyer. Each of them milks their laughs for everything they're worth and  are completely un-self conscious, willing to look goofy and insane for the sake of landing a joke.

Is it high art? No. But in a season that has felt like a bug shrug, this one sticks out to me as particularly charming and winning.

[PipingHotPiccolo]

Posted: 4/20/26 at 12:00am

This was fine- it certainly isnt a disaster by any means, but it seems stuck between outright parody and schmaltz. I have never seen the TV show, and I am guessing the creators were trapped trying to hew to those plotlines a bit, when more cutting was necessary for the stage. The four elder states-ppl of the town could easily be two; SO MANY ensemble big dance numbers, which get repetitive after a short while.

Because both shows contain ignorant townspeople, I found myself wishing that Amber Ruffin's bite and wit from Bigfoot had made its way over to this show- Schmigadoon is pleasantly humorous but it has no teeth, and its more fun than outright funny. The end gets there, with the appearance of the countess and Ana Gasteyer finally getting some time to shine. But I found myself on the precipice of laughter most of the night. The show mocks the old timey musical prudishness but is pretty prude itself. It mocks old timey judgmentalism but doesnt really tackle it head on until it panders to the audience at the end re liberal values (just as the Lost Boys does). 

Brightman does well with the bewildered shtick, and Sara Chase is winning and adorable. Alot of talented people come and go, but few stick. I found myself thinking Mckenzie Kurtz could snag a Tony nom in Act 1 but then she disappears in Act 2, her storyline essentially replaced by the incredible Isabella MacCalla. 

Still, some moments really land, and I admit that I found myself emotionally invested in the predictable touching moment towards the end. This is a high calorie, low nutrition snack. 

Hard to see how Two Stangers doesnt take it.