Along with classical music you can either indulge in fun comedy, pathos and great soulful songs. Or you just can’t. If it’s too good for you, you’ll be for it Schmigadoon! can’t heat up. If you feel like escaping into a very entertaining and crazy parallel world for three hours, you should tune in. The exclamation mark in the title is for the happy dance and the full roar of the songs.
The AppleTV+ series tells the story of Josh and Melissa, who were a perfect couple in their mid-thirties. Their relationship recently went off the air. They embark on a survival journey through the jungle to strengthen their emotional bond. But both are stuck in the small town of Schmigadoon. You will be greeted with an elaborate show in which the townspeople sing and dance with a pastel background and fanfare.
Punch lines are not only fast, they also play with the clichés of the music.
At first they think it’s a crazy Disney resort, then they discover they’re trapped in a seemingly ideal world of the 1940s with its excited residents. Melissa can sing instinctively and can learn something from the city. Josh is too cool and disappointing to be in a musical number. Whatever it is, they both want to go back to the outside world. Two New Yorkers can only do this when they cross the bridge to the end of town with their true love. But as they leave, Schmigadoon reappears at the end of the bridge.
As of now, only musical nerds will register: mini-series parodies and celebrates classic music such as Brigadoon, Oklahoma! and carousel. It begins with the title and continues throughout the story. Its origin – wonder – lies in Thuringia. Friedrich Gerstacker wrote in 1860 germelshausen About a cursed village that has sunk into the earth and is allowed to appear one day every 100 years. in music Brigadoon If the plot is taken to Scotland, it otherwise remains the same: a man who arrives in the village on this day falls in love and must decide whether to return to his old life.
The parody works mainly through nifty dialogues. author of Schmigadoon! Known for his work in sketch comedies and sitcoms. Punch lines aren’t just snappy. Plus, they play with musical clichés on a meta level. When a young woman tells a crowd of friends about her engagement, Melissa says that the female characters in earlier musicals were said to be “badly written”. Also, given the “colour-blind casting”, the town may not have been that old. Strong wear propels the chain. Broadway star Kristin Chenoweth, for example, shines as the wife of a serious pastor who is more important than premarital abstinence.
After six episodes, the gag the story is about is over. We got it, the music of the forties and fifties is cheesy, sexist and all very similar. It’s still very worthwhile to dive into the world of quirky music for a few hours with Josh and Melissa.
Schmigadoon!, Apple TV+, a new episode every Friday
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