‘Schmigadoon!’: How a Bunch of Musical Theatre Nerds (and One Hater) Made Apple TV’s Next Comedy Hit Come to Life

Schmigadoon! is a weird show. Grown adults burst into song, one of which extolling the virtues of “corn pudding.” Comedy stars like Cecily Strong and Keegan-Michael Key mingle with Broadway greats like Kristen Chenoweth and Alan Cumming. And while the series is the passion project of Cinco Paul and Ken Daurio, the wholesome Mormon buddies behind Bubble Boy and The Secret Life of Pets, the series itself features the barbs of comedy writers like Julie Klausner and Bowen Yang and the funhouse mirror aesthetic of director Barry Sonnenfeld.

Schmigadoon! works not in spite of its disparate creative perspectives, but because of it. It’s a charming gem of a show, made from a chorus of voices working in harmony.

The Apple TV+ series follows what seems to be a perfectly normal New York City couple as they embark on a couples’ hike. While fighting over a small thing (that is clearly emblematic of a big thing), they find themselves whisked over a stone bridge and into the bright and sunny world of Schmigadoon. Everyone sings, dresses, and acts like they’re living in an old school musical in this town. When our protagonists, Josh (Keegan-Michael Key) and Melissa (Cecily Strong) attempt to leave, they are greeted by heckling leprechaun (Martin Short) informing them they can’t leave until they find true love. From there, the two are trapped in an absurd netherworld of ’40s and ’50s musicals and subverted rom-com clichés.

So how the heck did Schmigadoon! come to be? Well, the fictional town’s history is a mystery on purpose. “We started to discuss it. [in the writers’ room], but for me, it kind of became less fun. I think in a way it’s it’s this magical musical thing that was sent from the powers that be to help these two people,” Cinco Paul told Decider. But the Apple TV+ show came to fruition after Paul and Daurio worked for years on the concept, sold it to Lorne Michaels’s production comedy Broadway Video, and enlisted an ever-expanding dream list of collaborators. First to join on after Lorne Michaels was involved? Saturday Night Live star Cecily Strong.

“Ever since reading the first script, I just loved it,” star and producer Cecily Strong told Decider. “I love that it was so funny and then I loved that it was so grounded. And then I loved that we are just unabashedly sincere and wearing your heart on your sleeve. I’ve always loved comedy that’s also sweet.”

Paul told Decider that he knew “instantly” that Strong was his perfect Melissa and co-producer. “We just totally geeked out over musicals in that brief meeting,” he said. “So literally…we were writing for her as Melissa from the get go.” Finding their perfect Josh in Keegan-Michael Key took a little more effort, but it was obvious that the part also had to go to the veteran sketch comic and writer. “His addition was so important because Josh does some unlikable things. Keegan is just so freaking likable that you forgive him for trying to cross the bridge with everyone else, or at least hopefully you do.”

Casting the residents of Schmigadoon! seemingly took nothing but wish power. Paul said that “a lot of these people had their pictures up in the writers’ room.” Paul

“Mildred Layton was 100% written for Kristen [Chenoweth]. As you might imagine, the Countess was 100% written for Jane [Krakowski],” Paul said. “I’m a massive Jaime Camil fan, and sort of became friends with him, and so Doc Lopez was 100% written for him.”

For the rest of the cast, Paul insisted on actors who had extensive musical theater experience. “I really felt strongly I wanted everybody to sing live on sets and to do their own scene. And because of that, we really needed people who have this eight shows a week experience,” said Paul. “That’s why you get your Ariana DeBose and Alan Cumming and Ann Harada and then Dove [Cameron], who I don’t think has made her Broadway debut yet but she’s incredible. I mean her voice is amazing and she is so consistent.”

All that professionalism understandably might have put some pressure on the comic side of the cast. Actors like Strong and Key, Fred Armisen and Martin Short might dabble in musical comedy sketches, but aren’t used to the same grueling technical work. Strong told Decider “any dance number was daunting,” but dancing with current Tony nominee Aaron Tveit was particularly so.

“It was like, ‘Oh, Aaron, you just got nominated for a Tony and now I have to dance next to you.’ But it was always inspiring, always exciting. Luckily, I didn’t have to do too much. And I got to just look like someone enjoying herself as opposed to….I didn’t have to look like Ariana [DeBose]. I had to look like someone who wants to dance like Ariana.”

To wit, one of the show’s stand out sequences — and both Cinco Paul’s and Cecily Strong’s favorite number — is Ariana DeBose’s breathtaking dance number atop a schoolhouse desk in Episode 4. A full cast of child performers join her, tap dancing in unison atop desks behind her. “It sort of encapsulates everything that I love about musicals, just the joy of it and just how it’s so entertaining and fun, and it makes you smile and you’re able to lose yourself for a moment,” Paul said.

But that breathlessly fun moment only came because of the hard work of legions. First there was Hamilton alum DeBose and a supporting cast of local Vancouver talent. Then the choreography of Chris Gattelli, the music of Cinco Paul, and the design work of Bo Welch. And, of course, the direction of Barry Sonnenfeld.

Sonnefeld, who is perhaps best known for his work on The Addams Family and Men In Black, brought a darkly whimsical eye to Schmigadoon!. He also was the production’s token musical skeptic.

“It’s funny, because I’m not a musical theater guy. I don’t believe that people should, under any conditions, break into song and dance. But I was sent the scripts and both Bo Welch, who’s a production designer I always work with, and Rose Lamb who’s a producer I work with and my wife. [They] all loved the scripts and [my wife] said I had to do it. So if your wife says you have to do something, you have to do it, so that’s how I came on to Schmigadoon!,” Sonnenfeld said with a chuckle. “And I was a quick study. I rented a lot of those movies like Carousel and Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. But my musical [taste], the only ones I liked are more like Monty Python’s Meaning of Life, Hair, which is not a traditional musical, and Pennies from Heaven. Those are my three favorite musicals, but now I’ve got a fourth. I loved working on this show.”

“I think that a lot of directors don’t know how to shoot musicals. I didn’t either, but I knew how other directors shot them, which is you want to see the whole body. I don’t understand these choreographed numbers where you either cut to someone’s shoes so you know that’s not the real actor doing it,” Sonnenfeld said. “We had such a great cast in terms of musical comedy, and musicals, that we were able to actually film them full figure, which is the way musicals should be shot.”

Sonnenfeld added that the production was able to lock every shot in during rehearsals which meant that ironically the big dance number scenes were the shortest, easiest days on set. “The cast was perfect,” he said.

But Schmigadoon! doesn’t just work because of its cast, crew, or director. Its magic is also thanks to the painstaking work of writers. Cinco Paul and Ken Daurio might have co-wrote the pilot and Paul each and every single original song, but the show’s barbs and modern flair came from a writers room stacked with alums from some of comedy’s best shows.

“I initially was searching for writers who have worked on Jane The Virgin, Kimmy Schmidt, and The Good Place. Those are my three shows that I love, and that was the sensibility that I felt was closest to what I wanted to do with Schmigadoon!. So that’s how we found Alison [Silverman] and Kate [Gersten],” Paul said, adding that as soon as Cecily Strong was signed on as a producer, she recommended her SNL costar Bowen Yang and Difficult People star and creator Julie Klausner.

Strong told Decider that she wanted Klausner and Yang in the writers’ room because “they’re both brilliant,” but also because she knew she wouldn’t be in the room and she trusted their take on the material. “The other thing I love about Schmigadoon! is that it’s the female character that really gets to sort of go on this journey of self examination and you just don’t see that much. You don’t see the girl like having to grow up too, and so I really liked that. And I thought having Julie and Bowen [in the room] was going to protect that and make it richer and I think they did.”

It didn’t take long for Paul to agree. “It was really important to have Julie’s voice there. And everyone thought to some degree that there’s a lot of earnestness and sweetness [in my writing] that I need something to counter. And Julie is really sweet, she’s not the character on Difficult People, but there is an edge to her that the show needed which she 100% brought. And Bowen brought this great contemporary, comedic viewpoint and which was so important to have him in the room as well,” Paul said.

Days in the Schmigadoon! writers’ room started with watching clips from ’40s and ’50s musicals and recently the writers got together for an all musical theatre karaoke night. And soon, after Schmigadoon! premieres on Apple TV+, it won’t be wild to imagine fans staging Schmigadoon! karaoke nights. Each episode features a number of an original musical numbers, all chock full of jokes and full of winks at the genre’s greatest hits. The show is a truly weird symphony of crackling comic voices, distinguished Broadway talent, old-school technical prowess, and Cinco Paul and Ken Daurio’s sweet sensibilities. It’s addictive and heartwarming and hysterical. Quite simply, it’s Schmigadoon!

Schmigadoon! premieres on Apple TV+ on Friday, July 16.

Where to stream Schmigadoon!