Schmigadoon!: Something Real
April 19, 2023 7:29 AM - Season 2, Episode 4 - Subscribe
After Josh and Melissa realize they need to find a happy ending for everyone, they try to make that happen-with unintended consequences.
Getting Josh acquitted of a crime he was innocent of turns out not to be quite a happy enough ending to get the couple over that bridge just yet. Josh and Melissa decide that they must arrange a happy ending for everyone. Jenny is unwilling to consider reconciling with her father so they try taking her to the commune to soften her up. This does not get her to talk to her father but does result in a hookup, inspiring the idea to get Mr. Dooley and Ms. Codwell together. That looks promising until it leads to plans to solve the meat storage and orphan oversupply exactly the way Melissa might have predicted if only she had not left that showing of Sweeny Tood a little too early as a child.
Getting Josh acquitted of a crime he was innocent of turns out not to be quite a happy enough ending to get the couple over that bridge just yet. Josh and Melissa decide that they must arrange a happy ending for everyone. Jenny is unwilling to consider reconciling with her father so they try taking her to the commune to soften her up. This does not get her to talk to her father but does result in a hookup, inspiring the idea to get Mr. Dooley and Ms. Codwell together. That looks promising until it leads to plans to solve the meat storage and orphan oversupply exactly the way Melissa might have predicted if only she had not left that showing of Sweeny Tood a little too early as a child.
I really need a cross reference to tell me what each of the musical numbers in this series is referencing. Is there a thing like that out there?
posted by chrchr at 3:24 PM on April 19, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by chrchr at 3:24 PM on April 19, 2023 [1 favorite]
chrchr — people in the subreddit for the show is usually pretty quick at sleuthing out all the references and mashups. For Reddit it’s a surprisingly decent crowd
https://old.reddit.com/r/Schmigadoon/
posted by nathan_teske at 5:16 PM on April 19, 2023 [1 favorite]
https://old.reddit.com/r/Schmigadoon/
posted by nathan_teske at 5:16 PM on April 19, 2023 [1 favorite]
INVENTORY: 40 best musical references in Schmigadoon! season 2 (so far) I haven't read this yet since I just finished the episode. Some folks are also doing reference videos on YouTube.
Topher's throwing a shit fit and quitting at being told what to do, lolz. Jenny and him make a cute couple, though.
"There's a chance that he's homicidal / But the bond between you is vital."
"I'm pretty sure Ronny and Jerry are having sex in that old refrigerator."
"How's it going?" "The world is crawling with the maggots of humanity's failure."
"How's it going?" "Horrible. Little blighters won't leave me alone."
Total soulmates, they are. Also I'd love to give that maggots line IRL but people would react....poorly.
"They switch my gin for water."
"You've got too many orphans. I've got too little meat. Life is just a pile of shit."
"There are children present!" "But not for long!"
"I don't want to get ahead of ourselves here, but this feels like a happy ending!"
Watching the orphans HAPPILY sing about their own impending murders and cannibalism... like, do they know what's going on? Are they just caught up in the song? What IS this?!
posted by jenfullmoon at 8:14 PM on April 19, 2023 [1 favorite]
Topher's throwing a shit fit and quitting at being told what to do, lolz. Jenny and him make a cute couple, though.
"There's a chance that he's homicidal / But the bond between you is vital."
"I'm pretty sure Ronny and Jerry are having sex in that old refrigerator."
"How's it going?" "The world is crawling with the maggots of humanity's failure."
"How's it going?" "Horrible. Little blighters won't leave me alone."
Total soulmates, they are. Also I'd love to give that maggots line IRL but people would react....poorly.
"They switch my gin for water."
"You've got too many orphans. I've got too little meat. Life is just a pile of shit."
"There are children present!" "But not for long!"
"I don't want to get ahead of ourselves here, but this feels like a happy ending!"
Watching the orphans HAPPILY sing about their own impending murders and cannibalism... like, do they know what's going on? Are they just caught up in the song? What IS this?!
posted by jenfullmoon at 8:14 PM on April 19, 2023 [1 favorite]
Called it on the brats. I love how mercilessly Alan Cumming parodies Depp's Sweeney Todd performance. That glower!
posted by jordemort at 8:42 PM on April 19, 2023
posted by jordemort at 8:42 PM on April 19, 2023
Somewhere back in the Season One discussion, somebody posted a link to the Playbill commentary about the episodes. Thanks to the MeFite who did that. I've been reading them as I've been watching, trying to fill in the holes about which references I've missed. I don't think they get them all, but they certainly get a bunch of them. Here's the one for this episode.
posted by sardonyx at 8:45 PM on April 19, 2023
posted by sardonyx at 8:45 PM on April 19, 2023
> Was the Jenny Banks/Topher duet leaning towards "Jesus Christ, Superstar"? I couldn't quite place it in that show but it definitely felt like that's the direction they were going. Their voices work really well together!
The song where Topher gives up and stomps off to his tent is very much pulled from Jesus Christ Superstar, but for his and Jenny's love song, we're back to Pippin.
The Playbill rundown is GREAT, sardonyx, thanks for posting the link! So much easier than plowing through a Reddit discussion.
posted by desuetude at 9:03 PM on April 19, 2023 [2 favorites]
The song where Topher gives up and stomps off to his tent is very much pulled from Jesus Christ Superstar, but for his and Jenny's love song, we're back to Pippin.
The Playbill rundown is GREAT, sardonyx, thanks for posting the link! So much easier than plowing through a Reddit discussion.
posted by desuetude at 9:03 PM on April 19, 2023 [2 favorites]
Okay, this was an utter delight. I kept literally squeeing at some of the music.
posted by rmd1023 at 7:55 AM on April 20, 2023
posted by rmd1023 at 7:55 AM on April 20, 2023
It occured to me that one of Melissa's key assets in Schmigadoon was that she was familiar with the reference musicals, so she had a better idea of what was likely to happen and how to operate within the world. In Schmicago, her unfamiliarity with the references is a real weakness -- not being a Sondheim fan is really gonna bite them in the ass with the misguided assumptions that love is always the happy ending. That's...kinda...never the way 70s musicals worked. This is cracking me the fuck up in the key of meta. (I am a Musicals Person who doesn't actually love the so-called golden age of musicals, so I am cackling extra hard.)
posted by desuetude at 7:50 PM on April 20, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by desuetude at 7:50 PM on April 20, 2023 [1 favorite]
Was the Jenny Banks/Topher duet leaning towards "Jesus Christ, Superstar"?
Or "Love Song" from Pippin.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 6:00 AM on April 21, 2023
Or "Love Song" from Pippin.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 6:00 AM on April 21, 2023
Fun fact out of nowhere: I saw some Reddit thread where people were trying to guess what an 80's/90's season of Schmigadoon would be called. I went through listings of 80's and 90's shows on theatretrip.com and there aren't any musicals named after locations that work for this?! Like... The Schmicret Garden? Schmidsecond St? Into the Schmigadoon? City of Schmidgels? Schmigacabana? Schmig on this Island? Schmig Boulevard?
I guess season 4 could be Schmavenue X, or something like that, though.
posted by jenfullmoon at 2:46 PM on April 21, 2023
I guess season 4 could be Schmavenue X, or something like that, though.
posted by jenfullmoon at 2:46 PM on April 21, 2023
Schmigarent.
posted by rmd1023 at 2:52 PM on April 21, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by rmd1023 at 2:52 PM on April 21, 2023 [3 favorites]
I disliked how Topher/Jenny were referred to as a “young couple” when Aaron Tveit and Cecily Strong are the same age. Which meant I thought the Topher/Jenny pairing was a mismatch.
posted by 41swans at 7:46 AM on April 22, 2023
posted by 41swans at 7:46 AM on April 22, 2023
The presence of the orphans makes me wonder if we're heading for a "Children Will Listen" from Into The Woods moment by the end of the season.
Also I'm curious if the woman who keeps piping up in the background yelling "I'll drink to that!" will ever get a full on "Ladies Who Lunch" number. Which would be interesting considering the show runners turned down the chance to have Patti LuPone on the show because she's "too old."
posted by dnash at 4:30 PM on April 22, 2023 [2 favorites]
Also I'm curious if the woman who keeps piping up in the background yelling "I'll drink to that!" will ever get a full on "Ladies Who Lunch" number. Which would be interesting considering the show runners turned down the chance to have Patti LuPone on the show because she's "too old."
posted by dnash at 4:30 PM on April 22, 2023 [2 favorites]
Avenue Schmig / Les Schmig
posted by St. Peepsburg at 8:52 AM on April 23, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by St. Peepsburg at 8:52 AM on April 23, 2023 [3 favorites]
They did a call back to this Bob Fosse routine from Sweet Charity! (Without punishing back-bends. Yeah, that's Ben Vereen in that clip. It's also where "Hey Big Spender" is from, which they parodied with "Look At Me" some episodes ago. As a film though, Sweet Charity is just dreadful. Sammy Davis Jr has a notable number, but by the time you get to the marching band on Wall street I was Fosse'd out. )
But oh, I love this show!
posted by Catblack at 7:14 AM on April 24, 2023
But oh, I love this show!
posted by Catblack at 7:14 AM on April 24, 2023
> Fun fact out of nowhere: I saw some Reddit thread where people were trying to guess what an 80's/90's season of Schmigadoon would be called. I went through listings of 80's and 90's shows on theatretrip.com and there aren't any musicals named after locations that work for this?! Like... The Schmicret Garden? Schmidsecond St? Into the Schmigadoon? City of Schmidgels? Schmigacabana? Schmig on this Island? Schmig Boulevard?
Regardless of what they do with the Schmigatitle, I feel like it's gonna be located in SchmigaParis, because thematically it brings us straight to Les Miz and Phantom--literally the two biggest musicals of that era--plus Sunday in the Park with George. And it's an easy little stretch to include some Parisian alley Cats. (Maybe Josh and Melissa try to go on a Parisian vacation.)
posted by desuetude at 11:22 PM on April 25, 2023 [2 favorites]
Regardless of what they do with the Schmigatitle, I feel like it's gonna be located in SchmigaParis, because thematically it brings us straight to Les Miz and Phantom--literally the two biggest musicals of that era--plus Sunday in the Park with George. And it's an easy little stretch to include some Parisian alley Cats. (Maybe Josh and Melissa try to go on a Parisian vacation.)
posted by desuetude at 11:22 PM on April 25, 2023 [2 favorites]
I'm so curious about the "I'll drink to that!" character (credited as "barfly") and where she'll go! I think it would be a mistake to do anything too close to "Ladies Who Lunch" but I hope we'll get more of her. I suspect she might turn out to be analogous to the "beggar woman" from Sweeney Todd.
posted by earth by april at 11:54 AM on April 26, 2023
posted by earth by april at 11:54 AM on April 26, 2023
Schmintothewoods
posted by vverse23 at 1:12 PM on May 3, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by vverse23 at 1:12 PM on May 3, 2023 [1 favorite]
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Was the Jenny Banks/Topher duet leaning towards "Jesus Christ, Superstar"? I couldn't quite place it in that show but it definitely felt like that's the direction they were going. Their voices work really well together!
posted by montag2k at 9:58 AM on April 19, 2023