What: The Broadway transfer of the TV show about Josh and Melissa, hiking in the woods after a failed couples' retreat to fix their problems, who suddenly find themselves -- Brigadoon style -- in a magical and enclosed village where -- pastiche style -- everyone is in a musical. The show follows the TV series' first season, where the musical style takes its cue from the Golden Age of musicals (chiefly the Rodgers and Hammerstein catalogue and Meredith Willson's The Music Man). They are cued by a leprechaun (hat tip to Lane, Harburg, and Saidy's Finian's Rainbow), who sings to them that they will not be able to leave until they have rediscovered true love. Melissa may adore musicals, but Josh hates them, so wacky chaos ensues, but since it's the Golden Age of musicals, we're guaranteed a happy ending.
And? I had such a great time. They manage to fit most of the songs from the TV show in, and the cast is an absolute delight (loved seeing Ann Harada reprise her role from the series as the Mayor's wife Florence). She's not the only return from the show -- choreographer Christopher Gattelli returns, this time to both direct and choreograph, and his skills are a perfect fit for this show. It's a bit odd to see Alex Brightman -- known for his larger than life performances in Beetlejuice and School of Rock -- play the straight man, but he is indeed also good at the dryly sarcastic rebuffs to the nonsense around him, with perfect timing (it's still weird to see him play the most grounded character in the show, but hey, I love Alex Brightman). Some of the tee-hee gay about the closeted Mayor still feels pretty 90s in its style, which isn't my favorite, but looking past that I still had a great time. I went into this with somewhat muted expectations, weighed down by the rampant cynicism that flavors so many screen-to-stage productions of the past decade, but with such faithful adherence to a show (especially one already steeped in tropes and styles lifted straight off a Broadway stage), this manages to be a success.
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| Alex Brightman as Josh, surrounded by the cast of Schmigadoon! Photo by Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman. |
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