“Bridgadoon, Schmigadoon.” Saturday Night Live’s Cecily Strong and Key and Peele’s Keegan-Michael Key are stretching their vocal cords in new series Schmigadoon, about a couple who’s stuck in a world of song and dance until they can find “true love.”
Apple TV+ has released a new trailer for the six-part musical series, which lampoons the classic musical Brigadoon (while also harkening back to other old-school productions, like Oklahoma, Carousel, and The Unsinkable Molly Brown). The musical comedy starts with Josh (Key) and his partner Melissa (Strong) hiking in the woods. They’re having problems in their relationship, a fact that gets even more obvious when they are magically transported to a land outside of time: Schmigadoon, a happy-go-lucky community where everybody is happy and loves to sing about it.
As we see in the trailer, Melissa and Josh are trapped in Schmigadoon until they each can find their “true love.” This is a bit awkward for them, as they’re supposed to be the ones in love. But as they get to know and possibly romance the other residents — which include several Broadway veterans like Alan Cumming, Jane Krakowski, Kristin Chenoweth, and Ariana DeBose — they start to learn more about themselves and what they want out of love. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Key (who also starred in the Netflix musical film Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey) shared his excitement for singing and dancing onscreen once again — even if his character doesn’t feel the same way.
“There was a lot of acting against type in Schmigadoon,” he said. “I used to have to monitor myself like, ‘Keegan, stop tapping your foot. You don’t like musicals.’ It was really a challenge.”
Schmigadoon was created by Ken Daurio and Cinco Paul, the latter of whom also serving as showrunner and main songwriter. The six-episode season debuts on Apple TV+ July 15. In the meantime, Apple TV+’s other musical show, Central Park, just returned with its second season.