Broadway satire and Beatle memories
Apple TV+ invites viewers to get lost in “Schmigadoon!,” a six-episode musical parody spread out over six episodes premiering on successive Fridays.
Cecily Strong (“SNL”) and Keegan-Michael Key (“Key and Peele”) star as Josh and Melissa, overworked doctors who go on a “relationship-building” hike run by some hippies. While stumbling through the woods, they come upon an enchanted bridge that leads them to the town that gives this show its name. Like “Brigadoon” or “The Music Man,” the town seems trapped in the gaslight era.
There, they meet Mayor Menlove (Alan Cumming), the local minister (Fred Armisen) and his forbidding wife (Kristin Chenoweth), the town scold.
Much to Josh’s agony, these folks break into song at the drop of a top hat. When Josh suggests they escape, they discover they are trapped. A leprechaun (Martin Short) informs them that they are indeed fated to live inside this musical and cannot depart until they find “true love.”
Josh and Melissa may not be the only ones to feel trapped. Even if viewers find the songs memorable (I do not), they tend to go on far too long. Six doses of “Schmigadoon!” adds up to some three hours, an eternity for the best of the genre (which this is not). Produced by “SNL” creator Lorne Michaels and directed by Barry Sonnenfeld, “Schmigadoon!” may remind some of an “SNL” skit allowed to rattle on well past its expiration date.
Two of the biggest musical hits of the past quarter century, “The Producers” and “The Book of Mormon” were created by folks with a wicked edge but an affection for musicals. The makers of “Schmigadoon!” clearly love the genre, but have created a rather obvious satire without much bite.
“Schmigadoon!” may also remind some of the brilliant “Key and Peele” sketch “Negrotown,” in which a Black man (Key), brutalized by a policeman, descends into a reverie about a magical musical place where there are no white people to beat Black people, deny them housing and jobs or appropriate
their music and culture. “Negrotown” is memorable and funny in ways that “Schmigadoon!” is not. It had a savage edge. And it wasn’t even five minutes long.
Hulu streams “McCartney 3,2,1,” a six-part docuseries featuring Beatle Paul McCartney in a music studio with legendary producer Rick Rubin. Shot in black and white, “3,2,1” doesn’t leave the room and depends entirely on music, conversation and recollections to enchant us.
Rubin uses a mixing board to ask McCartney how classic songs were put together. So he isolates Lennon’s jangly
rhythm guitar on “All My Loving,” or McCartney’s chunky bass on “While My Guitar Gently Weeps,” also allowing McCartney to recall the inventiveness and generosity of his departed bandmates John Lennon and George Harrison.
Before “Sgt. Pepper’s,” many or most Beatle tracks were recorded in a couple of takes. Whole albums were laid down in a few afternoons. When asked how they could collaborate so quickly, McCartney talks more about friendship than musicianship.