40 best musical references in Schmigadoon! season 2 (so far)

As we are whisked away into the sultry world of Schmicago, our introduction to the new season comes by way of a direct tribute to Pippin’s “Magic To Do.” Kicking off with the bodiless white gloves waving and whirling about against a black backdrop and a piano underscore is an iconic visual from the original Broadway staging in 1972. Tituss Burgess greets the audience as the Narrator (a combo of Pippin’s Leading Player and Cabaret’s Emcee) backed by an ensemble who are brilliantly dressed in era-essential black lace, fishnets, bow ties, and garter belts, nicely executing Bob Fosse’s signature choreography.

As Melissa and Josh (Keegan-Michael Key) enter the Kratt Klub over the well-known Cabaret musical vamp, they notice that the other patrons are sitting frozen in their chairs. This is just like in the 1972 film adaptation of Cabaret, where the Emcee, played by Joel Grey, performs the musical’s flamboyant and cheeky opening number “Willkommen” to the still, statuesque patrons of the Kit Kat Klub.

With six dancers posed onstage at the Kratt Klub, a drumroll and a rich brass section signals to the viewers that we are about to get an homage to Sweet Charity’s “Big Spender.” The original musical number features dancers offering salacious propositions—“fun, laughs, good times.” In the Schmigadoon! version, the dancers try to impress their Kratt Klub audience with similar “shocking” statements that may have elicited gasps back in the day but are now considered so ordinary they prompt simple shrugs from Melissa and Josh.

The Kratt Klub dancer Josh finds murdered in the dressing room is none other than Elsie, who is roommates with Jenny Banks (Dove Cameron), Schmicago’s version of Cabaret’s Sally Bowles. The name Elsie has been used in several musical theatre contexts—like the cow in RENT’s “Over The Moon” and Elsie Fest, Broadway’s outdoor music festival produced by Darren Criss. In Schmicago, it has to be a clever reference to Cabaret’s titular song, where Sally Bowles proclaims, “I used to have a girlfriend known as Elsie, with whom I shared four sordid rooms in Chelsea … The day she died the neighbors came to snicker, ‘Well, that’s what comes from too much pills and liquor!’”

Clinging to a vodka stinger, a woman dressed in sequins and feathers appears each episode to festively interject “I’ll drink to that!” during big events in Schmicago—like when the verdict of the murder trial is announced or when Melissa and Josh go on a double date with Dooley Finn (Alan Cumming) and Miss Coldwell (Kristin Chenoweth). It’s a grade-A reference to Company’s “The Ladies Who Lunch,” where the character Joanne toasts the limited life paths available to the upper-class society women in 1970s New York City.

Aaron Tveit’s season two character, Topher, is Schmicago’s 30-year-old hippie tribe leader—an amalgamation of the leading men from rock musicals like Godspell, Hair, and Jesus Christ Superstar. He’s introduced in “Doorway To Where,” a song with lyrics that call back to Pippin’s “Corner Of The Sky.” Both songs pair obvious, nature-oriented statements with existential questioning: Topher sings, “Squirrels find nuts in the forest; robins fly high in the air. What am I suppose to be? Who is this guy called me?” which sounds a lot like the titular character Pippin singing, “Rain comes after thunder; winter comes after fall; sometimes I think I’m not after anything at all.”

Conrad Birdie is the Elvis-inspired character from the 1960 musical Bye Bye Birdie, who promises “one last kiss” to a member of his fan club before he is drafted into the Army. Now he’s in Schmicago’s jail alongside Josh and Topher. As Josh explains his innocence, soon his fellow cell block pals all exclaim that they, too, did not commit the crimes of which they are accused. “I didn’t touch that girl!” chirps a gold-suited Conrad, addressing a key plot point from the stage-musical version.

Elsie has been murdered; Josh is in jail; and Melissa is going undercover as a Kratt Klub dancer to discover who the true killer is. Melissa arrives at the Kratt Klub as auditions commence for Elsie’s replacement under the watchful eye of Madame Frau (Ann Harada), and we are swept into a spot-on spoof of A Chorus Line’s opening number, “(God) I Hope I Get it.” The dancers execute the original Michael Bennett choreography with ease and embody the stress and anxiety of the high-stakes audition, including desperately sung pleas and exaggerated, emotional monologues, with one dancer’s story revealing her as Liesl from The Sound Of Music. (So many layers!) Melissa even gets her own solo, alluding to Cassie’s choreography and lines from “The Music And The Mirror.”

The name on everybody’s lips is: Bobbie. Jane Krakowski plays Bobbie Flanagan, the lawyer who Melissa has hired to acquit Josh of his false murder charges—a gender-flipped version of Chicago’s Billy Flynn (with strong Roxie Hart overtones), which also acts as a nod to the gender-switched version of the character Bobby in the 2022 Broadway revival of Company. She arrives at the jail to speak with Josh accompanied by the famous “Roxie” vamp and the cell block boys exclaiming their desire for her à la Billy Flynn’s introduction song “All I Care About.” There are also hints of Company’s opening song, where the ensemble sings “Bobby, baby.”

In direct tribute to Company’s “You Can Drive A Person Crazy,” Jenny, Melissa, and Ariana DeBose’s Emcee band together as an Andrews Sisters-style trio for “Bustin’ Out.” Clad in bedazzled black and white prison stripes and shackles, they sing about gleefully departing from a troublemaking lover. Melodically, the song aces the aforementioned Stephen Sondheim tune, while the content also gives a nod to Chicago’s “Cell Block Tango,” where a group of women reflect on how they killed their lovers with no remorse.

Armed with granola, flower crowns, and tie-dye, the Happiness Bus comrades of Topher take their duty to get naked, tell parables, and protest very seriously. One of the main groovy troopers, Michael (Michael Delleva), sports a costume that pays homage to Les Misérables’ Enjolras—a character that Tveit actually played in the 2012 film adaptation of the musical. Donned in an exact replica of Enjolras’ signature red vest with gold detailing, Michael signals his wholehearted commitment to the revolution as he drives the Happiness Bus and makes the tribe’s “magical bread.”

While there are many composers and lyricists to thank for the musicals that premiered in the 1960s and 1970s, Fred Ebb, Jerry Herman, John Kander, Stephen Sondheim, and Stephen Schwartz get their dues by way of Schmicago’s building names. Opening episode three, we see “Wanted” posters with Josh’s face plastered around the city. If you look closely, there is an apothecary, a portrait studio, and more that honor the icons who inspired the season’s pastiches. 

The time has come for Josh’s murder trial, which can only mean one thing: a spectacle-filled musical number. In an impressive send-up to Chicago’s “Razzle Dazzle,” Bobbie proclaims Josh’s innocence as she gives us a heavy dose of flim-flam, flapdoodle, and pizzazz—entering on an acrobat swing, enchanting the jury with Fosse-style hip sways, and flashily presenting evidence. The number also incorporates the melody from A Chorus Line’s “Dance: 10, Looks: 3,” the patter song rhythm of Company’s “Getting Married Today,” and the ventriloquist trick from Chicago’s “We Both Reached For The Gun.”

Josh jumps into the spotlight to kick off “Talk To Daddy,” the trippy parable that he and Melissa concoct to convince Jenny to reunite with her father, Dooley Finn. Not only does its vibrantly colored costumes and melody match Sweet Charity’s “The Rhythm Of Life,” there are clear visuals that skillfully replicate Fosse’s choreography straight from the 1969 film adaptation. There are also several winks to Sweet Charity’s “Rich Man’s Frug,” including a moment with a long ponytail-sporting woman dancing in between two men. (In Schmicago, they hold phones instead of cigarettes.)

Schmicago’s Sweeney Todd surrogate Dooley Finn and Miss Hannigan/Mrs. Lovett mashup Miss Coldwell team up for a new, unexpected ingredient. Chenoweth and Cumming are always a perfect pairing because of their mutual commitment to characters and comedy. And their chemistry is on full display in “Good Enough To Eat,” which pays tribute to the 1970s musicals about spunky young orphans, Annie and Oliver! Their performances harken back to their brilliant turns in “Easy Street” from the 1999 television adaptation of Annie. Set in Miss Coldwell’s orphanage, she and Dooley come up with a gruesome scheme as they prepare a boiling pot for their young victims, complete with Miss Coldwell tap-dancing with an orphan during a melodic homage to Annie’s “It’s The Hard-Knock Life.”