Schmigadoon Creator Cinco Paul on Season 2 Hopes, Crafting the Series

A model of this story about “Schmigadoon!” first appeared within the Awards Preview problem of TheWrap’s awards journal

Among the many many TV surprises of 2021 was Apple TV+’s “Schmigadoon!” — a comedy sequence that follows a pair that stumbles on a city that exists inside a musical. It’s quirky and bizarre and enjoyable, and so long as it stays that means, sequence creator Cinco Paul is blissful to maintain making extra episodes.

“I believe we must always all be very hopeful. I’m hopeful,” Paul informed TheWrap of the chance for a Season 2 renewal. “I don’t have a solution but. However I might love all people’s constructive hopeful vitality. As a result of as I’ve mentioned earlier than, I’ve at all times conceived of that is greater than only one season.”

In an excellent state of affairs, he is aware of precisely how lengthy his present will run: “till it stops being enjoyable.”

Actually, Paul waited awhile to deliver “Schmigadoon!” to life. The thought had been sitting in his mind for 25 years.

The idea got here to him as he was watching the 1981 horror comedy “An American Werewolf in London,” which begins with two backpackers stumbling throughout a village ravaged by a werewolf. Paul realized the opening to that movie was just like the 1947 musical “Brigadoon,” and questioned, “What if two trendy individuals came across a city that was in a musical?”

However that was so far as it went. Paul didn’t know what to do with the thought till 2021, when it occurred to him to change the 2 male backpackers for a pair, one who hates musicals whereas the opposite loves them.

“It actually was the TV panorama altering which allowed for a bizarre present like this to discover a dwelling,” Paul famous. “But in addition type of cracking [it] and considering, ‘Oh, if it’s a pair, that provides a complete different layer to it’ That’s actually what unlocked it for me and made me understand ‘OK, I believe I do know what that is now.’”

That couple would go on to be performed by Keegan-Michael Key and Cecily Robust, backed by a supporting forged that features Alan Cumming, Kristin Chenoweth, Jane Krakowski, Ariana DeBose, Dove Cameron, Aaron Tveit and extra. And sure, Paul is absolutely conscious of how fortunate he was to get everybody; he even famous that he “was like a child in a sweet store, for certain.”

Although Paul admitted that the COVID-19 pandemic helped in getting the forged on board as a result of extra actors had been obtainable, he additionally famous that lots of them had been additionally simply in love with the idea. (They had been in a position to learn by way of all the scripts beforehand, one thing that doesn’t at all times occur for tasks like this.)

“I believe so many of those individuals who can sing don’t at all times get the chance to sing,” he mentioned. “They usually need to desperately, you already know? That’s why I believe individuals like Kristin and Dove and Jane and Alan had been all so excited to do one thing the place they bought to sing and display their love of musicals. It actually was a labor of affection for all of us concerned.”

In actual fact, lots of the characters in “Schmigadoon!” had been written with their actors in thoughts. Chenoweth’s image was hanging within the author’s room as they conceptualized the preacher’s wife, Mildred Layton. Equally, The Countess (assume: the baroness from “The Sound of Music”) was written with Krakowski in thoughts and Doc Lopez (a model of Captain Von Trapp from the identical musical) with Jaime Camil.

As such, Paul additionally wrote to the actors’ singing strengths in crafting the present’s unique songs, all of which he wrote. He made certain to problem his forged — notably Chenoweth, who Paul admits had a distinctly troublesome character, however embraced the problem.

“Clearly, a efficiency is a lot greater than the phrases which might be on the web page, a personality’s greater than the phrases on the web page,” Paul mentioned. “And each single considered one of these actors introduced their A-game to this and breathed them to life in a means that’s past what I even imagined the characters could possibly be.”

And certainly, they’ve actually paid off. “Schmigadoon!” notched a 2022 Grammy nomination for Greatest Compilation Soundtrack for Visible Media, alongside the soundtracks to “Expensive Evan Hansen,” “Within the Heights,” “One Night time in Miami,” “Respect” and others.

“That was a complete shock,” Paul mentioned with fun. “But it surely was so pleasant that with all these soundtracks to movie musicals, our little Schmiggy bought nominated as effectively.”

Learn extra from the Awards Preview problem right here.