‘Schmigadoon!’: Cinco Paul Talks Finale Songs, Cast Shares Favorite BTS Memories (VIDEO)
[Warning: The following contains MAJOR spoilers for the Schmigadoon! Season 2 finale.]
Schmigadoon! Season 2 stuck the landing with its May 3 finale. Season 1 helped heal Melissa (Cecily Strong) and Josh’s (Keegan-Michael Key) relationship, but Season 2 taught them how to find happiness amid life’s many obstacles. After spending six deliciously seedy episodes in the darker world of Schmicago, Melissa and Josh left the magical town, choosing their real-life over fantasy. As the season’s final song states, the ending was a happy beginning.
In the video above, the stars of Schmigadoon! share their happy memories of filming Season 2’s musical numbers. Strong and Key break down the Sweet Charity-inspired “Talk to Daddy” from Episode 4 and Strong’s star-moment, Cabaret-inspired Episode 5 solo “Maybe It’s My Turn Now.” Ann Harada and Jaime Camil (who made a brief, glorious appearance as Rocky Horror‘s Frankenfurter in the finale) sing the praises of their Promises, Promises, and A Chorus Line-themed scenes. And Jane Krakowski, Dove Cameron, and Aaron Tveit share behind-the-scenes memories of “Bells and Whistles,” “Kaput,” and “Doorway to Where.”
Below, the show’s creator and composer, Cinco Paul, reflects on the finale, shares his hopes for Season 3, and explains how this musical theater fever dream goes from page to screen to TV Insider. Catch up on all episodes of Schmigadoon! Seasons 1 and 2 are now on Apple TV+.
The finale was so fun. I always wish this show had more than six episodes per season. Season two, as you said before, is about happiness. What were you aiming to accomplish with this finale, given that theme?
Yeah, I think the answer is in the song. There is no such thing as happy endings. I think that’s what Josh and Melissa need to learn, because, at the end of Season 1, they think, “We got it.” And that’s not how life works. It just keeps coming at you. You know, there, there’s no curtain that falls until you die, I guess.
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As Octavius Kratt [Patrick Page] learned.
[Laughs] Yeah, and the chandelier falls. But really, yeah, that was the message. There are no happy endings, but you can treat every day as a happy beginning and as an opportunity to find joy and to help others find joy. That’s really kind of the overarching message I think, of this season, despite all the darkness and grittiness that surrounds us constantly.
I think those themes are present in the musicals these shows are referencing though. Cabaret is dark, but there are lines of hope.
Yeah, yeah.
For the “Happy Beginning” finale song, can you tell me a little bit about filming that? It seems like a potentially emotional number to watch being filmed.
It was! It was really the only moment, except for I guess the opening number, when the whole cast is together like that. I think it may have been on the schedule the first time everybody was together like that. And so, it was just emotional to have everyone together and then to be singing this song. I know Jane in particular was really moved by it. I think Tituss [Burgess] as well. Both of them, I think, said to me, “This is my favorite song in the whole series. It’s so beautiful.” They just loved the message of it. So it was very emotional, and especially, you know when we have sort of the final goodbye from Josh and Melissa, Cecily and Keegan, you can’t look at those people that you love so much and not get a little choked up by it.
Do you see that as a final goodbye?
Hmm. I mean, it’s the final goodbye of Season 2!
There it is. I feel like the show could go on forever, because there’s always a theme that you could dive into, and there’s always musicals to be referenced. One musical that is referenced in the finale that we hadn’t heard yet was Dreamgirls with Ariana DeBose‘s beautiful solo. I heard some “There’s no way, there’s no ways” from “And I am Telling You.” What other songs from that musical are baked into that number?
“I am Changing,” for sure. It’s really mostly “I am Changing” and “I am Telling You,” you know, those big songs. And, uh, yeah, that came from a suggestion from Julie Klausner in the writers room saying, “You just need to write a beautiful, not funny song for Ariana to sing. Just write her a really great song.” And I thought, like, yeah, but where would it go? Then I thought, oh, maybe it’ll be like our preamble to the finale, you know? And that’s how it worked out. And oh, she came in and just killed it. And you know, she’s singing live, and everybody on the set. The mood on the set, it was at the very end of a long, grueling shoot, but everybody’s spirits rose up just like, “Oh, this is amazing.” So I’m grateful to Ari for that.
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I was just watching that song again before this interview, and I was like, “damn” the whole time, especially that note at the end. She makes singing look so easy. There’s also a Rocky Horror reference and a Phantom of the Opera reference briefly in the finale. Was there a Rocky Horror number made for this? Or was that always meant to be a short call-out?
No, you know, for a while, I was trying to get like a Rocky Horror sequence and do a “Time Warp” number or something, but that was sort of early days in the writers room, and I just couldn’t figure out how to make it work. So there were some nods. When Josh and Melissa arrived, they get a flat tire. It’s the front left tire, just like in Rocky Horror. So there was a little bit of a nod there, but as I was talking to Jaime about his character and how we wanted to deepen it, I came up with the idea of giving this big moment on stage at the end. I thought, “Perfect. That’s our Rocky Horror moment.”
I think that’s the perfect arc for his character. He’s like this repressed cop doing his uncle’s bidding, and then he’s like, “I just wanna be on the stage!”
He just wants to sing and dance on stage!
Just let him do it! Let him be happy! And when you have these small references to shows — we also have the chandelier falling and the organ chords, which is clearly a Phantom shout-out, in the last episode — do you intend for those to be the only references? Or do you see space for maybe more Phantom parodies in future seasons?
Yeah, for sure. In the final episode, we’re sort of hinting at what is to come if there’s an opportunity to do more. That’s why, at the end of the first season, we had some Godspell and some Sunday In the Park with George. And so, this is just a little tease of what could potentially be another visit.
Very fun. Assuming there will be a Season 3, which I feel there will be, do you have a vision for where it will go?
Fingers crossed! I do. I originally conceived of the show as having multiple seasons. At some point, if it all happens according to plan, I’ll reveal my little documents that said like, “Here’s what the first three seasons would be.” But yeah, I mean, it’s just sort of natural, right? We’re going through eras, so you probably go into the next era, but the key is always finding out Josh and Melissa’s story. Like, what is their reason for going? What are they gonna learn from it, right? That’s what cracking the story is, and then all the rest of it is fun references and pastiche and all that.
I just spoke to Kristin [Chenoweth] and Alan [Cumming] last week, which was like, oh my God, my theater kid dreams were coming true. I was watching them talk the whole time like, “Oh my God, this is so crazy.”
Imagine how it feels that they’re singing songs you wrote! It’s crazy.
Yeah! I’m very jealous of your life, Cinco!
[Laughs]
When it comes to forming the season and picking song references, can you give some insight into your creative process there? Like, once you figure out the theme, how do you then go through song selections and make your music?
Well, I usually put together a big playlist of notable or my favorite songs from all the different shows of the era. Right off the bat, there’s songs that I know I will do, and so the tail wags the dog a little bit in that sense. But then it’s diving into the writers room and breaking the story. I usually come into it with a general outline, but things evolve quite a bit. And so then you’re breaking the story, and you’re seeing where things are moving. Then you’re spotting where the songs could be. Then it’s like, “OK, well, this could be that song, or this could be ‘Rhythm of Life’ from Sweet Charity, or this would be a great opportunity for a Burt Bacharach song.” It’s sort of like as you dive in, you start to see more opportunities for songs, but I 100 percent go into it saying, “Oh, there will be a ‘Mein Herr’ and there will be a ‘Corner of the Sky.'”
There’s some things that are so iconic that you need to do them unless someone else has done them. Like, I didn’t wanna do “Cellblock Tango” because Crazy Ex-Girlfriend did such a great version of it. So there’s some things you don’t want to do; you don’t want to tread where others have already. You wanna avoid things that have already been done.
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What were some other songs that you had no doubts would be in this season?
I got the idea for “Worst Brats in Town” pretty early on. I knew I wanted the opening to be “Magic to Do,” not a song from Chicago. And I really wanted to have a Leading Player character since there are a lot of narrators in these shows.
The bridge, I guess, is The Fantasticks. There’s a little musical theater zone that we leapfrogged over between Season 1 and Season 2, which includes West Side Story and Fiddler [On the Roof], and The Fantasticks. I always feel bad that we leapfrogged over them, but you kind of find the musicals that define an era. And then, I think knew pretty early on — when I knew that Jane was gonna play the Billy Flynn character — that she was gonna have a “Razzle Dazzle.” You know the cast, you know what their strengths are, and so you want to just give everyone the chance to shine.
Should there be more seasons, do you think Tituss will return like the other cast members?
Tituss is amazing. He was incredible this season. I would be an idiot if I didn’t want Tituss to come back to do this.
Do you have an idea of how the magical towns of Schmigadoon and Schmicago came to be?
I have an idea in my head of the mythology, but I’m not convinced that it’s a good idea to ever reveal it [laughs]. Groundhog Day is one of my favorite movies of all time, and I think it’s so much better because they never explain why. It’s just the universe causing this amazing, magical thing to happen because this guy needed it. That’s kind of the way I’ve approached Schmigadoon for Josh and Melissa.
That makes a lot of sense; I like that.
I know there are a lot of fans who wonder about that and have theories, and I think that’s all really fun. But then, in some ways, trying to come up with an explanation always ends up being disappointing somehow [laughs]. It feels best to avoid it.
That fits into theater in general because you enter the theater to see a show, and you have to accept the world presented to you. The suspension of disbelief.
Let’s just get transported and entertained. Yeah.
Is there anything else you wanted to discuss for Season 2 that I didn’t mention?
I don’t like to go into the writer’s room knowing the ending. You sort of want to find that out. And so, there was a point where I thought the ending is gonna be very similar to the ending of Pippin. That was a big revelation where it’s like, OK, they’re going to need to make a choice. A different choice than Pippin needs to make, but a choice nonetheless where they’re gonna have to choose reality over fantasy. Once I realized that, it really clarified the whole season. It brought it all to a point. And that’s what’s so great about having a narrator who can just sort of play Satan and tempt them to stay in Schmicago forever.
Schmigadoon! Season 2, All Episodes Streaming Now, Apple TV+
