Interludes

VIEWPOINTS – Bringing parodic joy to Broadway: Transporting SCHMIGADOON! to the Nederlander, TITANÍQUE docks at the St. James

• By drediman
• April 21, 2026
• No Comments

This spring on Broadway — in what seems to be reactionary to the fraught times we live in — campy, parodic joy has become the mode du jour, as evidenced by the recent opening of a pair of high profile, albeit unlikely new musicals. If you haven’t already guessed, these would be Schmigadoon! at the Nederlander Theatre and Titaníque at the St. James Theatre. Read on for my thoughts on these two crowd-pleasing shows, both of which have had relatively unconventional origins and paths to the Great White Way.

SCHMIGADOON!
Nederlander Theatre
Through September 6

Last night, Schmigadoon! (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED), the new Broadway musical based on the cult Apple TV+ series about a couple who is transported to and literally gets stuck in a musical, opened on Broadway at the Nederlander Theatre. Originally presented by the soon-to-be-shuttered Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, the stage version — which features book, music, and lyrics by Cinco Paul (essentially adapting his work from the first season) — has come to New York this April to bid for season-end prizes in what has amounted to be a relatively thin year for new musicals. And by gosh, the show just may end up bagging some major awards. Despite its entrenched roots in parody, the show is, more than anything, a big old love letter to musicals of the so-called “Golden Age”. Indeed, I had tremendous fun connecting the dots between the show’s witty and exuberant parodic numbers back to the musicals that lovingly inspired them — some instances more obvious than others. Most clearly influencing the proceedings are Lerner and Loewe’s Brigadoon (1947), Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Oklahoma! (1943) and Carousel (1945), as well as a good dollop of Meredith Willson’s The Music Man (1957). Read between the lines, however, and you’ll also get some references to Frank Loesser’s musicals (Guys and Dolls, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying), among others. Unlike many a musical parody, Schmigadoon! is remarkably cohesive and astute in how it uses satire to both make polk fun at and genuinely celebrate the musical theater form, all the while telling a story that — while rooted in run-of-the-mill rom-com schmaltziness — nevertheless has real heart. One of the most subtle but potent developments in the show is witnessing how the songs start morphing into the the Stephen Schwartz and Stephen Sondheim milieus as the central couple and the citizens of musical town of Schmigadoon help each change for the better. Suffice to say, Cinco’s musical feels completely at home on the Broadway stage, especially as meticulously directed and choreographed by Christopher Gattelli, whose intentionally old school staging is a wonderful breath of fresh (how I loved scenic designer Scott Pask’s hand-painted backdrops!). The company boasts the reliable comic genius of the likes of Ana Gasteyer, Brad Oscar, Ann Harada, Max Clayton, and an especially unhinged McKenzie Kurtz (as the Ado Annie stand-in). But at the heart of the musical is the fascinatingly retrained Alex Brightman and the hugely likable Sara Chase, whose portrayal of a couple in turmoil grounds Schmigadoon! in authentic — if predictable — human emotion.

TITANÍQUE
St. James Theatre
Through July 12

From the basement of a now defunct Gristedes in Chelsea to the glittering bright lights of the Great White Way and beyond, it’s been quite the wild ride for Titaníque (RECOMMENDED), a little show that could if there ever was one (in addition to mountings in New York, the show has spawned a still-running West End production and numerous regional appearances). The clever and supremely silly brainchild of Tye Blue, Marla Mindelle, and Constantine Rousouli — the latter two currently appear in the show on Broadway — the piece is essentially a jukebox musical that mashes the Céline Dion songbook with a campily queer-forward, high octane retelling of James Cameron’s mammoth Oscar-winning 1997 film Titanic. For its Main Stem outing, the show has gotten its biggest makeover yet in a brilliantly souped-up production that has set anchor at the St. James Theatre. Indeed, the noticeably bigger budget has afforded the musical the kind of high voltage energy that ably jolts the St. James, one of Broadway’s most iconic musical theater houses, into delirious hysterics. More than ever, the show unspools like a relentless romp — once Titaníque gets going following a humble prologue, the show proceeds to unfold like a runaway train careening out of control. At the end of the day, there’s no getting around the fact that the show is more sketch comedy than it is fully fleshed out musical theater, which the show’s creators have leaned into more than ever. Blue’s staging now comes across more informed by concert spectacle — complete with upgraded musicians, a cleaner sound design, and flashy arena lighting — than charmingly scrappy musical parody “on the set of Anything Goes“. But same as before, the whole thing induces a giddy high and invites repeat visits (in addition to an invariably hilarious improv sequence, the show keeps up to date with and references current events). The performances continue to be inspired and quite ridiculous in the best way possible. Mindelle returns to the role of Céline Dion, where she is completely in her kooky element, as does Rousouli, who can’t help but chew up scenery as Jack. Of the deluxe newcomers, worthy of mentioning are a ferocious Jim Parsons-in-drag as Rose’s mother and Deborah Cox as a lovable and big-voiced Molly Brown (her rendition of “All By Myself” is just glorious). But perhaps best of all in multiple roles is recent Olivier Award-winner Layton Williams, whose stunning Iceberg montage — as the indomitable Iceberg herself — all but stops the show with its thrillingly campy firepower.