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[0:00] Jeff Malone: Welcome to Half Hour with Jeff & Richie, the podcast where we explore the latest shows we see, sharing our insights and opinions on the performances, storylines, and everything in between. In today's episode, we are discussing the Broadway production of Schmigadoon! playing at the Nederlander Theatre. Whether you cannot catch the show in person or you want to expand your thoughts after seeing it, this episode is for you. And as always, we want to inform you that this episode will contain spoilers, so if you're ready to dive into this production, stick around with us. I'm Jeff.

[0:28] Richie Grasso: And I'm Richie, and we're thrilled to be your hosts for this episode. But before we start the conversation about Schmigadoon!, here are a few words from our advertisers. Welcome, everyone, to a new episode of Half Hour with Jeff & Richie. Today, we're discussing Schmigadoon! New York doctors Josh and Melissa set out on a couple's backpacking retreat to rekindle the flame, but instead find themselves in Schmigadoon!, a magical town that's a Golden Age musical come to life. The townspeople won't stop singing, the bridge out leads nowhere, and the only way to escape is by finding true love, which may or may not be with each other. From Saturday Night Live's Lorne Michaels and based on the Universal Television and Apple original award-winning series, this delightfully hilarious musical features a book and Emmy award-winning score by Cinco Paul.

Schmigadoon! is a love letter to Broadway's Golden Age wrapped in a modern musical comedy that will leave you with a, quote, song in your heart, end quote, says the New York Times, if you manage to get out. All right, well, let's get into this now with our overall thoughts on the plot, concept, and music of this show, Schmigadoon!

[1:28] Jeff Malone: So, as many of you, I would assume, hopefully, know by now, Schmigadoon! was a television show that ran two seasons on Apple TV. Actually, I believe the third season was written and ready, and it never got produced, as they say.

[1:42] Richie Grasso: Yes. Schmicago! is the second season. So, this Broadway production is just season one, and all the music of that Golden Age musical theater. I think it was an interesting time, being in COVID, not seeing musical theater, kind of reliving musical theater through movies and maybe looking back and watching old movie musicals, or just kind of living through that while we didn't have live theater, and then coming to Schmigadoon! I remember thinking, oh my gosh, and I believe they filmed it safely during COVID times, and it was just one of those niche things, and when I would explain it to people, I think they kind of got it, and they kind of did it, and they would watch a few episodes, and they're like, oh my god, this is so funny, and I just found such joy at such dark times with something like Schmigadoon! If you were to look back and say, what do you remember from COVID times? I'm not kidding, Schmigadoon! was something I really remember as this escapism.

[2:42] Jeff Malone: It was also the start of this podcast, because we did a weekly episode, and every episode was in a different episode of our podcast at that time, and our podcast has changed a lot since then, but we do have episodes for each episode of the TV series, and now we have this one! Now I will say, the Broadway musical that we saw has changed slightly, not much, there's a couple added songs, and a couple things have changed slightly, but it's basically like watching all of season one on stage. When I saw they did the out-of-town on this, and then it came to Broadway, I said, it just makes complete sense, I've never seen something make more complete sense than to just put this on Broadway, right? Lavish costumes, and scenery, and music, and a modern score written like it was written a long time ago, and yet we poke fun at it, and this concept is really smart to me, because it's this like, let's poke fun at this, but let's not make fun of this, and some people would argue with me and say, no, of course they're making fun of it.

I find that this has so much heart that I'm like tearing up at the end, because I feel everything these people are feeling, and it leads me to believe that we're not making fun of it, that we're poking fun, we're having fun with it, we're being playful, we're being silly, we're also rooting ourselves, and like, maybe remembering why, if I could sit here and ask Richard Rodgers today, like, why did you write corny, cheesy things like that with Oscar Hammerstein, and Lerner and Loewe, and Meredith Wilson, and these people who wrote these, if I could sit and say why, I mean, you would almost want to ask them, like, why did you do that there? It's so corny, cheesy, but that was what was the norm of the time, and I think since we moved so far beyond that, the only time we really see Golden Age things now is when they're revived, and even the last few years, we haven't had tons of those revivals, and those movies aren't being remade necessarily, so it does remind you of like, listen, I grew up as a little kid watching these Golden Age musicals on the TV, I watched the Sound of Music VHS tape, there were two of them, and I'm pretty sure there were two of them, and there was a literal intermission, I don't know if anybody listening remembers this, when you would watch the movie, they would put like an intermission cue card up, like, I grew up watching these things, right?

And one of my first big roles in middle school was when we did the Music Man Junior, and I was Harold Hill, and I watched that movie with my friends, and I was like, whoa, like, what is this, like, it's magic, and so to me, it really, really sits in a rooted place, and so I watched Schmigadoon!, of course, in the beginning, I'm like, I hope they're not gonna like destroy this and make fun of all these wonderful things, it just doesn't do that, it just brings light and joy, and it reminds us that we're sitting in 2026 in a Broadway theater watching this and being playful with it, do you like feel the same way about all this?

[5:22] Richie Grasso: I do, because I feel like this show has come at the right time both times now, so with the TV show, it came during a time, yes, COVID days where it was very dark, and we were looking for something fun to watch, since Broadway was still shut down when this came out, and now we have this during this time where we're looking for pure, like, entertainment that still has a message, but like on Broadway, because we're living in this time that we're living in now, so like something like this sheds light, and I think takes people out of the element of like the real world where there's so much going on, and there's many things that we don't agree with that are happening right now, and you can just go into a show like this and just say, hey, I'm gonna sit here for what, two and a half hours, and just like have a good time.

And then when you talk a little bit about the plot, I mean, you have multiple plots, like, so Brigadoon is what is mainly, that was a town that the old Golden Age musical, they went to the town, and they fall in love with people in the town, and it's like a fantasy town, but it was also like musical theater and stuff, so like that's, but then you have like the school teacher as the Marion Librarian kind of moment, wait, then we have Music Man, we have like just so many, Oklahoma, like the singing of the name of the town in the beginning, right? Carousel. Carousel, oh my gosh, with the carnival character, right? So there's all these like, the Sound of Music with the guitar singing about the terms, like in the doctor's office, right?

So all these things are just reminiscent of if you know the big ones, and there's so many, probably even I'm not even thinking of right now, but you just take the stereotypes of all those, and you put them in this, and it just, and it was like these two people, and I actually also liked on stage that it started them in the modern day, like in the hospital, and then in their bedroom, and like we need to get, like same way the TV show started, and then they dive into this big magical town, it was very smart.

[7:16] Jeff Malone: Well I feel like that this is like the modern way of like keeping the Golden Age alive, in a different way. So like obviously we've been having all of these reimagined Golden Age musicals come to Broadway, we've also had just like the traditional way of doing a Golden Age musical on Broadway, but now this is like I think a different way of keeping it alive, because we don't really get a lot of shows that are written in this structure, with a full orchestration like happening in the score. Like you're really getting it with a piece like this, and that's why I think you know it keeps us, like the big theater buffs and lovers, like happy, right?

[7:52] Richie Grasso: Yeah, and then not to mention, like I've said this on the podcast before, so many modern scores written for musical theater today are folk, or rock, or and there's nothing wrong with that, there's nothing wrong with that. We hear a lot of that, right? The bluegrass, we hear a lot of pop, pop, pop. Well it's also hard because it's like it's not written in the way like that we talk about a lot of the times, like this is written, this is a love letter to Golden Age theater, with also being parody. And it's also written well, like the songs are orchestrated well, they're memorable, you can think of a lot of this, like they're orchestral. And I think that's like what we keep talking about, like there are many songs from this show that you can leave, and you're humming, and you're singing them.

Obviously because they follow the same structure as a lot of these, or they're inspired by a lot of the Golden Age musicals, but still like when you have something like Corn Pudding, and like people love it, and they remember it, that's important to me when I see a musical. You know there's many songs, even the opening Schmigadoon, it's like you remember it, and you don't really get a lot of that with new modern scores. You end up leaving the show, and you're like, wait I don't remember a single song from the show. Because sometimes I think the most successful shows on Broadway are shows that know what they are. Schmigadoon knows what it is, the producers knew, Chris Catelli knows, everyone involved in the team knows.

And so when you know what it is, I think there's more success than not sitting there saying, well it was trying to be too much of this, it was trying to be too much of that. Like it wasn't trying to be too much of one thing or the other, it knew what it wanted to be, and it was already successful growing legs with the Apple TV show, and so many people knew that title already. It was Emmy award winning, it now goes to Broadway, it kind of helped the marketing side of it. The whole concept of this just totally worked.

[9:43] Jeff Malone: That's one thing I was going to say, like do you feel like that this whole premise of the couple trapped in a musical, and this is all happening, worked really well in the TV show, but do you feel like it translates well enough to the Broadway stage as well?

[10:01] Richie Grasso: Yeah, because we get the gorgeous set, and the costumes, and the lighting, which we're going to talk about in a minute. But you get that, and then you also get these like, oh wait we're not in love anymore, boom. And they go about meeting other characters, and you're sitting there like, are they going to get back together? Like I don't really know, like there's the suspense, the cross that bridge, all that. And then you get to the end, and you're like, oh my god, and they're getting ready to leave. And if you remember, like at the end of season one, we didn't really know if they like left. We think they did, and then we went into Schmacago, which was like a whole other thing, parodying like those musicals. So like, this was just the Golden Age stuff, and I think it just made you feel warm, like those Golden Age musicals made you feel all those emotions. Like you felt the roller coaster of emotions with this.

[11:03] Jeff Malone: And then it's brought to Broadway, it's still considered like, oh, that was originally written for the theater. But now we're looking at things like, I think, wow, what a perfect thing that this was introduced to us in a different media form, like it's out of town was Apple TV. Yeah, and then they took it and they turned it into a stage musical, which this always feels like it was just written as a stage musical, not just a TV series. And look at how successful it looks on stage now, and it has this whole fan base that was built for it. Yeah, which I think this is a great time for us to transition now into our production conversation. But before we do that, we're going to take a quick break.

[11:42] Richie Grasso: Okay, and we're back. So picking up where we left off, you know, we're now talking about how this has been transformed from TV show into stage production. So let's get into the direction first. So we have direction and choreography by Christopher Gattelli, who I think has been attached to this for a while now. Off the heels of "Death Becomes Her," which is just so well directed and choreographed and moves so seamlessly. I think Chris Gattelli is really, really good at what he does.

[12:09] Jeff Malone: Yes, and with "Schmigadoon," we are just moving through this town. Nothing feels clunky. This show could so have been clunky, right? It could have been large set pieces that didn't really move with ease. It could have been 40 people in big production numbers that just seemed like, whoa, this just didn't do that. It felt, even though just the way we moved musically through the piece, I felt like I was watching a film. I really, really hope he gets nominated for choreography and direction. We're recording this at the time we don't know the Tony nominations yet; we will know very, very soon. And I think, I just think Chris Gattelli totally deserves both a director and a choreography nomination.

That choreography is just oozing the choreo of Golden Age musical theater, and you're getting glimpses of it. What's nice is in Golden Age musical theater, you usually have like an eight-minute ballet or an eight-minute waltz or an eight-minute gavotte, and you would like sit and watch, which was gorgeous. But like, he did bits and pieces of that. He expanded "Corn Pudding" a little bit, he expanded "Across That Bridge," he expanded the tap number and "With All Your Heart." Right? So like, we just get a little expansions from the TV show, but we're getting that beautiful, splashy choreography that's just gorgeously done by this ensemble.

[13:19] Richie Grasso: I think it's very, very smart, and mixing that in with some of the design here as well. I mean, the costumes—well, I'm sorry, Linda Cho, hello! Yeah, she's just so good at what she does. Yeah, down to the shoelace color. I mean, if you're looking at everything that they're wearing head to toe. Oh, I know! I was looking—I mean, the feet are right at our face. We're looking at these—they're designed beautifully. I mean, it's like, and it works and matches the choreography that we're seeing on that stage, which is like, you know, this is what we always talk about here: a team that is fully working together in bringing a piece like this to the stage, and you can tell. And I had read that a lot of the scenery was actually hand-painted, which is actually beautiful.

Some of those drops, I believe, in the design, it's said. Yeah, which is amazing, and you're getting like that storybook feel like you get when you're watching "Beauty and the Beast" or "Cinderella" or something. You feel like you're in the storybook of it. And that's what I also love from the costume perspective, that the two leads are in like normal street clothes and sneakers, and that juxtaposition as they're walking through the people so beautifully dressed, like the leads are all in just amazing costumes. They just look like they're like hand and glove the way they fit in these costumes.

[14:34] Jeff Malone: It was—and not to mention wigs and lighting and just sound design. All the design was very, very, very smart. I was very, very impressed. And when you look at like a direction choice here, like what do you feel like as a moment that like fully sticks out to you from "Schmigadoon," like you could watch it over and over again?

[14:50] Richie Grasso: Oh, I mean just all the big production numbers, truly all of them. But even some of the softer ballads, I was blown away by Max Clayton's whole number. I thought that was like so well done. I also think just that schoolhouse tap number, yeah, like we're even playing into like these aren't kids, you know? Like when you would watch musicals and it's like no one in "Grease" was really 16 years old, right? You know, like things like that. I will also say something that was to end this beautiful show with raising the curtain to the knee height, I was like, don't tell me you're giving me like 42nd Street realness here with like raising the curtain just to the hip or the knee or whatever the height was and just watching those feet do that. It was like that is just the cherry on this cake. That's literally two and a half hours with that.

[15:37] Jeff Malone: That is literally the moment that I was going to say because I'm like it reminds me last year when we had our wow moment in "Boop," where we, you know, we have the opening act number where they're doing "Where's Betty?" and the costume moment happens, and it's something that you just remember. And like now for this season, it's like we have "Schmigadoon" and we have that curtain raising, and boom, we're getting this like campy, yeah, like Golden Age moment here that's like studied and true and known.

[16:07] Richie Grasso: It's studied, Jeff. That's a great way to put it. Like this is someone like Chris Gattelli who's probably sat and watched all these Golden Age shows and understands what they did long ago that we have not stopped doing. A lot of that we've stopped doing, a lot of those the way these scenes or books are written and everything's digital now, but we had these like backdrops and set dimension pieces, and it just—all of it, all of it. And just to kind of go into some of this cast because I know we should probably—and one note I did want to say though, it's like it's so interesting to watch parody because we now have parody on Broadway in multiple ways. We have parody on "Omeri," we have parody in "Titanic," and now we have parody in "Schmigadoon," and they're also different in three different ways I find, but that they're working, you know?

Like, but going back to what we just said here with "Schmigadoon," it's like this is a studied parody, and it's like I really think more in the love letter style to Broadway that this is like, hey, we can laugh at this, but also like we're giving everything that has made Broadway Broadway in "Schmigadoon."

[17:13] Jeff Malone: Right, right. You know, it was almost like time for something like this.

[17:17] Richie Grasso: It totally was, you know. Who are standout cast for you in this? Because there's a lot of supporting roles. I don't like a few leading roles, of course, too.

[17:22] Jeff Malone: Well, everyone knows this because like I have a huge love for my favorite, Mackenzie Kurtz here. Listen, she stands out in this. I'm so happy to see her originating this role on Broadway. I needed this, and she's definitely the standout for me, as well as Max Clayton. I think both of them really stand out in so many great ways that I'm like, they're making me laugh. They are making me fall in love with the character. And, you know, Max really picks it up because that was narrative eight in the TV show, and you know everyone knows my feelings. So here we have Max who's really taking over this and doing a great job. Max and Mackenzie for sure, I agree with.

[18:04] Richie Grasso: I would say Isabelle McCalla kind of bursts in act two. She's in act one a little bit when she has that number on the top back to, I'm like, you are it! Yes, she's just serving that whole role, especially in act two. I thought Ana Gasteyer played that so well, and we're comparing a little to Kristin Chenoweth from the TV show, right? But she just owns the space and commands this like evil villainous character. She really stood out to me. And I will say Alex and Sarah, Alex Brightman and Sarah Chase had really great chemistry. But when Sarah Chase sings that moment in act two, I'm like, there it is! Like I'm waiting for it, and I'm waiting for it. I definitely think there is your belt girl, yes!

[18:42] Jeff Malone: Yeah, and she definitely got more of a like add-on to her role, I think, compared to the TV show. Like Cecily Strong, great, amazing, perfect. But you know, I think this lets this role actually shine in the way they maybe added more to the character. And, you know, it was—I also think it was cool, like, was in this who was in one of the members in the TV show who comes and plays the wife, and she was just so great. She has one-liners that woman is so good at just delivering a great—she would actually be great to talk to because I would actually love to know her being the only one that went from the TV show to the musical now would be like, what was it like doing this and now bringing this to the stage?

And she also did it at the Kennedy Center, yeah, I believe so. I think she's so—she's been with it the whole time, you know? And it would be interesting to see like why didn't others kind of want to stay with the project? But—and not to mention like just in general this whole ensemble is doing a lot in this show. Some of them are doubling on roles, and then they're just dancing in the way that like if you just pulled them out of 2026 and threw them in 1945, it would be like the same thing. Like it's hard to be doing that choreography like that when so much choreography today is like modern dance, hip-hop, a little bit of tap. We're always going to see tap on Broadway, I think, but like you're not seeing like full tap numbers and full Golden Age choreography as much in unison.

[20:06] Jeff Malone: No, I mean when you look at bigger dance shows like "And Juliet" and some of these bigger dance shows, like they're just a different style.

[20:09] Richie Grasso: Yeah, well when you're bringing contemporary dance right onto the Broadway stage, yeah, it is very different. But what I'm saying is like, yeah, you're getting full company numbers here that are in like full unison. They're not missing a single like note or beat, and they're just like getting it, and it's like it's great to see that. So, you know, I'm very happy with this production overall, and it's actually something like that I hope this show lives on more than just what this limited run is for right now. And I feel like we could talk about this more in the next time. I feel like it's probably going to go on a tour. I've heard that rumor. I feel like it's going to license out, and a ton of high schools, colleges, and community theaters are going to be doing this. Like I would even go as far as to say you're probably going to be a "Schmigadoon Junior" in middle school.

[20:54] Jeff Malone: So we do like—I feel like that, right? Because I think not all this humor is appropriate for kids, but like some of it could be, you know? But I see high schools doing this. I see a lot of regionals doing—I mean, I feel like we always kind of get a show that comes along, you know? I think probably the last one was maybe something "Rotten," that, you know, and then high schools started doing that. And probably before that, maybe, you know, "Curtains" had a little bit of like the parody moments in it. So, you know, I think we do "Young Frankenstein," like all of these shows that parody, parody, and high schools start doing them. And then like, you know, maybe this one might take the throne, right?

[21:36] Richie Grasso: So, all right, well this is a great time to kind of transition into our final section of the episode. So let's take another quick break here, and when we get back, we'll move into our own questions about the show and our closing half-minute segment.

[21:46] Jeff Malone: Okay, and we're back. So let's get into some Tony talk about "Schmigadoon," because we are going to be finding out the nominations very quickly after this. At the time of recording, we do not know the Tony nominations yet for those of you listening. I really see this getting a lot of Tony nominations. It's already getting a ton of award nominations.

[22:06] Jeff Malone: For Best Musical, my guess here is that I don't know if voters are going to feel like "Two Strangers" is too similar to maybe "Happy Ending," and that's what won last year. "Lost Boys" is too similar maybe to "Outsiders," and again, that's what once we see it, I'll have a better guess on this. But if those are the two recent winners here, I would wonder if the voters would say we want to give the flowers to someone else that's in a different league. To see parody and comedy win between "Schmigadoon" and "Titanic," I feel like "Schmigadoon" kind of has a little bit of a leg up, maybe. That's just my opinion. I will also say in terms of, I do totally see a costume nomination and scenery, and I will say maybe Best Orchestration if it's up for that too, because I think that was orchestrated really well.

[23:34] Richie Grasso: Sure, I mean, I think it's a pretty stacked category for Leading Female in a Musical, but I think I see a world where she's nominated. Do I see a world where Max Clayton's getting a Supporting Actor nominee? Yes, I really do. That dancing is very impressive. I don't know if any of the role personally is what I would love to see Mackenzie and Isabelle get nominated. I don't know if the roles are big enough, but who's to say? I can't really make that judgment.

[24:00] Jeff Malone: Well, we're in an interesting point too because there's really not a lot of featured actress contenders. There's no one in "Two Strangers." I don't know what "Queen of Brassai" is going to get in terms of nominating anyone. I think the show is really going to be—we have a lot of supporting roles in "Ragtime" and "Cats," and there's other revivals. Don't forget "Rocky Horror." There's a lot of supporting roles, and you have to take the revivals into consideration for those categories too, so that's what makes that typical.

[24:35] Richie Grasso: Yeah, you know, it will see. The list will come out, and we are going to be like, "Wow," or we're going to be like, "Wow, snubbed." So it will be very interesting to see what kind of happens there.

[24:44] Jeff Malone: I think, and where kind of do you see overall this show fitting totally in this season? Where are we kind of putting this in the ring?

[24:51] Richie Grasso: Oh, it's one of my favorite things in the season. It's one of the better things. It's one of my favorite things. It is sitting at the top. If I do my recap at the end of this season, like one of my favorite—this is it. I said to you, I think it's closing at the end of the summer sometime, but I really need to go back and see it a second time.

[25:06] Jeff Malone: I was going to say, I feel like this is like every season we have maybe one, two, or three shows that we want to see multiple times. I would 1000% go and sit in this audience again and say, "Yeah, I'm going to watch this." Totally. It was such a great show with great heart that I think we need at this time.

[25:19] Richie Grasso: And like, you know, kind of lending back to what you were saying earlier about where do we see this going next? I totally think that this could tour. I do think that this show, though, is slightly more niche and works better on Broadway than a tour because I wonder, is this show more for the diehard theater fans or is it for everyone?

[25:35] Jeff Malone: I think it's definitely for both. I mean, Apple TV got tons of people watching it who maybe only know a couple of those shows or kind of reminisce a little bit. I don't even think you need to know every single Golden Age musical to really understand the humor of this because I think the two lead characters bring you into this, like, "We're in a musical. How do we get out of here?" That's the relation that the average Joe audience member feels to that.

[26:07] Richie Grasso: Oh, okay, wait, I'm with them. I'm going to kind of stick with them this whole show because I don't really get what's going on here, but they are lost too, so I'm going to jump on that lost bandwagon. Right? And that's what I think works so well.

[26:19] Jeff Malone: Someone is up there in the show, especially Alex Brightman's character, who is just not getting this, as many people might be dragged to the theater and be like, "Okay, oh gosh, Golden Age musical theater, like why?" And they're just sitting there like, "Okay, I get that guy. That's kind of funny. I get that." And I think that's what works right in so many ways.

[26:40] Richie Grasso: Yeah, I agree with that as well. You know, it's funny when you think about it in that way where you're saying, "Oh yeah, no, this is kind of for both." It's for people that will get all the jokes and laugh, but it's also for the ones that say, "Oh wait, this is why you all like musical theater." And then when Alex Brightman's character sings at the end, you're like, "Oh yeah." You feel that. You're like, "Okay." And it just worked. It just worked.

[27:02] Jeff Malone: Yeah, I think it's a great launching point when you really think about it. I think this can start a tour. This will do very well in the regional world. This could definitely do well in the high school world.

[27:12] Richie Grasso: Oh yeah, it's like I think to put it on Broadway was smart to keep this show alive. And I also wonder if this would ignite a fire in a different way to continue on this show with additional seasons or whatever. Like, does someone say, "Hey, you know, the show had such a great moment off-Broadway, like hey, let's pick the show back up now?" You know, it'll be interesting to see.

[27:35] Jeff Malone: It'll be interesting to see for sure.

[27:39] Richie Grasso: So good stuff. Oh my gosh, we've spent out of time. It's time for our half-minute segment. We're going to ask each other for 30 seconds to talk. If they could say anything to the cast and creative team of the show, what would they say? So I'm going to ask you first.

[27:54] Jeff Malone: Okay, all right. For 30 seconds, for a half-minute, if you could say anything to the creative team about or cast about "Schmigadoon," what would you say? Three, two, one, go.

[28:05] Richie Grasso: I really don't have any notes, so I'm just going to do some praise here. I really love this show. I loved this show on Apple TV. I love that we got a full thought-out stage production of this and combining and staying true to what the show was. I think there are many times that we have now seen TV coming to Broadway that did not stay true to what the fans actually wanted, and I think that this is giving the fans what they want.

[28:35] Jeff Malone: There we go. Amazing 30 seconds. So Richie, if you had 30 seconds alone with the creative team, what note or compliment would you give them? Go.

[28:46] Richie Grasso: I would say "Schmigadoon" is one of my favorite things. I laugh, I smile, I tear up. It gives me all the feels. I think this creative team did their homework. As I said earlier, I don't think this makes fun of per se as much as pokes fun with and kind of takes us on this journey of like we can have this silly, fun, awesome night and kind of poke fun at the silly things of Golden Age, but also keep the heart. They kept the heart of this. They kept it rooted. They kept it in a real awesome, great feel place. I am blown away by every element of this show, and I thought it was fantastic.

[29:22] Jeff Malone: Great. Well, what are your final thoughts on "Schmigadoon," the Broadway musical at the Nederlander Theatre?

[29:30] Richie Grasso: My final thoughts are I didn't like the show at all.

[29:34] Jeff Malone: Oh yeah, right. No, my final thoughts are like this is the show to see before it closes. It's a limited run for now, so keep it alive and go check it out. I mean, it's definitely going to be something that I think we're going to see highly nominated in the Tony season this year.

[29:51] Richie Grasso: And check it out. I not to get heavy, but I'll end with this. "Schmigadoon," if you really listen to some of these lyrics, especially the end song, this is how we change. I think the message here is that we can change, and that's okay. And I think the people of that town learn that. I think we learn that Golden Age musical theater changed, and that's okay. The people that went to this town had to change. Everyone changed with the help of themselves and others, and that's okay.

[30:23] Jeff Malone: I teared up at the end feeling that for them. Some people won't change, but it's okay to. I think she says that to Anna Gasteyer's character at the end. She says it's okay. She's broken, and she says this is okay, and we're here because we're all going through change.

[30:43] Richie Grasso: And that's when I just started tearing up. I'm like, "This is brilliant," because this show didn't have to end with this message. It couldn't just end like, "Okay, we leave the town." It ended with a message of heart and strength and coming together as a community and a group of people and helping each other through difficult things and good things and the change.

[31:06] Jeff Malone: Yeah, and I think that as much as I could probably live in the Golden Age musical theater world forever, I'm okay with a lot of the change that we make in Broadway, but I like returning to this too.

[31:20] Richie Grasso: And I think that it's ironic that last—last thing I'll say, I think it's ironic that for a show about people who can't leave a town, I truly didn't want to leave my seat.

[31:30] Jeff Malone: Yeah.

[31:31] Richie Grasso: And I could have sat for another two and a half hours and watched more, and I don't say that about every show. I could have just sat there for five hours and just kept going with it, and that means that it really affected me, and it sits with me, and I was blown away.

[31:47] Jeff Malone: Wow, look at him getting all sentimental about "Schmigadoon."

[31:51] Richie Grasso: But it really hit home, and it sat in this rooted, beautiful place for me, and it was beautiful. I walked right up to that orchestra pit, and I watched that orchestra play every single note of the exit music to the last note because they're working really, really, really hard down there too, and that orchestra is amazing. I just had to sit and live in that world for just another 20 seconds, and I loved it.

[32:20] Jeff Malone: Yes, so okay, there we go. So that does wrap up our discussion of the episode. We hope you enjoyed our deep dive into "Schmigadoon." And remember, we want to hear from you. Continue the conversation with us on Instagram and TikTok at Half Hour Podcast, and drop us a comment on Spotify and let us know your thoughts on "Schmigadoon." Please also leave us a review. Your reviews mean so much to us. Remember to subscribe to our channel for all past and future episodes. Until next time, I'm Jeff.

[33:00] Richie Grasso: And I'm Richie saying ta-ta for now and go get some corn pudding, y'all.

[33:05] Jeff Malone: Corn pudding. Bye.