Just last week, the New York Times published a piece headlined “The Broadway Musical Is in Trouble.” As it explained, out of 18 commercial musicals that opened on Broadway last year, the number that are currently in the black is zero. Even Andrew Lloyd Webber weighed in to say “Broadway is not a business anymore.”
And yet! What if a clever yet underwatched TV show packed with in-jokes about the history of musical theater were to, itself, head to Broadway? If you were a fan of “Schmigadoon!”, your moment is nigh: the Cecily Strong/Keegan-Michael Key musical sitcom heads to Broadway for a limited run from April 4 through Sept. 6 at the Nederlander Theatre.
The series, which ran for two seasons on Apple TV+ from 2021-2023, featured a pair of New Yorkers, played by Strong and Key, who go on a hiking trip to save their troubled relationship, only to get stranded in the mythical town of Schmigadoon.
There, they discover townspeople, who are themselves played by musical theater ringers including Alan Cumming, Kristin Chenoweth, Tituss Burgess, Jane Krakowski, and Aaron Tveit, who seem to be living in a musical. The townspeople regularly break into song and dance numbers, and behave generally as though they’re only a meaningful song away from their lives changing.
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The show abounded in references to famous moments in musicals, from “Sweeney Todd” to “Oklahoma!” to the titular nod to “Brigadoon.” It poked fun at the conventions of the genre while always demonstrating a bone-deep love and knowledge of them.
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The stage version of the show previously had a run at the Kennedy Center, and is executive produced by “Saturday Night Live” maestro Lorne Michaels, who also had a hand in the show. There’s no cast announced yet, though it’s unlikely that the previous list of theater luminaries would be available together again. One of the benefits of television over live theater? You don’t have to book all your performers at the exact same time.
Lisa Weidenfeld can be reached at lisa.weidenfeld@globe.com. Follow her on X @LisaWeidenfeld and Instagram @lisaweidenfeld.