There are parts of “Schmigadoon!” Season 2 that have the vibe of a summer camp reunion, where old friends come together to put on a show. After being a key part of the Apple TV+ show’s opening season, Dove Cameron returned to the second season’s ensemble to play Jenny Banks, a freewheeling spirit cut partly from the mold of “Cabaret” heroine Sally Bowles.
Though he wasn’t in the first batch of episodes, Tituss Burgess fit seamlessly into this world of winking, lovingly told musical theater riffs. As the Season 2’s Narrator, he welcomes viewers into most episodes set inside the town of Schmicago, a land brimming with references to the enduring stage shows of the 1970s.
In a conversation for IndieWire’s Awards Spotlight, Cameron and Burgess spoke about the chances each of them had to move around inside this hyper-specific stylized tonal playground, overseen by showrunner and series co-creator Cinco Paul.
“If there is time, Cinco will always let you do a ‘fuck-it’ pass,” Cameron said. “If you’ve done everything, that’s always my favorite thing. I’m like, ‘Fuck-it pass?’ where you just do whatever your vision is for the scene. And so often the performers on this show are so dreamers themselves that they come up with some weird other thing that makes it in.”
For as much freedom as the pair had, they each credited Paul and the series’ writing staff for giving them enough in the text to act as a constant guide.
“He creates an atmosphere that is playful. This man, rarely do you find a showrunner who does not operate out of ego. Working with him, working with them, and everyone on this show is probably the most creatively satisfying, collaborative experience I’ve had on camera to date,” Burgess said. “He sets the tone and allows us to go in and fuck it up, and then we see what is left in the debris, because a lot of good stuff is on the ground.”
Having that firm foundation is even more important when filming a musical TV show. Production demands are wholly different from the flow of the stage, where part of the process is discovering things through repetition and getting a show on its feet over the course of weeks of rehearsing. Here, all of those individual components got compressed to a fraction of the time.
“These numbers are musical-theater-stage scale, with no rehearsal time,” Cameron said. “Normally you would have months and months of prep to feel the rhythm of the number. You don’t get that on a show like this. And so it really is just about staying on the balls of your feet and doing the work at home and then crossing every limb that you pull it off.”
A huge part of finding that same kind of daily spontaneity of theater was getting to sing on set. Sometimes, certain logistical sequences required actors to work with some pre-recorded tracks, but some scenes wouldn’t have captured the same spark unless the people on screen had the chance to sing to each other (or the audience).
“We always want to sing live because that’s what we do. That’s our jam. So for me, that’s not a problem,” Burgess said.
“You don’t know what the character is when you’re recording at the jump. And if I got stuck with the character choices I made in the booth two months before I shot a number I’d be so upset with myself,” Cameron said. “Especially for the more intimate numbers like mine and Aaron [Tveit]’s number, you just have to harmonize in person. You just have to harmonize and be in love and be kissing and all that while you’re singing. Otherwise it feels stale.”
For more of the conversation between Dove Cameron and Tituss Burgess, see the whole video embedded above.
