Original Broadway Cast, 2026 (Joy Machine Records) (3.5 / 5) Schmigadoon! began as a television series that lovingly spoofed the Broadway musicals of the 1940s and ‘50s, and the same tongue-in-cheek tone is firmly present for the stage musical adaptation and its cast album. All of the dated tropes, flaws, and oddities of classics such as Oklahoma!, Brigadoon, and The Sound of Music are delightfully lampooned here, with a game cast led by Sara Chase and Alex Brightman. They play a relationship-troubled New York couple, Melissa Gimble and Josh Skinner, who stumble into the mystical town of Schmigadoon, which they cannot leave until they find true love. The place is filled with townspeople who are constantly breaking into songs that recall classic Broadway showtunes. As for the characters: Max Clayton’s Danny Bailey brings to mind Carousel’s Billy Bigelow, Isabelle McCalla’s Emma Tate evokes Marian Paroo from The Music Man, and McKenzie Kurtz’s Betsy McDonough exhibits the playful sexuality of Ado Annie from Oklahoma! Brad Oscar and Ann Harada are reliably funny as Mayor Menlove and wife Florence, while Ana Gasteyer gets a fun villain turn as Mildred Layton, ginning up the townspeople with the song “Tribulation” (a brilliant satirical highlight of the album). If the material is not always laugh-out-loud funny, it’s consistently clever and well constructed. Songs such as “You Can’t Tame Me” and “When the Night is Darkest” demonstrate that composer-lyricist Cinco Paul has truly captured the Rodgers and Hammerstein-style while still making room for the show’s contemporary sensibility. The orchestra is lively throughout, making the most of the entr’acte and the exit music. The television show’s co-creator, Paul, receives sole credit for the book, music, and lyrics of the stage version, though given how closely it follows the TV series’ premise and style, the adaptation feels inseparable from the collaborative world and the authors that first brought the property to life. Four major Tony Award wins, including Best Musical, Best Book of a Musical, and Best Original Score, confirm just how effectively Schmigadoon! turns affectionate parody into strong musical-theater craft. Overall, the cast album is an enjoyable tribute to the musicals of the Golden Age, and a wonderful benefit of this show (and the recording) is that it may well send listeners back to the classics it so fondly evokes. — Forrest Hutchinson