Schmigadoon star Dove Cameron calls for more ‘overt queerness’ in musicals
Dove Cameron is demanding more queer visibility in the musical theatre space. The actress and singer returns for the second season of Schmigadoon, Apple TV’s lauded comedy series that follows a bickering married couple (played by Keegan-Michael Key and Cecily Strong) as they stumble across a magical town that’s trapped in a Golden Age-style musical.
The sophomore season sees Schmigadoon transform into Schmicago as the series pays homage to darker, grittier and raunchier musical productions of the 60s and 70s including Chicago, Cabaret and Sweeney Todd.
Following her role in season one as waitress Betsy McDonough, based on Ado Annie from Rodgers and Hammerstein’s inaugural classic Oklahoma!, Cameron’s new character Jenny Banks takes inspiration from Liza Minelli’s iconic Cabaret character Sally Bowles.
With “how transformative Cabaret was at the time for queer visibility” in 1966, Cameron and her co-star Aaron Tveit tell GAY TIMES that they’re dissatisfied with the lack of progress for LGBTQ+ storylines and characters in the musical genre. “We were speaking about this yesterday, we need more queer visibility in musicals and more overtly, openly gay characters in our musicals.
