Jane Krakowski's Schmigadoon! Encore Required a Stint in Trapeze School

After having limited involvement in Schmigadoon! Season 1, Jane Krakowski returns in Season 2 and delivers all the bells and whistles you’d expect from the Tony Award-winning performer.

Her big showcase comes in Episode 3, when Keegan-Michael Key’s Josh Skinner goes on trial for a murder he did not commit. The judge thinks he’s guilty, the jury thinks he’s guilty, and the front page of the Schmicago Tribune infers he’s guilty. Suffice it to say, it doesn’t look like Josh is going to get a fair trial. But all that changes when his attorney Billy Flynn Bobby Flanagan enters the courtroom via trapeze (!) and pleads his case in an elaborate song-and-dance number called — you guessed it! — “Bells and Whistles.” And within a couple of minutes, the jury is convinced that a not guilty verdict is the only just solution.

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The performance required extensive rehearsal time — something Krakowski didn’t have when Season 1 of Apple TV+’s musical satire shot at the height of COVID. “Last time, we rehearsed on two metal chairs, and the first time I did [“I Always, Always, Never Get My Man“] in the car was when we were filming,” she tells TVLine. “It was a very different experience this year. We actually got to do one of my favorite things, which was be in a dance rehearsal room with mirrors, and learn [choreographer] Chris [Gattelli]’s brilliant ideas for what he wanted.

“Because my number is called ‘Bells and Whistles,’ I was sort of asked to put in all the bells and whistles, and all my special skills,” she continues. “So, we honed some of the old ones, and I got to learn some new ones I had never done before.” That included the art of trapeze, which required the 30 Rock vet to attend trapeze school.

“I think I got, like, maybe four sessions with a trapeze teacher,” she recalls. “Coincidentally, there was a trapeze school less than a mile from where we were filming. It was always [series co-creator] Cinco [Paul]’s idea that she would enter on a trapeze, and then I asked if I could learn some [more] and do a few more tricks. So, he let me!”

In addition to the complex choreography, Krakowski was tickled by just how many musical theater callbacks Paul and Gattelli managed to work into the scene. “Chris and I wanted to put as many steps that are known from Chicago, or recognizable from Chicago, in it,” she reveals. “There’s [also] a little bit of ‘Dance: Ten, Looks: Three’ [from A Chorus Line] in there. There’s even mocking references to my own career with roller skating from Starlight Express. We tried to throw it all in there” — and that they did. The end result speaks for itself.

What did you think of Krakowski’s showcase in Schmigadoon! Season 2, Episode 3? Sound off in Comments.

Launch Gallery: <i>Schmigadoon!</i> Team Previews 4 Major Changes in Season 2 — Plus, Your Guide to Who's Who in Schmicago!

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