Actor Keegan-Michael Key was 8 years old when he saw his first musical. It was “Godspell,” and he was hooked. “I was in the third grade. I thought it was the most magical thing. I thought, ‘Oh, wow, I want to do something like that!’ I wanted to be in a musical so bad after I saw the kids up there were having so much fun. I just remember being absolutely intoxicated by it.”
Little did he know that nine years later he would instigate his love for musicals by playing in the high school production of “Godspell.” And on April 5 he’s back to that dream starring in the second season of “Schmigadoon!” via Apple TV+, a send-up of all the classic musicals of the past. This season the show concentrates on the darker versions of musical theater with parodies of shows like “Cabaret,” “Chicago,” “Sweeney Todd.”
In a way, that initial glance of “Godspell” sealed his fate. Key, 52, admits that he first culled notice as the class clown and his humor often plunged him into trouble. “It was probably from imitating the teacher,” he says on a cold rainy afternoon here.
