Like an old Hollywood comedy duo, Kristin Chenoweth and Alan Cumming just get each other. Their chemistry is undeniable and they feed off each other instinctually. And they make each other laugh. 

That comes in very handy in their latest television roles, playing opposite each other in Apple TV+'s musical comedy series Schmigadoon!, which lovingly spoofs musical theatre (sometimes, in particular, the film versions of popular musicals). The first season concentrated on the musicals of the Golden Age, and the current second season, dubbed Schmicago, takes aim at the musicals of the mid-'60s and '70s. Cumming plays Dooley Blight, a vengeance-seeking butcher patterned after Sweeney Todd, and Chenoweth plays his love interest, the orphanage matron Miss Codwell, a mix of Sweeney Todd's Mrs. Lovett and Annie's Miss Hannigan. 

"We're both hard workers, we both, technically, know our stuff. But also we don't over-think things and we really rely on instinct and being in the moment. We just really click and connect. And also we both make each other laugh a lot," says Cumming. "We kind of push each other to turn the volume up. We are kindred spirits in terms of the sort of joy that we bring to things in our work. And so it really works when we're together."

Chenoweth whole-heartedly agrees: "Yeah. We meet right together. I know we're on the same page, and we don't even have to talk about it. It's weird."

The two first worked together in the 1999 The Wonderful World of Disney film Annie. He was Miss Hannigan's con man brother Rooster and she played Rooster's girlfriend Lily. A friendship was formed on that first trip down "Easy Street." Since then, Cumming and Chenoweth have partnered several times in various concerts and benefits, co-hosted the 2015 Tony Awards ceremony, and appeared together in the animated film Strange Magic.

Their characters were more at odds with each other in the first season of Schmigadoon! when Cumming played the sweet town mayor newly discovering his sexuality and Chenoweth was a fierce opponent, both of his new lifestyle and his mayorship. That opposition provided just as many funny moments in the first season as their blossoming love affair does in the second. And transitioning to their new characters for the second season has been fun for both of them. 

"I loved last season," enthuses Cumming. "Having just come out of the pandemic to play a character that was just so unremittingly sweet and nice and lovely was the perfect thing. And I actually was really glad this season to have a bit more grit and to be a bit more mean and weird and complex."

Adds Chenoweth: "I had a lot of fun Season One, playing a buttoned-up Bible thumping, judgmental hater. So, this season to go from that to the person who comes up with the idea to kill the orphans to make them as meat patties and sell them was quite a jump."

Oh yeah. Spoiler alert. Dooley and Codwell team up to turn her orphans into sausages* for his butcher shop (more on that later). See that Sweeney-Annie parody at work in the video below where the two perform the song "Good Enough to Eat."

A quick glance at social media (or at the Playbill edit team desk) will reveal many theatre fans have found themselves wondering why a Cumming-Chenoweth Sweeney Todd hasn't ever happened. But it's definitely occurred to the two Tony winners. 

"We have thought about it, but not in the way that you'd think," divulges Cumming. "We were going to do a concert version and then the dates didn't work out. But it would be Kristin playing Sweeney Todd and me playing Mrs. Lovett."

"There might still be a world..." Chenoweth teases. (Yes, please. Give it to us.)

Until we get that gender-flipped Sweeney, we can be more than satisfied with Chenoweth and Cumming's Schmicago versions. Like Sweeney Todd, Cumming sports a blood-stained apron as Dooley Blight. But he swears the two circular red marks on the chest area of his shirt are completely unintentional and not meant to reference his bare nipples from his Tony-winning turn as the Emcee in Cabaret. In the viewer-hunt for Easter eggs, even choreographer Christopher Gattelli called Cumming to ask him about that one. "I had blood on my hands and I wiped them on my shirt and that's what happened," explains Cumming. "It was a happy accident."

For her part, Chenoweth got a kick out of the opportunity to "let herself go" in playing Miss Codwell. "It was fun not to have to worry about my waistline and my nails and my hair and shaving," she says.

Cumming agrees: "I love it when you go into makeup and you come out looking worse than you did when you went in."

Though it's a parody, their Episode 2 song "The Worst Brats in Town," written by the show's co-creator Cinco Paul, is still serving Sondheim. It definitely has Chenoweth's seal of approval: "When I first heard Cinco say that, I thought, 'Oh no. You're gonna attempt Sondheim?' But he did it. He did it. And it was tricky as hell...all those same intervals that trick us up in all of [Sondheim's] work were right there. But then, to also get to do it with a partner. It was like icing on the cake."

Reflecting on their long partnership and friendship, Chenoweth laughs a bit, saying that on paper it might seem funny that she and Cumming are such good friends. She points out that he's a vegan and she "likes her meat!" She makes him giggle telling of the time he took her to a vegan restaurant where she ordered "a quote/unquote hamburger." 

Cumming finishes the story, laughing that dessert was the only thing she didn't like. Then they laugh at the irony of a vegan playing a butcher, with his piles of (prop) meat. The two admit they could hardly even get through their first date scene because she laughed every time he pulled out his cleaver. 

Just before the call cuts off, Chenoweth blurts out, "I would have eaten the sausages*! There. I said it." Cumming chuckles. Some people just get each other. 

Both seasons of Schmigadoon! are available to stream on Apple TV+. The series finale of Season 2 drops May 3. Catch up on Playbill's recaps here.