Schmigadoon: Jane Krakowski Razzle-Dazzles Like Never Before

Jane Krakowski made her Broadway debut at 18 as Dinah in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s mega-musical Starlight Express. Since then, she has appeared in numerous Broadway and West End musicals. She has won both a Tony and an Olivier award.

Krakowski got her start on television playing Elaine on Ally McBeal, but she is probably best known for her portrayal of Jenna Maroney on 30 Rock, which makes up four of her five Emmy nominations (the fifth being for her role as Jacqueline in The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt).

Krakowski returns to the small screen as Bobby Flanagan, the fast-talking, hot-shot lawyer of Schmicago in Schmigadoon! Season 2.

We caught up with her at a recent press day to find out how she tackled her show-stopping number “Bells and Whistles,” as well as her dream roles and hopes for the future.

This interview contains mild spoilers for Schmigadoon! Season 2 Episode 3. Go watch it!

How do you maintain this level of skill, artistry, and command of your craft for as long as you have been at it? How hard do you work at this?

Gosh, well, I love it so much, and because I love it so much, I care. Because I care, I want to try my hardest, and I feel very lucky that I have gotten to work with so many great people in this business.

I’ve been lucky to work with creators like David E. Kelley, Tina Fey, and now Cinco Paul, who have written me such amazing roles. I’ve had a very fortunate path in this business.

I love it more than anything, so I hope I continue to have a fortunate path as I get older and try to continue in the business.

Was “Bells and Whistles” as fun as it looked? Talk me through that. How many takes? How many days did it take to film?

We filmed it in one day. First of all, I was excited and ignited by the fact that we were doing the musicals of the ’60s and ’70s. These musicals greatly influenced me growing up. Some of the first shows I ever saw on Broadway.

I emulated the women that I saw in those shows so much. I was obsessed with Gwen Verdon and Chita Rivera in Chicago. I saw A Chorus Line nine times.

These were the roles, especially the women’s roles, that influenced me in musical theatre and my career.

I was thrilled that we were now going to the darker side. I didn’t know what to expect. I love the device that we all get to play different characters in Season 2, but I had no idea which characters Cinco would match us up with in those musicals.

So, when I first opened the script, I couldn’t believe it. My character lived on so many levels of musical theatre — being Billy Flynn, really encompassing all the characters of Chicago in Schmicago.

She was named Bobby, which was obviously a shoutout to the recent revival of Company, where they had a woman playing Bobbie.

I was so excited. When I saw Bells and Whistles, I was like, “Holy cow! I’m going to get to try to do as many special skills on my resume as I can!” (laughs) And they [said], “Whatever you can do, we’re going to try and film it in time.”

It was pretty special to me, and it was a great day of filming. It was one of those days where many of the cast were in the courtroom as their characters but then became the audience.

And I wanted to show everybody what we made in the rehearsal hall — just like [how] you feel when you’re doing a first preview of a Broadway show. It has that feeling, [except] we just filmed the first preview.

It was a magical day where I felt the cast and crew really pulled together to get as many of the shots as we could to [get] all the coverage we were hoping to get for this number. I felt very lucky to get a number like that this season.

You’re so well known for your comedic television roles, but you’ve had your share of musical numbers in them. This is on another level. How do you think the average television audience will respond to seeing you do this?

I have no idea. I don’t [always] know what people know me from.

After doing Ally McBeal for a bunch of years, which was obviously the first thing that introduced me to a much larger audience, I went to New York and did the Broadway musical Nine.

So many people came because of Ally McBeal and didn’t know, and outside at the stage door, they’d [say], “Oh, we had no idea you did this!”

On television, I’ve been able to sing a lot, oddly, in many of the shows I’ve been on, but they’ve always been within the guise of the character and their ability of what I think the character would sing as or where the comedic value was.

I feel like I’ve been around so long that people know I do this. (laughs) If we entertain a few people for the first time, that would be wonderful.

I’m still [just] thankful I’m still getting the opportunity to fly in on a trapeze and do as many tricks as I can.

You’ve played so many iconic stage roles — Miss Adelaide, Fanny Brice, and your Tony-winning role, Carla, in Nine. Do you have any dream roles that you haven’t yet played that you’d still like to try your hand at?

There are so many! I feel a slight twinge in my soul for the ones that I might have missed because they didn’t get revived in the time that I would be age-appropriate for them.

I’d love to be Dot in Sunday In The Park With George. I would have loved to have been Sally Bowles, Roxie in Chicago.

There are so many that either missed me, I didn’t get there in time, or I was doing something else. I would love to do Mrs. Lovett in Sweeney Todd. There are so many. There are so many great female musical theatre roles.

I hope now to grow into Mama Rose and whichever ones still come my way, moving forward.

I have a dream list. I don’t know if it’s a realistic dream list, but, you know, a girl has to dream, and if you’re a musical theatre lover like I am, those are all the ones you want to play.

I think what’s special about a show like [Schmigadoon!] is that I’m still getting to play some of them, thanks to Cinco’s imagination, even if I missed them when they came around to the theatre during the time when I could have been in them.

New episodes of Schmigadoon! are available for streaming on AppleTV+ on Wednesdays.

This interview has been edited for length/clarity.

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