Dove Cameron Admits Liza Minnelli Comparisons Were 'Daunting' for Schmigadoon Season 2 (Exclusive)

Cameron and her costar Aaron Tveit react to their Cabaret and Hair-inspired looks, the pressures that come with their costumes and thoughts about Season 3.

“Schmigadoon” jumps into the dark and dazzling world of ’60s and ’70s musicals for its second season — meaning major makeovers for its stars, including Dove Cameron and Aaron Tveit.

The AppleTV+ series paid hilarious homage to ’30s, ’40s and ’50s musicals like “Oklahoma!”, “Carousel” and “The Music Man” on Its first season, during which stars Cecily Strong and Keegan-Michael Key found themselves trapped in a world filled with characters, tropes and musical numbers inspired by the aforementioned shows.

For Season 2, things get a little more twisted as the couple winds up in “Schmicago,” another musical-filled land with a seedier vibe thanks to influences from “Cabaret,” “Sweeney Todd,” “Hair” and, of course, “Chicago.” For Dove, that meant getting into Sally Bowles-drag for a showgirl role reminiscent of Liza Minnelli, while Tveit goes full-hippie in bellbottoms, fringe vests and a very unruly wig.

“Both of us, in particular, look quite different,” Tveit told TooFab during a joint interview with Cameron. “I thought you [Dove] looked like the vision of Sally Bowles from everyone’s dream. I mean, you looked so amazing. Dove looked so incredible. And that haircut, that wig is so fetching on you!”

“I thought very different things about Aaron when I saw him in his wig. I actually, for a second, I  thought they were joking,” added Cameron. “I saw the wig for him and I was like, ‘Whose is that?’ and they’re like ‘That’s Aaron’s and I’m like ‘Shut up!'”

“But listen, there’s not much you can do to this kid to make him not adorable and gorgeous and all the things,” she continued, also expressing that she was pretty jealous of his laid-back, “contemporary” and “so comfortable” look while she was “f—ing freezing” in her costume.

As Tveit mentioned, Dove really is giving fans the Sally Bowles experience this season — so we wondered just how daunting it was to take on a role that will automatically draw comparisons to the one and only Liza Minnelli, even if she’s not specifically playing the “Cabaret” character on the show.

“Very daunting. I will be so transparent and say that I am in no way trying to actually emulate Liza because I think that Liza is not only an iconic performer, but her in that role was transformative for me, for so many people, that musical is so important for so many reasons,” said Cameron. “The world that we’re inhabiting in ‘Schmigadoon’ is paying homage, and also it’s like a camp-ified version.”

“So I knew if I was sitting at home every night trying to be Liza, I was going to be crying myself to sleep. It’s impossible! She’s an icon, you know?” she continued. “And the world that we’re inhabiting here is our love letter to these shows, it’s by no means actually attempting to recreate or build upon these characters. And it’s a blend of a few different characters as well. There’s a little bit of Velma Kelly and all of these things. So I relieved myself of these pressures early on.”

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The two said they felt confident they’d be able to top the show’s first season, thanks to the passion of creators Cinco Paul and Ken Daurio, as well as the music from Paul and Christopher Willis. As Tveit said the “people that are really in charge know what they’re doing and we were just on the ride,” Cameron added they always feel like they’re in a safe place to really “experiment and play and have fun.”

Should that fun continue into a third season, it would likely again skip ahead a couple decades and possibly pay homage to musicals from the ’80s and ’90s — some of which, like “Les Miserables,” “Rent” and “Mamma Mia,” the pair have actually appeared in either on stage or film.

“I’m very interested to see where this could possibly go. There’s something very meta if there were to be anything in ‘Les Miserables,’ I wonder, because I was in the film,” said Tveit, who played Enjolras in the 2012 adaptation. “If I would be able to do something that would nod at that … I think that could be a very funny reference.”

“I do wonder though, as we get later on, and go into more musicals, there’s people in our cast that have been in these shows,” he added. “So you could actually double and triple down at some of the references too, so I’d be interested in how they could do that.”

Cameron added that since the show is also a more “comedic portrayal of these characters,” it gives actors a chance to put a twist on some of the more morose moments.

“You’re never fully committing to the tragedy of a lot of these musical backgrounds,” she said. “So a lot of the musicals that came directly after are so steeped in tragedy that it’s gonna be interesting to see what they do because I actually, I don’t know.”

For now, fans can enjoy the show’s second season when the first two episodes drop March 5 on AppleTV+, with new episodes every Wednesday.

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