Like many of the city’s saloons, Marie’s Crisis, the tatty but venerable West Village piano bar, was closed during the pandemic. A cramped subterranean dive where people bray aerosolized show tunes at one another, it could have been a superspreader ground zero. On a recent evening, the actress Cecily Strong walked into the bar for the first time in ages. Although she has sung often in her nine seasons as a cast member of “Saturday Night Live” (most recently while playing the Fox News personality Judge Jeanine Pirro, drunkenly belting “My Way”), and she stars in a new Apple TV+ series that sends up mid-century musical theatre, she seemed shy about singing.
In the new show, called “Schmigadoon!,” Strong plays one half of a couple (opposite Keegan-Michael Key) who go hiking and stumble into a magical town in which the residents randomly break into song. Whether this is a nightmare scenario or a dream ballet depends on your tolerance for Rodgers and Hammerstein. A self-professed “theatre dork,” Strong was all in. Along the way, she memorized every other character’s lines, just for kicks. “When I watch now, I sing all of Kristin Chenoweth’s songs along with her,” she said.
Strong looked relieved to be back at Marie’s, underneath the colorful twinkle lights. Patrons had to show proof of vaccination so that they could huddle around the piano mask-free (it’s more fun to sing “The Phantom of the Opera” when you’re not dressing the part). Strong slid into a corner booth with her fellow “S.N.L.” cast member Heidi Gardner. It was Gardner’s first time, and her eyes widened as a pile of men in short shorts burst into a number from the obscure Off Broadway musical “A New Brain.”
“This feels like a great place to take someone to show off that I live in New York,” Gardner said. “Or you could bring the real wrong person and they would, uh . . . ” She made a cringe face.
“I think it’s a good place!” Strong said. “My uncle is a producer, so I got to see a lot of shows growing up.” At the end of the song, a tanned man in a flowery pink shirt and a sailor cap shouted toward the booth, “What should we do next?”
“Pippin!” Gardner yelled.
“Ooh, yes!” Strong said. “I was in jazz choir in eighth grade and we sang ‘Magic to Do.’ We wore turquoise bow ties and gloves.”
“I was in the orchestra pit for ‘Pippin’ my freshman year,” Gardner said. “I played flute. But I only did it because I had a crush on a guy.”
“I always wanted to play Liat, the mute one in ‘South Pacific,’ ” Strong said.
“Didn’t you write a sketch about the men in ‘South Pacific’?” Gardner asked.
“I wanted to!” Strong said. “Because when they sing ‘There is nothin’ like a dame,’ it’s, like, the gayest thing ever. Those little outfits. One of them, Stewpot, I think his name is, wears a crop top!”
She looked over at Gardner’s outfit, a frilly Batsheva blouse that would fit right in at an “Oklahoma!” box social. “I’ll do my nails, but she’s a real fashionista,” Strong said of Gardner. She wiggled her fingers, showing off her nails, painted in rainbow hues in honor of Pride. “I bought a manicure table during the pandemic,” she said. “And I have a wig drawer and heels in every size. I’m always putting people in drag.”
The gaggle around the piano broke into “There Is Nothin’ Like a Dame.” Sailor Hat winked. Strong laughed, but she didn’t join in. The conversation had turned to body glitter. Gardner had some smeared on her cheeks, in a shade called Adult Film. Strong had picked up the habit from her. “I just went to Palm Springs and did mushrooms with friends,” Strong said. “And I was, like, ‘You guys, I brought glitter!’ ”
The pianist plunked out a few bars from “Rent,” and Gardner groaned. “I’m more of a cynic, but my husband loves ‘Rent,’ ” she said. “For Valentine’s Day, I got him a ‘Rent’ walking tour. All it was was a man pulling up photos from the movie on his phone and going, like, ‘In the movie, they go to Life Café.’ And then he took us to a thrift store and it was, like, ‘Angel wore a coat you could probably find in a thrift store.’ ”
Strong suddenly found herself swept up in the music. She tilted her head back, closed her eyes, and began to sing: “No other path! No other way!” she belted. “No day but today!” ♦
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Cecily Strong’s Theatre-Geek Love - The New Yorker
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