I have one question about Something Rotten, a Broadway show that just celebrated its one year anniversary. What took me so long?????
The play celebrates everything I love more than life – Shakespeare, musicals, dancing, comedy and a superb cast that includes two of my favorite Broadway/screen actors, Brian d’Arcy James and Christian Borle. James is leaving in a few weeks, and I feel grateful to have seen him play Nick Bottom, Shakespeare’s nemesis who vows to keep up with this arch rival. He’s one of my favorite actors and he plays the role with grace….and so much humor. Between the two of them, it’s easy to see that they clearly loved this play as they both act and sing their hearts out. Ater all, James dropped out of Hamilton last spring after having helped bring it to the Public where I actually saw him play King George).
Something Rotten: The Birth of a Musical
Set during the Renaissance, the play, directed and choreographed by Casey Nicholaw, follows two brothers, Nick and Nigel Bottom, two struggling but brilliant playwrights in London who can’t seem to catch a break with Shakespeare as their competition. So Nick hires a muse, played by Brad Oscar, to help figure out the next best thing in theater. And that’s when the real fun begins as they start to conceptualize the first musical called..what else? Omelet. Meanwhile, Shakespeare, an arrogant local, goes incognito to the rehearsals for the show and stumbles into Nigel’s script that gets rejected by his brother. All I can say is plagiarism….Hamlet!
Yes, it is implied that Shakespeare was a cheater, and it does make you wonder. But the play is so much more than this accusation. It’s full of Broadway references to all our favorite musicals – from Fiddler to West Side Story to A Chorus Line to Les Mis. There are snappy one liners, sexual innuendos and lovely sonnet readings.
I took my tween (or teen? She’s 13.) We both had big smiles on our faces throughout the show but it was me with the bigger grin. I’ll be downloading the soundtrack this weekend, and introducing her to the musicals she didn’t recognize during the course of the play.
Can’t get tix to Hamilton? Head to Something Rotten, that’s my best advice.
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