Something Rotten!
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Cititour.com Review
Nothing stinks in Something Rotten!, a delightfully irreverent mash-up of Broadway musicals and Shakespeare that should keep audiences laughing for years to come. From the buoyant opener, “Welcome to the Renaissance” (with lyrics like “Our mugs are made of pewter/Our houses are all Tudor”), authors Wayne Kirkpatrick, Karey Kirkpatrick and John O’Farrell dish out an intelligent array of silliness, placing contemporary humor in the Elizabethan era as they tell the historically inaccurate tale of the first musical.
Former Shrek Brian d’Arcy James stars as Nick Bottom, the hapless head of a 16th-century theatrical troupe that cannot compete with Shakespeare and the Globe. In need of an idea that can best the Bard, he visits a soothsayer with the unlikely name of Nostradamus (Brad Oscar), who predicts that musicals will be the next big theater trend (and, proving nobody’s perfect, that Shakespeare’s greatest hit will be a play called “Omelette”). With the help of his writer brother Nigel (John Cariani), Nick risks the future of his theater by staging a musical called “Omelette,” even though those around him fear it will lay an egg.
The Kirkpatrick brothers conceived the show and wrote the bouncy, catchy songs, while Karey coauthored the book with O’Farrell. They have a grand time borrowing titles, characters and song and dance styles from the Broadway catalog for the numbers “A Musical” and “Make an Omelette.” Les Miserables, A Chorus Line and Dreamgirls are just some of the shows that come into play. But for me the highlight was Christian Borle’s Shakespeare, depicted as a Renaissance-era rock star who sings verses like “Now is the winter of our discontent” for an adoring crowd, and later laments the pressure that comes with fame and success in a song called “Hard to Be the Bard.”
"Bardy" humor abounds. Nick and the members of his troupe are named after the Rude Mechanicals in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the two female characters cross-dress, and Shylock even shows up hoping to sponsor Nick’s company. The love stories — between Nick and his wife Bea (Heidi Blickenstaff), and between Nigel and Portia (Kate Reinders), the daughter of a disapproving Puritan — are slight. But director-choreographer Casey Nicholaw, whose other Broadway credits include Aladdin and The Book of Mormon, compensates. He’s an expert at staging broad comedy without letting his cast resort to hamminess, and that’s the main skill required for Something Rotten!
Even the smaller roles are exquisitely cast with Broadway veterans. With his fluttery delivery, Peter Bartlett as Nick’s patron Lord Clapham is a hoot, as are Brooks Ashmanskas as a theater-hating Puritan and Gerry Vichi as Shylock. But it’s the writers, all making their Broadway debuts, who emerge as the biggest stars, imbuing Something Rotten! with smart-alecky glee. And it’s because they have such obvious respect for both Shakespeare and musicals that they’re able to celebrate them both so hilariously.
By Diane Snyder
Visit the Site
http://rottenbroadway.com
Cast
Christian Borle, Brian d'Arcy James, John Cariani, Heidi Blickenstaff, Brad Oscar, Kate Reinders, Brooks Ashmanskas, Peter Bartlett, Gerry Vichi, Michael James Scott
Open/Close Dates
Opening 4/22/2015
Closing 1/1/2017
Preview Open/ Preview Close Dates
Preview Opening 3/23/2015
Closing Open-ended
Box Office
212-239-6200
Theatre Info
St. James Theatre
246 West 44th Street
New York, NY 10036
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