Cast of the Something Rotten! National Tour. © Jeremy Daniel
Struggling Elizabethan playwright Nick Bottom (played by Rob McClure) fantasizes about one day being as popular as William Shakespeare.
Nick and Nigel Bottom (Rob McClure and Josh Grisetti) can’t seem to catch a break. Struggling playwrights in Elizabethan England, the two are about to mount a production of Richard II when they discover that the immensely popular William Shakespeare is staging a play on the same topic. The Bottom brothers’ patron, not wanting to compete against the superstar playwright, tells Nick and Nigel to find a new topic by tomorrow.
At a loss, Nick goes to a soothsayer and asks what will be the next hottest thing in theater. The soothsayer’s reply? Musicals. So the Bottom brothers set out to stage the Renaissance’s very first musical.
Irreverent and charming, the Tony Award–nominated Something Rotten! is a Broadway show with mass appeal that doesn’t pander. (OK, maybe it panders a bit with its large number of double-entendre jokes made by a Puritan preacher, but you’ll laugh nonetheless.) The show includes clever songs, show-stopping musical numbers (no, really—the show actually stopped due to thunderous applause), and is refreshingly unsentimental about Shakespeare. In an incredibly anachronistic portrait of the playwright, Shakespeare (played by the legendary Adam Pascal), struts around in gold jackets and is constantly turning to his toadying entourage for validation when he drops a bon mot. He complains about having to write in iambic pentameter and worries that he’ll never have another hit show.
With its wit and broad appeal, the show feels like Book of Moron or one of those Disney Broadway shows that can print its own money. It’s hardly surprising, since the book was written by Karey Kirkpatrick, a successful Disney writer, and bestselling author John O’ Farrell. Grammy Award–winning songwriter Wayne Kirkpatrick (Karey’s brother) composed the music.
The Fox’s production is not to be missed since McClure (Chaplin: The Musical), Grisetti (It Shoulda Been You) and Pascal (Rent, Aida, Cabaret) are all reprising their roles from the Broadway version of the show (and they’re all terrific).
Something Rotten! is a lot of things—a decent rumination on the pressures of creativity, a low-key call for women’s equality, and an incredibly anachronistic vision of Elizabethan England—but mostly it’s just a fun, unabashed homage to the musical. Even Shakespeare’s Eighteenth sonnet isn’t a more loving tribute.
Something Rotten! is at The Fox Theatre (527 N. Grand) through February 19. Show times are 7:30 p.m. Tue–Fri, 2 p.m. & 7:30 p.m. Sat, 1 p.m. & 6:30 p.m. Sun. There is a 1 p.m. show Thu, February 16 and no 6:30 p.m. show on Sunday, February 19. Tickets are $25 to $88. Visit Fox Theatre for more information or email foxtheatre.stl@gmail.com.
