Something Rotten: A Review
I have had the opportunity to work backstage on the production of Something Rotten, currently running at Quad City Music Guild in Moline, Illinois.
Directed by Steph DeLacy, with musical direction by John Whitson and some assistance from Justin Lebo, assistant directed by Sarah Lounsberry, also choreographed by Steph DeLacy, set design by Luke Vermeire, costumes designed by Aaron Westrum, lighting design by Robert Crist, sound design by Sean McGinn, props by Lisa Ferguson, Trinity Filut as Technical Assistant, Joe Miller as Stage Manager, and Deb Shippy as producer, Something Rotten is the story of two brothers, Nick and Nigel Bottoms, who are playwrights and actors in a theatre troupe they run in Cornwall, England in the 1590's. They are overshadowed by William Shakespeare.
The opening number is "Welcome to the Renaissance." Depending upon which night you see the show, you will either see DeVonte Westley or Tim Dominicus as the minstrel in the opening number. They both perform great!
Ben Holmes plays the role of Nick Bottoms. He learns from his benefactor, Lord Clapham (Andy Koski) that his competition, Shakespeare, is work on a history play about Richard II. It just so happens that Nick and Nigel were in the middle of doing a play about that very same subject. Did Shakespeare steal the idea? Or is it just an unfortunate coincidence? Either way, Nick can't go forward with his plans anymore. It'd be a similar situation to Tombstone and Wyatt Earp. Tombstone being Shakespeare's Richard II, and Wyatt Earp being Nick Bottom's Richard II, released in June of 1994 but on the same date as The Lion King. It would get lost.
Thus, Ben Holmes breaks into a song called "I Hate Shakespeare." All of the other actors in his company revere Shakespeare. So Nick is something of an outlier in that regard.
His long-suffering wife, Bea (Lauren VanSpeybroeck), wants to help provide for the family. But women aren't allowed to work in many jobs in the 1590's. Ostensibly, they are homemakers, wives, and mothers. And here and there I suspect there'd be a nurse, midwife, or apothecary. Bea suggests she take a job in the acting company. This is a terrific set up for a showdown between Nick, who observes the law of the land that women aren't allowed to act onstage in the late 16th Century, and Bea, who is plucky, determined, and hard-working. She'll take whatever job she can find.
Lauren's soaring vocals are on full display in Right Hand Man. I wish she would record an album. I'd love to stream, download, or purchase a hard copy of any music she records, and be able to listen to it whenever I want. But until then, I am happy to keep buying tickets to watch her sing, act, and dance in any show in which she's included in the cast.
Nick Bottoms gets so desperate for an idea that he winds up going to a soothsayer in the seedy part of town. He lands upon Thomas Nostradamus, nephew of the famous French philosopher. He retains, well, some of his uncle's abilities in telling the future. He's sort of a chip off the old block, but he hasn't honed his skills completely.
Thomas starts getting some random, vague, overly generalized visions of the future of theatre. Nothing at first seems particularly worth the half crown that Nick paid him. But it is a cogent moment on Thomas' part when he foreshadows the future success of musicals in the theatre. And this sets up my second-favorite song in the show, and my favorite production number.
Nick Bottoms is at first reluctant to take the advice of Thomas. But as we see in a musical number where background dancers materialize out of thin air, supposedly a figment of the imagination of both Nick Bottoms and Thomas Nostradomus, he slowly warms up to the idea of doing a musical.
I love watching Alex Ryser play the part. Ryser's acting chops period are always great, but his comedic chops are what I really pay to see. I love seeing him zip in and out of moods, tones, changing his posture, going from stillness to gesturing, and in general surprising us as theatergoers in every moment that he's onstage. Over the course of an astonishing eight or nine minute song and dance piece, Thomas goes through the history of modern musical theater, alluding to, referencing, and paying homage to a number of different famous musicals that have played on Broadway from the 1940's through to the present day. I don't want to spoil any of them. It's as zany and referential as my first time seeing Disney's Aladdin at the Super Savers Cinema as a lad of eleven in the summer of 1993. I wasn't going to get every reference right off the top. But I would be able to revisit it and pick up new things each time I saw it. That's part of the joy of having gotten to work backstage on Something Rotten. And thankfully, the audiences that we've had have been picking up on practically every joke, with rapid-fire waves of laughter that tamper down rapidly so that they don't drown out the next joke. That's how well-written this show is. Props there go to the bookwriters, Karey Kirkpatrick and John O'Farrell, with music and lyrics by Karey Kirkpatrick and Wayne Kirkpatrick.
Shakespeare is portrayed as craven and opportunistic. He wants to get his grubby hands on Nigel Bottoms' book of ideas.
Played by Joseph Lasher, Nigel Bottoms is a sweet, approachable, creative young man. Just like the actor who plays him. He has just the right humanity for the role. He reminds me of Christian Frieden in every role I got to watch him play.
If Nick would just listen to some of Nigel's ideas about the plays that they put on, he could probably produce something better than Shakespeare. Or, imitation being the highest form of flattery, something that Shakespeare would try to get his hands on and reproduce in his own theater company, passing it off as his own.
Instead, Nick decides to visit that soothsayer again. Thomas Nostradamus suggests that the next big thing that Shakespeare is going to write, but hasn't written yet, is a play that... kind of sounds like Ham Omelet. And ....Danish.
Nick Bottoms assumes that it's a breakfast theme.
It is at this point I should probably mention that my wife, Sara is in the show. She is in the ensemble, as well as the Nathan Bates, Tim Dominicus, Alex Owens, Antoine Richmond, DeVonte Westley, Daniel Williams, who play members of Nick Bottoms' troupe; and Anna Bourke, Susie Carsell-Schaechter, Alyssa Castro, Mara Earp, Stephanie Moeller, Marissa Pedersen, Valeree Pieper, Caroline Sieren, Amber Whitaker, and Megan Winchell. They had a lot of dancing to get to. They had a ton of tap and musical theatre dance to memorize. I jumped into the production as a stage crew member with roughly three weeks to go to opening night. I got to watch them ata fairly advanced point in the rehearsal process, running full acts, running dances, going through whole musical numbers. And this cast, for as good as they were when I arrived May 23rd, they topped themselves with, in my opinion, Broadway level quality by opening night. I was so refreshed to hear their seamless harmony in "A Musical" while they tapped and formed a kickline.
Nostradamus starts getting ideas very quickly over the course of the second act of the show, and some of them are on point. There's a prince. There's a king. There's an uncle. But his ability to read the future is obfuscated. His information on Shakespeare's future work is unintelligble per his interpretation. It's watered down with references to future hit musicals.
This opens up a Tenet suggestion about the plot. What comes first, the chicken or the egg? No pun intended, since Omelet is the name that gets picked for Nick Bottoms' new production.
Did future Shakespeare come up with the idea first, and soothsayer Thomas Nostradamus end up stealing that out of his future brain? Reverse entropy? Future intellectual property theft is lifting from Tenet and The Social Network. Maybe even Inception. Christopher Nolan or Aaron Sorkin would have an interesting job if they adapted Something Rotten to film.
Should Shakespeare respond to Nick with charges of intellectual property theft? Since he would have gone on to have the story concept for Hamlet, at least? Even if he never would have adapted it to a musical about omelets?
Or could it be argued that Nick Bottom's genius brother, Nigel, actually came up with the concept for Hamlet of his own volition, using the off the wall, left field bonkers clues that Thomas Nostradomus has left from his vision of the future? It's hard to see how Nigel could have plagiarized Hamlet from Nicholas' nonsense interpretation. So in other words, does Shakespeare actually steal the idea from Nigel? He does get his hand on Nigel's writing book, multiple times, over the course of the play.
Also, will Joseph, I mean Nigel, be able to find love himself? In an endearing B plot, he makes the acquaintance of Portia. Played by Callen Sederquist, we get to see Nigel and Portia fall head over heels in love with each other after bonding over their love of Shakespeare's plays and sonnets. Their beautiful harmony and sincerity in the lovely ballad "I Love the Way" is why that just gently dethrones "A Musical" as my favorite song from the show.
At this point, there are still a couple of people I haven't brought up yet. Jake Walker plays Brother Jeremiah. He's the magistrate for Cornwall. And he doesn't like the societal changes that have been taking place over the course of the Renaissance. Dressed like a pilgrim, he goes about town threatening physical violence as a penalty for the punitive damage of performing in musicals, allowing Jews into the theatre, and the blasphemy of the musical content. He also just so happens to be Portia's father. He would never allow his daughter to date a writer who also acts in a theatre troupe.
Forbidden love. To quote All Shook Up, with the Dean and Lorraine storyline, "So it's forbidden love. That's so hot."
Jake manages to pause and hold at just the right time to make sure the audience can interpret and react to all of the euphemisms and double entendres. This piece of work is as replete with them as it is references to musical theatre and musicals.
Then there's Rick Davis, a longtime member of Comedy Sportz. He's terrific as the Jewish moneylender Shylock. Rick has a great time channeling Jewish comedians in the role of a lifetime for him, unless of course he goes on to be cast as Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof. I put a bug in his ear that he would be the perfect choice to play that role.
I loved Something Rotten. As I said on Facebook, Something Rotten is Something Wonderful. As this is Livejournal, instead of Facebook, I get to talk about my own viewpoints. So here it goes.
I understand that a couple of audience members exited the theater during the production number "We See the Light" on Friday. It's the number where Nigel and Portia basically make the decision, like Romeo and Juliet, like Tony and Maria, like Dean and Lorraine (All Shook Up was based on Shakespeare's Twelfth Night), to dedicate their lives to each other and love each other, regardless of what barriers stand between them. That happens to be a straight romance, but the color scheme of the dresses, rainbow colors underneath the top layer of the Puritan women skirts, does speak to the moment. In 2015, the Marriage Equality Act passed, making gay marriage legal. That theme wasn't addressed directly in Something Rotten, and other than Tim Dominicus' troupe member being questionably gay; with humorous allusions to his wardrobe; the musical doesn't happen to overtly delve into LGBTQ rights. It's a musical comedy. But that production number very gently suggested a theme that is in line with the hashtag Lin-Manuel Miranda got trending when he made his Tony Acceptance Speech for Original Score for Hamilton in 2016, #LoveisLove. And Something Rotten had already been on Broadway for over a year by the time, having competed in the 2015 Tony Awards. So it was ahead of the curve with "I See the Light." It was out for a year by the time of the terrible shooting in Orlando's pulse night club.
So here it goes. To the people who exited, maybe musical theatre isn't for you. This is going to happen more and more in plays. It's going to happen more than more in musicals. This is going to happen more and more in television. It's going to happen more and more in movies. The dynamic of marriage equality rights and gay rights is going to be a recurring theme, and it was only hinted at, by a costume choice. How are you going to behave if you have to watch a gay romance? Rent. Angels in America. Cabaret. A Chorus Line. Dog Sees God. The Producers. The Laramie Project. If an innocuous, harmless reference to love being a good thing in a song like "I See the Light" is not your bag, don't come to the playhouse.
To come to the crux of this conversation, if you are a theatre person in the least, Something Rotten is the show for you. It was one of the best plays or musicals I have ever seen. I will be talking about this show, this production, for years to come.
Four Stars.
You have two more chances to see it at Quad City Music Guild, tonight at 7:30 pm, and tomorrow at 2 pm. Tickets can be purchased at https://qcmusicguild.com/ and clicking on tickets.
The phone number for Music Guild is (309)762-6610. I predict that tonight and tomorrow will be sold out after the strong word of mouth that this production has got.
Directed by Steph DeLacy, with musical direction by John Whitson and some assistance from Justin Lebo, assistant directed by Sarah Lounsberry, also choreographed by Steph DeLacy, set design by Luke Vermeire, costumes designed by Aaron Westrum, lighting design by Robert Crist, sound design by Sean McGinn, props by Lisa Ferguson, Trinity Filut as Technical Assistant, Joe Miller as Stage Manager, and Deb Shippy as producer, Something Rotten is the story of two brothers, Nick and Nigel Bottoms, who are playwrights and actors in a theatre troupe they run in Cornwall, England in the 1590's. They are overshadowed by William Shakespeare.
The opening number is "Welcome to the Renaissance." Depending upon which night you see the show, you will either see DeVonte Westley or Tim Dominicus as the minstrel in the opening number. They both perform great!
Ben Holmes plays the role of Nick Bottoms. He learns from his benefactor, Lord Clapham (Andy Koski) that his competition, Shakespeare, is work on a history play about Richard II. It just so happens that Nick and Nigel were in the middle of doing a play about that very same subject. Did Shakespeare steal the idea? Or is it just an unfortunate coincidence? Either way, Nick can't go forward with his plans anymore. It'd be a similar situation to Tombstone and Wyatt Earp. Tombstone being Shakespeare's Richard II, and Wyatt Earp being Nick Bottom's Richard II, released in June of 1994 but on the same date as The Lion King. It would get lost.
Thus, Ben Holmes breaks into a song called "I Hate Shakespeare." All of the other actors in his company revere Shakespeare. So Nick is something of an outlier in that regard.
His long-suffering wife, Bea (Lauren VanSpeybroeck), wants to help provide for the family. But women aren't allowed to work in many jobs in the 1590's. Ostensibly, they are homemakers, wives, and mothers. And here and there I suspect there'd be a nurse, midwife, or apothecary. Bea suggests she take a job in the acting company. This is a terrific set up for a showdown between Nick, who observes the law of the land that women aren't allowed to act onstage in the late 16th Century, and Bea, who is plucky, determined, and hard-working. She'll take whatever job she can find.
Lauren's soaring vocals are on full display in Right Hand Man. I wish she would record an album. I'd love to stream, download, or purchase a hard copy of any music she records, and be able to listen to it whenever I want. But until then, I am happy to keep buying tickets to watch her sing, act, and dance in any show in which she's included in the cast.
Nick Bottoms gets so desperate for an idea that he winds up going to a soothsayer in the seedy part of town. He lands upon Thomas Nostradamus, nephew of the famous French philosopher. He retains, well, some of his uncle's abilities in telling the future. He's sort of a chip off the old block, but he hasn't honed his skills completely.
Thomas starts getting some random, vague, overly generalized visions of the future of theatre. Nothing at first seems particularly worth the half crown that Nick paid him. But it is a cogent moment on Thomas' part when he foreshadows the future success of musicals in the theatre. And this sets up my second-favorite song in the show, and my favorite production number.
Nick Bottoms is at first reluctant to take the advice of Thomas. But as we see in a musical number where background dancers materialize out of thin air, supposedly a figment of the imagination of both Nick Bottoms and Thomas Nostradomus, he slowly warms up to the idea of doing a musical.
I love watching Alex Ryser play the part. Ryser's acting chops period are always great, but his comedic chops are what I really pay to see. I love seeing him zip in and out of moods, tones, changing his posture, going from stillness to gesturing, and in general surprising us as theatergoers in every moment that he's onstage. Over the course of an astonishing eight or nine minute song and dance piece, Thomas goes through the history of modern musical theater, alluding to, referencing, and paying homage to a number of different famous musicals that have played on Broadway from the 1940's through to the present day. I don't want to spoil any of them. It's as zany and referential as my first time seeing Disney's Aladdin at the Super Savers Cinema as a lad of eleven in the summer of 1993. I wasn't going to get every reference right off the top. But I would be able to revisit it and pick up new things each time I saw it. That's part of the joy of having gotten to work backstage on Something Rotten. And thankfully, the audiences that we've had have been picking up on practically every joke, with rapid-fire waves of laughter that tamper down rapidly so that they don't drown out the next joke. That's how well-written this show is. Props there go to the bookwriters, Karey Kirkpatrick and John O'Farrell, with music and lyrics by Karey Kirkpatrick and Wayne Kirkpatrick.
Shakespeare is portrayed as craven and opportunistic. He wants to get his grubby hands on Nigel Bottoms' book of ideas.
Played by Joseph Lasher, Nigel Bottoms is a sweet, approachable, creative young man. Just like the actor who plays him. He has just the right humanity for the role. He reminds me of Christian Frieden in every role I got to watch him play.
If Nick would just listen to some of Nigel's ideas about the plays that they put on, he could probably produce something better than Shakespeare. Or, imitation being the highest form of flattery, something that Shakespeare would try to get his hands on and reproduce in his own theater company, passing it off as his own.
Instead, Nick decides to visit that soothsayer again. Thomas Nostradamus suggests that the next big thing that Shakespeare is going to write, but hasn't written yet, is a play that... kind of sounds like Ham Omelet. And ....Danish.
Nick Bottoms assumes that it's a breakfast theme.
It is at this point I should probably mention that my wife, Sara is in the show. She is in the ensemble, as well as the Nathan Bates, Tim Dominicus, Alex Owens, Antoine Richmond, DeVonte Westley, Daniel Williams, who play members of Nick Bottoms' troupe; and Anna Bourke, Susie Carsell-Schaechter, Alyssa Castro, Mara Earp, Stephanie Moeller, Marissa Pedersen, Valeree Pieper, Caroline Sieren, Amber Whitaker, and Megan Winchell. They had a lot of dancing to get to. They had a ton of tap and musical theatre dance to memorize. I jumped into the production as a stage crew member with roughly three weeks to go to opening night. I got to watch them ata fairly advanced point in the rehearsal process, running full acts, running dances, going through whole musical numbers. And this cast, for as good as they were when I arrived May 23rd, they topped themselves with, in my opinion, Broadway level quality by opening night. I was so refreshed to hear their seamless harmony in "A Musical" while they tapped and formed a kickline.
Nostradamus starts getting ideas very quickly over the course of the second act of the show, and some of them are on point. There's a prince. There's a king. There's an uncle. But his ability to read the future is obfuscated. His information on Shakespeare's future work is unintelligble per his interpretation. It's watered down with references to future hit musicals.
This opens up a Tenet suggestion about the plot. What comes first, the chicken or the egg? No pun intended, since Omelet is the name that gets picked for Nick Bottoms' new production.
Did future Shakespeare come up with the idea first, and soothsayer Thomas Nostradamus end up stealing that out of his future brain? Reverse entropy? Future intellectual property theft is lifting from Tenet and The Social Network. Maybe even Inception. Christopher Nolan or Aaron Sorkin would have an interesting job if they adapted Something Rotten to film.
Should Shakespeare respond to Nick with charges of intellectual property theft? Since he would have gone on to have the story concept for Hamlet, at least? Even if he never would have adapted it to a musical about omelets?
Or could it be argued that Nick Bottom's genius brother, Nigel, actually came up with the concept for Hamlet of his own volition, using the off the wall, left field bonkers clues that Thomas Nostradomus has left from his vision of the future? It's hard to see how Nigel could have plagiarized Hamlet from Nicholas' nonsense interpretation. So in other words, does Shakespeare actually steal the idea from Nigel? He does get his hand on Nigel's writing book, multiple times, over the course of the play.
Also, will Joseph, I mean Nigel, be able to find love himself? In an endearing B plot, he makes the acquaintance of Portia. Played by Callen Sederquist, we get to see Nigel and Portia fall head over heels in love with each other after bonding over their love of Shakespeare's plays and sonnets. Their beautiful harmony and sincerity in the lovely ballad "I Love the Way" is why that just gently dethrones "A Musical" as my favorite song from the show.
At this point, there are still a couple of people I haven't brought up yet. Jake Walker plays Brother Jeremiah. He's the magistrate for Cornwall. And he doesn't like the societal changes that have been taking place over the course of the Renaissance. Dressed like a pilgrim, he goes about town threatening physical violence as a penalty for the punitive damage of performing in musicals, allowing Jews into the theatre, and the blasphemy of the musical content. He also just so happens to be Portia's father. He would never allow his daughter to date a writer who also acts in a theatre troupe.
Forbidden love. To quote All Shook Up, with the Dean and Lorraine storyline, "So it's forbidden love. That's so hot."
Jake manages to pause and hold at just the right time to make sure the audience can interpret and react to all of the euphemisms and double entendres. This piece of work is as replete with them as it is references to musical theatre and musicals.
Then there's Rick Davis, a longtime member of Comedy Sportz. He's terrific as the Jewish moneylender Shylock. Rick has a great time channeling Jewish comedians in the role of a lifetime for him, unless of course he goes on to be cast as Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof. I put a bug in his ear that he would be the perfect choice to play that role.
I loved Something Rotten. As I said on Facebook, Something Rotten is Something Wonderful. As this is Livejournal, instead of Facebook, I get to talk about my own viewpoints. So here it goes.
I understand that a couple of audience members exited the theater during the production number "We See the Light" on Friday. It's the number where Nigel and Portia basically make the decision, like Romeo and Juliet, like Tony and Maria, like Dean and Lorraine (All Shook Up was based on Shakespeare's Twelfth Night), to dedicate their lives to each other and love each other, regardless of what barriers stand between them. That happens to be a straight romance, but the color scheme of the dresses, rainbow colors underneath the top layer of the Puritan women skirts, does speak to the moment. In 2015, the Marriage Equality Act passed, making gay marriage legal. That theme wasn't addressed directly in Something Rotten, and other than Tim Dominicus' troupe member being questionably gay; with humorous allusions to his wardrobe; the musical doesn't happen to overtly delve into LGBTQ rights. It's a musical comedy. But that production number very gently suggested a theme that is in line with the hashtag Lin-Manuel Miranda got trending when he made his Tony Acceptance Speech for Original Score for Hamilton in 2016, #LoveisLove. And Something Rotten had already been on Broadway for over a year by the time, having competed in the 2015 Tony Awards. So it was ahead of the curve with "I See the Light." It was out for a year by the time of the terrible shooting in Orlando's pulse night club.
So here it goes. To the people who exited, maybe musical theatre isn't for you. This is going to happen more and more in plays. It's going to happen more than more in musicals. This is going to happen more and more in television. It's going to happen more and more in movies. The dynamic of marriage equality rights and gay rights is going to be a recurring theme, and it was only hinted at, by a costume choice. How are you going to behave if you have to watch a gay romance? Rent. Angels in America. Cabaret. A Chorus Line. Dog Sees God. The Producers. The Laramie Project. If an innocuous, harmless reference to love being a good thing in a song like "I See the Light" is not your bag, don't come to the playhouse.
To come to the crux of this conversation, if you are a theatre person in the least, Something Rotten is the show for you. It was one of the best plays or musicals I have ever seen. I will be talking about this show, this production, for years to come.
Four Stars.
You have two more chances to see it at Quad City Music Guild, tonight at 7:30 pm, and tomorrow at 2 pm. Tickets can be purchased at https://qcmusicguild.com/ and clicking on tickets.
The phone number for Music Guild is (309)762-6610. I predict that tonight and tomorrow will be sold out after the strong word of mouth that this production has got.