God, I love theatre students! They are so frickin’ vivacious and eager to please — which makes them the perfect match for the musical Something Rotten!, which is all about entertainment.
Something Rotten! is stupid — in the best (giddiest) way possible. In Karey Kirkpatrick and John O’Farrell’s book, two struggling Tudor playwrights, brothers Nick and Nigel Bottom, will lose their patronage if they don’t immediately come up with a hit. Desperate, Nick secretly consults a soothsayer named Nostradamus (nephew of the famous Nostradamus) and asks what theatrical form will be popular in the future. Answer: something called a musical. Even when Nostradamus has explained the concept as he understands it, Nick and Nigel can’t figure out a story, so Nick goes back to Nostradamus and asks what Shakespeare’s most famous play will be. Answer: Omelette… and there’s a Danish. So our boys set out to write a Tudor musical about breakfast.
Equal measures of irreverence and free association make Something Rotten! very, very funny. Shakespeare is presented as an energy-sucking, narcissistic plagiarist, and Nostradamus’s visions come so thick and fast that, by the end of the evening, he has accessed virtually every popular musical from before 2015, which is when Something Rotten! premiered on Broadway. “And then the nuns save her and the singing children from the Nazis,” Nostradamus transmits. “Are the Nazis good or bad?” Nick asks. “I’m not sure,” Nostradamus answers, “but I feel like it might be very important to find out.”
Nigel, Nick, and Nick’s wife Bea are poor to start with, then Bea realizes she’s pregnant, which ramps up the the tension. And the younger brother, Nigel, whose true calling is as a poet, falls in love with a poetry-loving young Puritan named Portia, whose father, Brother Jeremiah, is not pleased.
Together, this all provides a container for a lot of singin’, dancin’, and schtick. The songs — with music and lyrics by brothers Karey and Wayne Kirkpatrick, who also originally conceived Something Rotten! — aren’t melodically memorable, but they are fun in the moment. A couple of prime examples land at the end of Act 1. Shakespeare introduces himself — as a rock star — in “Will Power”, quoting his greatest hits and flirting his codpiece off with the screaming locals. In “Bottom’s Gonna Be on Top”, Nick, who’s feeling pretty confident about his chances of theatrical success at this point, performs a tap-dance battle with Will.
This might be a good time to start talking about the cast’s skills.
Thanks to Shelley Stewart Hunt, who teaches tap dancing and movement at Studio 58, there’s an abundance of skilled tappers in this production, and, thanks to Nicol Spinola, who choreographed this show, it’s not just basic tap dancing. Yes, there are some time steps in there — because they’re always fun — but there are trickier rhythms, too, and the performers pull it off. Evan Andersen Sterns, who’s playing William Shakespeare, makes the most of his showcase in “Bottom’s Gonna Be in Top”. Dylan McNulty (Nick) is no slouch either. And there’s a group of women — a trio? — who bang out precise work.
Sterns has very pleasing singing voice. (Throughout, he delivers a hilariously swaggering performance.) And, playing Nick’s wife Bea, Saidi Mader knocks it out of the park with her range and precision in “Right Hand Man”.
I loved Kobe Lim’s characterization of Nigel. Lim sings in a tender tenor and, stylistically, he hits a very sweet sweet spot with Nigel. Lim gives us full access to the truth of his character’s emotions: in the scene in which Nigel has had a falling-out with Nick about the artistic viability and integrity of Omelette, and Nigel confesses to Bea his fear of losing his brother, Lim broke my heart. And the actor seamlessly connects this groundedness with the musical’s absurdities. With Portia, Lim’s Nigel is so nervous that he cannot repress the nerdiest of nerdy laughs.
Speaking of stylization, that’s the plane on which I had trouble with McNulty’s Nick: McNulty can sing well enough, but he delivers a flatly naturalistic performance, foregoing the opportunity, which is there, to mine Nick’s boneheadedness for laughs. Overall, director Dean Paul Gibson does a fine job of keeping Something Rotten! feeling breathless and overstuffed, but maybe he could have help McNulty out more here.
Let’s end this review of performances with Joel Bakajika’s Nostradamus. Nostradamus is the King of the Revels in this musical, the wellspring of absurdities; with his energetic commitment and timing, Bakajika does justice to the role.
Shizuka Kai’s clever set is actually a collection of set pieces, Elizabethan shops and houses, as well as the Globe Theatre, which can be flipped and reconfigured to create multiple locations.
The approximately one thousand costumes were designed by Donnie Tejani and they work — especially Shakespeare’s leather pants.
I haven’t visited Studio 58 since Covid. It’s good to be back.
SOMETHING ROTTEN! Book by Karey Kirkpatrick and John O’Farrell. Music and lyrics by Wayne Kirkpatrick and Karey Kirkpatrick. Conceived by Karey Kirkpatrick and Wayne Kirkpatrick. Directed by Dean Paul Gibson. A Studio 58 production running at Studio 58 until April 19. Tickets and information.
PHOTO CREDIT: (This photo of Evan Andersen Sterns rocking out as William Shakespeare is by Moonrider Productions. The costumes are by Donnie Tejani.)
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