Theatre Thoughts: Something Rotten!

Last December, I happened to see a show in NYC that made me fall head over heels in love with it.  And I meant to tell you all about it at the time, but Christmas got in the way, and it flew right out of my head. That's going to change right now.

"Something Rotten" is sort of high concept and sort of hard sell if you're trying to explain it to someone but here goes - Pretend it's the 1590s and Shakespeare is vying with another playwright to stage the very first musical in history.  See?  It just sounds ridiculous, which it is - ridiculously funny!

If you're a Shakespeare geek or a musical theatre geek (2 for 2 here), then you'll spend the entire 2.5 hours trying to catch all the hidden references and Easter eggs the show throws your way.  That is of course, while you're not laughing loudly because of a perfect song or sarcastic comment.  It's just so very funny. For a taste of the humor, see the video below from the Thanksgiving Day Parade. Imagine about 12 more songs equally funny, and you sort of get the idea of just how great the show is.    
Then you have the cast - Christian Borle as the Bard himself, Brian d'Arcy James, and Brad Oscar are just a few more well-known names in the show.  Others include Brooks Ashmanskas, Heidi Blickenstaff and Kate Reinders - all phenomenal!  To say they earned their pay 10 times over, is an understatement. It's been a very long time since I left a show and just had to google what else the entire principal cast was in.  They landed every joke even the obvious ones and just looked like they were having the time of their lives - which is of course, the absolute key to a good show.

Aside from the cast, and the set and the music all being perfect, you're also privy to an all out tour-de-force of choreography thanks to the likes of Casey Nicholaw.  I didn't know much about him before seeing the show, but now that I've completely fallen for his style, I just had to google him.  Apparently, he's been the choreographer for a few more huge concept musicals and did it brilliantly with those as well.   Saying the numbers are showstopping doesn't even begin to cut it. 

It may sound like I'm gushing, and I mostly am.  But after seeing it for the first time with someone who was seeing it for the second time, I can say I honestly know why she wanted to pay the money to see the show again. Had our bus not been leaving at 6, I would have turned around and seen the 8:00 show that night.  So if you're in NYC in the coming months, I would most definitely suggest going to see it, if only to see an entire cast dressed as eggs performing an 11:00 number.  See?  Now you're interested, aren't you?