Something Rotten
Karey Kirkpatrick & John O’Farrell (Book); Wayne &
Karey Kirkpatrick (Music & Lyrics)
Nick Rashad Burroughs & Cast of Something's Rotten |
With a face that literally glows in excitement and a voice
that pops and zings with full exuberance, the Minstrel sings, “Welcome to the
Renaissance, where we ooh and ahh you with ambiance ... where everything is
new.” After touting their “trendy
beards,” “houses all Tudor,” and a printing press with “fancy fonts,” Nick
Rashad Burroughs (as the Minstrel) and the gathered crowd with their puffy
pants and proud cod pieces or their breasts bursting out of colorful dresses
save their real praise for one and only one: William Shakespeare. As the crowd transforms into revival-like
frenzy singing, “We love him, we love him,” even we in the audience cannot wait
to lay eyes on the “the bomb, the soul of the age, the whiz of the Elizabethan
stage.” It is difficult not to wonder at
this point why Karey Kirkpatrick and John O’Farrell (book) named their 2015
Broadway premiering musical Something
Rotten (music and lyrics by the brothers, Wayne and Karey Kirkpatrick) –
especially since the setting for this SHN production is definitely not Denmark
and the opening number is anything but a dud!
Josh Grisetti & Rob McClure |
But it does not take long for us to realize not everyone in
Merry Ol’ England of 1595 is all a-gaga about the young Avon-transplant. Struggling playwright Nick Bottom is not shy
at all in declaring “God I Hate Shakespeare,” with Rob McClure fully
employing razor-exacting vocals that cut quickly to the point: “I just don’t
get it how a mediocre actor from a measly little town is suddenly the brightest
jewel in England’s loyal crown.” Nick is
on a crusade to belittle the Bard to his shocked fellow troupe-mates, who
respond with “How can you say that? ... The man really knows how to write a
bitchin’ play.” But Nick will have none
of their adoration, summing up Will’s plays as “Love you, stab myself, the
end.”
His brother and play-writing partner, Nigel Bottom, totally
disagrees with Nick as Josh Grisetti sings sincerely and with smooth, beautifully
flowing vocals, “What majesty flows from his pen” ... “[how] he captures my soul.” His gushing praise does nothing but make Nick
boil over more in his venom for the so-called toast of the town, so much so
that he high tails it to the seedier part of London to seek help in how to
outsmart Shakespeare by having the great Nostradamus (well, actually his
nephew, Thomas) look into the future to tell Nick the next big thing in theatre.
Rob McClure & Blake Hammond with Ensemble |
A wide-eyed, bushy bearded Blake Hammond conjures up as
Nostradamus the answer to Nick’s problems, singing with his wonderfully quirky
voice: “Nothing’s as amazing as a
musical, with song and dance and sweet romance and happy endings happening by
happenstance.” Nick is highly skeptical
that anyone could possibly like such a spectacle. However, the soothsayer produces a stage full
of tap dancing singers in dazzling costumes showing a little bare leg (women)
and chest (men). They proceed to
sing/dance a myriad of snippets resembling everything from Music Man to Chicago, Chorus Line, and Annie. Nick becomes almost
as excited as the enthusiastic SHN audience and is ready to write what
Nostradamus describes as “a big and shiny, mighty finey ... shake your hiney mu-si-cal”
(important to draw the word our for full effect).
The creation process to the brothers’ shot at a big hit is an
arduous one, as even the Bard himself could tell them it would be. After a first-attempt with a musical entitled
“The Black Death” that is hilarious for this audience but cannot find a
ticket-buyer in 1595 (too soon?), Nick returns to Nostradamus and hears the
sure answer to his prayers: The name of
Shakespeare’s next big hit. So confident
is he that he will now best his rival with a musical called “Omelette,” Nick
leads the company in another tap-dancing extravaganza, “This Bottom’s Going to
Be on Top,” one of several fabulous stage-filling ensemble numbers directed and
choreographed with modern flair and moves by Casey Nicholaw, giving all that is
new in the Renaissance a bit of 21st Century pizzazz.
Rob McClure, Maggie Lakis & Josh Grisetti |
Like most Shakespeare plays, Something Rotten has a male-dominated cast, with twice as many men
as women in both ensemble and among leads.
One female does stand out; and like in many of the Bard’s comedies, she
takes her turn dressed as a man for big laugh effects. Maggie Lakis is a knockout as Nick’s loyal,
loving wife, Bea. She is bound and
determined to be his “Right Hand Man,” singing with a sparkling voice brimming
with fun and confidence, “I’m not a shrinking violet, a solid rock am I, so
don’t be thinking I’ll crumble when the you-know-what hits the fan.”
Adam Pascal & Will Power Backup Boys |
Of course, the man on everyone’s lips (even the snarled,
totally jealous ones of Nick) has to make an eventual appearance or two. When
Adam Pascal as Shakespeare explodes on stage in full rock-star attire and his
own entourage of Will Power Backup Boys, all of London goes wild singing about “Will
Power,” eventually swaying with lit candles to his Elvis-like crooning. Will later comes back for another,
laugh-out-loud number (with his boys now all in Folsom-Street leather) as he
sings in a highly affected and comically effective voice, “Hard to Be the
Bard.”
Scott Cote & Rob McClure |
Not everyone is all caught up in the
theatre scene of Queen
Elizabeth’s London, namely (shocking though it is) the religious right Puritans
-- especially their pompous, tch-tching leader, Brother Jeremiah. Playing to such a wonderful pitch the role of
the self-righteous Jeremiah is Scott Cote.
He comes close to stealing the show with his humph’s and tosses of the
head and his looks of longing toward the two cute Puritan boys always by his
side. He is particularly perturbed when
his daughter, Portia, suddenly falls in love with the poems and poet,
Nigel. Autumn Hurlbert as Portia joins
Nigel in “I Love the Way” but unfortunately cannot blend that well her shrill-bound
vocals with his more melodic, balladeer voice.
Beyond the big ensemble numbers that are packed with
tongues-in-cheek and winks to anyone trying to count all the many allusions to
famous musicals, much frivolity in Something
Rotten comes from the exaggerated versions of Elizabethan London that roam
in and out of scenes designed by Scott Pask, the colorful and often
over-done-on-purpose costumes and hats/caps designed by Gregg Barnes, and the
platted and puffed characters’ hair created by Josh Marquette.
The rhyming lyrics are often corny; the situations are TV-sitcom
worthy; and the out-numbered women (except for Ms. Lakis’ Bea) do not usually measure
up to the men vocally since they have clearly been directed to sing with
high-pitched, exaggerated voices that too often border on screeching. However, Something
Rotten is anything but so; and the touring version at SHN is guaranteed to
bring lots of laughs to any audience member who has even the slightest
knowledge of Shakespeare and/or the history of the Great American Musical.
Rating: 4 E
Something Rotten
continues through September 10, 2017 at the Orpheum Theatre, 1192
Market Street, San Francisco. Tickets
are available at https://www.shnsf.com.
Photos by Jeremy Daniel
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