Credit: Emily Cooper
Theatre Under the Stars until August 26, 2022
Tickets from $30 at 1-800-514-3849 or www.tuts.ca
Posted August 6, 2022
Imagine trying to break into the biz when Shakespeare’s plays were selling like hotcakes at the Globe Theatre day after day. (With no stage lighting yet invented, all those comedies and tragedies were performed in the open air during the daylight hours, not in the evening.) Attempting to get a play in edgewise was next to impossible – or that’s the idea behind Something Rotten, now playing at the Malkin Bowl in Stanley Park. Hatched by brothers Karey and Wayne Kirkpatrick back in the 1990s and opening on Broadway in 2015, it’s an idea that pokes hilariously clever fun at the expense of the Bard.
You don’t have to know anything about Shakespeare to have a really good time at Something Rotten – you don’t even have to know that the title plays on the famous line from Hamlet about something being rotten in the state of Denmark. But the more you do know, the more obviously witty this musical becomes. “Toby, or not Toby” – a line from Something Rotten – is a case in point (when Shakespeare disguises himself as Sir Toby Belch). How smart and ridiculously funny is that?
Credit: Emily Cooper
In this musical, brothers Nick and Nigel Bottom are struggling to come up with a fresh new idea that will knock Shakespeare off the best seller list; it is, after all, the Renaissance where “Everything is New”. Nick chooses to reject brother Nigel’s good ideas but comes up dry himself so he’s off to a soothsayer to find out what the future holds for theatre. Thomas Nostradamus (nephew of that other, more famous Nostradamus) tells him “musicals” are the theatre of the future where “an actor is saying his lines, and out of nowhere he just starts singing”. “Do the songs move the plot along?” asks Nick. “No.” And there will be dancing.
Nick: “Why? Does it advance the plot?”
Thomas: “No.”
Nick: “Advance character?”
Thomas: “Not necessarily.”
Nick: “Then why do it?”
Thomas: “Because it’s entertaining. 5,6,7,8…”
Credit: Emily Cooper
While soothsayer Thomas saw musicals as the blockbusters of the future – well, not right away and not in Shakespeare’s time – he didn’t get the name of Shakespeare’s next runaway, not-yet- written hit tragedy quite right. “Hamlet” he mistook as “Omelette” so when, in desperation, Nick steals Shakespeare’s latest idea, it’s all about eggs. Yeah.
Director Rachel Peake introduces some new bright performers (Cassandra Consiglio, for example, as Portia, Nigel Bottom’s love interest) and brings back some TUTS veterans (like fabulous Daniel Curalli as Will Shakespeare) to turn Something Rotten into Something Star-studded. Sweet-voiced Vicente Sandoval makes his TUTS debut as Nigel Bottom while Kamyar Pazandeh, a Bard on the Beach regular, is a tuneful and very funny Nick Bottoom singing, “God, I Hate Shakespeare”. Nick just doesn’t get, “How a mediocre actor from a measly little town/Is suddenly the brightest jewel in England’s royal crown.” Katie-Rose Connors returns to TUTS as Nick’s wife Bea, a take-charge feminist 400 years before her time.
Shizuka Kai’s whimsical set features yet more anachronisms: drab, wooden Elizabethan-style storefronts tarted up with bright, curvy, neon signage.
Despite being set in 16th century London, the choreography (by Nicol Spinola – good name for a choreographer, don’t you think?) is contemporary, has its groove on and includes some terrific tap dancing by Jyla Robinson, who plays the close-but-no-cigar soothsayer. Late 16th century theatre-goers didn’t know what they were missing; hey, nonny, nonny and a few stately court dances come nowhere close to the lively choreography heating up the Malkin Bowl boards.
Credit: Emily Cooper
Not surprisingly in a play that sends up Shakespeare, Will is the star of this show, too. Curalli’s Shakespeare is self-absorbed (“It’s hard/Unbelievably hard/It’s hard to be the Bard, baby”); self-congratulatory (“Bedazzled. I just made it up. It’s what I do.”); super-charged (his “Will Power” is the standout hit of this show); and nasty, so nasty. Imagine dressing up as Sir Toby Belch, a character he hasn’t even yet written to spy on Nick and Nigel. That’s just plain cheeky.
Into the mix are thrown references to every musical you can think of including Sound of Music, Phantom of the Opera, My Fair Lady, Les Miz and all the other ones. Spot The Musical is a game you might want to play but you’ll be too busy enjoying this one.
Emily Cooper
“Alas, poor yolk/I knew thee well”. Omelette, the musical Nick and Nigel come up with is all about eggs and talk about laying one. But not this one. Something Rotten is a hit, a veritable hit. Get thee to www.tuts.ca and thence to Malkin Bowl for a Shakespeare-spoofing treat. Laugh-out-loud funny, it’ll crack you up.