Hark, good citizens! Attend thee a mirthful spectacle unfolding upon the Hoogland stage. The most wondrous Something Rotten! – book by Karey Kirkpatrick and John O’Farrell, music and lyrics by Wayne Kirkpatrick and Karey Kirkpatrick – is a musical comedy set in the 90s….the 1590s to be sure. Huzzah! ‘Tis the Renaissance, where struggling playwright brothers, Nick (Josh Ratz) and Nigel (Jakob Hankins) Bottom are desperately struggling to write a hit play as they seem unable to rise to the level of the popular rockstar playwright William Shakespeare, known as “The Bard” (Connor McNamara). Alack, alack, alack!
The Bottoms and their merry band of players keep plugging away with no success. Nick, ultimately motivated by his jealousy of The Bard and his urgent need to succeed to provide for his resourceful and newly expectant wife, Bea (Zoey Zara), secretly seeks the help of a soothsayer to get a jump on the next big thing in theater. The mystic, Thomas Nostradamus (Gus Gordon), nephew of the famous Nostradamus, predicts the future of theater will be something called “musicals.” This is an inexplicable concept where people sing and dance their thoughts and feelings rather than speak them. Marry! After a clever and high-kicking meta number about musical theater, Nick decides the troupe’s next production will be just that…a musical. Alas, the troupe ends up losing its wealthy benefactor, Lord Clapham (Eric Huber), after showing him their newest theatrical creation … a musical number about the Black Plague. Nick eventually makes another trip to the seer for guidance on how to intercept The Bard’s best idea, yet to come. This results in a hilarious misinterpretation of one of Shakespeare’s greatest masterpieces, complete with frying pans, witty alliterations and dancing eggs.
Something Rotten! also involves a love-at-first-sight subplot between the naive and lovelorn brother Nigel and his kindred spirit, Portia, daughter of the oppressively Puritan Brother Jeremiah (Meredith Crifasi and Brett Rutherford, respectively). No spoilers on whether these star-crossed lovers meet the same fate as one of Shakespeare’s other famous plays.
Forsooth, everything about the production is impressive, including the superb casting and tight direction by Joe-Michael Jackson and Ginny Racette. There’s not a weak performer in the bunch. Throughout the show, several performers move in and out of supporting characters and disguises, changing their costumes and facial hair, to keep upping the comic ante. Your eyes could wander at any moment to anyone onstage and see a fully engaged performer at work and having fun while doing it. The snappy pacing clipped along as actors, sets and scenes flowed easily from one to the next. Costumes by Rene Blank are suitably period, complete with bustles, codpieces (Welcome to the Renaissance!), and some sleek contemporary elements added in. Sets and scenic design by Steve Varble emphasize the colorful and cartoonish nature of the show, while choreography by Anna Maisenbacher and Casey Kulavic, including a wonderfully executed call-and-response tap conversation, is nonstop fun. Mary Watts Meyers, as always, leads a fine-sounding orchestra. Lights by Kevin Zepp and sound by Duane Fant appropriately punctuate and enhance the musical numbers and scenes. For this article, I watched a tech rehearsal and they were all beyond audience-ready. I can only imagine how much higher they’ll go with an audience.
The show is airy and fun, bawdy and silly, but the music, for me, wasn’t entirely memorable and some of the jokes waned as the show went on. But none of that mattered much. For oh, what a wondrous spell is cast upon us by the performers who, like skillful conjurers, summoned forth our laughter, applause and admiration.
In case anyone is not sure about seeing it because of all the Shakespeare references here, fear not. This accessible show is much less Love’s Labour’s Lost and more like that Gilligan’s Island episode, “The Producer.” You’re going to “love it, love it, love it!”
The revelry continues next Friday through Sunday, Sept. 8, 9 and 10, upon the Hoogland Center for the Arts LRS boards. Curtain at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 2 p.m. on Sunday. Tickets, those coveted tokens of entry, may be procured forthwith by visiting yon link: https://www.hcfta.org/tickets. Should it please thee to engage in a spontaneous escapade, fret not, for the box office shall fling wide its doors upon the eve of the performance, bestowing tickets upon those with daring, last-minute spirits. Though methinks you may want to order in advance.
Mary Young, born and raised in Springfield, has been performing in, producing and directing live theater for decades. She she’s done film and voice-over work, performs occasionally with local bands and likes to make up funny stuff with improv troupe The Portuguese Rodeo Clown Company.
This article appears in Renovation revelations.
