Theater Review - Something Rotten
We've finally come to the last show that I got a chance to see in my time in New York, so today I want to take you through the proud loser of the 2015 Tony Award, Something Rotten. (No seriously, it was nominated this year, but when it lost to Fun Home, the show ran an ad of other famous shows that also never won "Best Musical" saying they were happy to be among such good company.)
Something Rotten takes place in the time of William Shakespeare, the Renaissance where everything is new and exciting and plays are the hit of the town. There we meet a pair of brothers Nick and Nigel Bottom who can't seem to get a hit out or get out from the shadow of the famous Shakespeare. This doesn't bother Nigel so much as he's a big fan of The Bard's work, but it upsets Nick to know end. He gets an entire song called "God, I Hate Shakespeare" that is about that exact thing.
In an attempt to get a leg up on the competition, Nick goes to see a soothsayer who tells him that the biggest hit in the theater in the future will be musicals, and Nick decided to create the very first musical, but has to convince everyone else who thinks the idea of stopping a show in the middle for all the actors to sing a song is a strange idea to say the least.
On every level that a show can work, this show does it. It's silly, it's heartfelt, it's fun, it's hilarious, the songs are fantastic, acting incredible. Seriously, the entire rest of this review could simply be coming up with new ways to say how good the show is. But to break it down just a bit more, on the surface level, the show works as a fairly traditional musical. There's a clear goal for the heroes to strive toward, there is a love story. There's an "I Wish" type of song for the main character to express his desires through. There's a big Act 1 finale. All the basic bits come together to form a really solid musical.
But then we get down to the details and see how much of the show is a big reference to the genre of musicals. There are obvious ones like one character commenting that a musical with no talking sounds miserable and is told it's pronounced miserables. But some of the jokes are so quick and so sly that it's impossible to think you might catch every single one in the show. At another point a queen spoke about something that she and her husband both wanted and it wasn't until I was leaving the show that I realized she had used the phrase "The King and I." It feels as though while your watching one part of the stage and getting that hilarious joke, there are three more jokes on three other parts of the stage that your missing. But that's a good thing. So much is crammed into the show, that if you miss a joke or a reference, don't worry, the next one will be along in 15 seconds.
Hands down the best subplot of the show is it's treatment of the character Shakespeare. It takes a good while for Shakespeare to actually appear on stage but when he does it's pretty much an impromptu concert in the middle of a park (because that means it's Shakespeare in the Park). By concert we basically get to see Shakespeare quoting some of his best lines to the crowd but it's done with Shakespeare being a god of rock to his adoring fans in the song "Will Power."
Something Rotten is a prime example of what can make theater so great. It's fun, and uproarious, while at the same time, creating a sizable cast of very sweet and endearing characters. You know that those on stage and behind the scenes have worked to create a truly memorable experience and it's great to be able to sit back and watch them succeed so thoroughly. I'm not going to say that it's worth an entire trip to New York just to see this show, but if there is a show like that, it's probably this one.
Something Rotten takes place in the time of William Shakespeare, the Renaissance where everything is new and exciting and plays are the hit of the town. There we meet a pair of brothers Nick and Nigel Bottom who can't seem to get a hit out or get out from the shadow of the famous Shakespeare. This doesn't bother Nigel so much as he's a big fan of The Bard's work, but it upsets Nick to know end. He gets an entire song called "God, I Hate Shakespeare" that is about that exact thing.
In an attempt to get a leg up on the competition, Nick goes to see a soothsayer who tells him that the biggest hit in the theater in the future will be musicals, and Nick decided to create the very first musical, but has to convince everyone else who thinks the idea of stopping a show in the middle for all the actors to sing a song is a strange idea to say the least.
On every level that a show can work, this show does it. It's silly, it's heartfelt, it's fun, it's hilarious, the songs are fantastic, acting incredible. Seriously, the entire rest of this review could simply be coming up with new ways to say how good the show is. But to break it down just a bit more, on the surface level, the show works as a fairly traditional musical. There's a clear goal for the heroes to strive toward, there is a love story. There's an "I Wish" type of song for the main character to express his desires through. There's a big Act 1 finale. All the basic bits come together to form a really solid musical.
But then we get down to the details and see how much of the show is a big reference to the genre of musicals. There are obvious ones like one character commenting that a musical with no talking sounds miserable and is told it's pronounced miserables. But some of the jokes are so quick and so sly that it's impossible to think you might catch every single one in the show. At another point a queen spoke about something that she and her husband both wanted and it wasn't until I was leaving the show that I realized she had used the phrase "The King and I." It feels as though while your watching one part of the stage and getting that hilarious joke, there are three more jokes on three other parts of the stage that your missing. But that's a good thing. So much is crammed into the show, that if you miss a joke or a reference, don't worry, the next one will be along in 15 seconds.
Hands down the best subplot of the show is it's treatment of the character Shakespeare. It takes a good while for Shakespeare to actually appear on stage but when he does it's pretty much an impromptu concert in the middle of a park (because that means it's Shakespeare in the Park). By concert we basically get to see Shakespeare quoting some of his best lines to the crowd but it's done with Shakespeare being a god of rock to his adoring fans in the song "Will Power."
Something Rotten is a prime example of what can make theater so great. It's fun, and uproarious, while at the same time, creating a sizable cast of very sweet and endearing characters. You know that those on stage and behind the scenes have worked to create a truly memorable experience and it's great to be able to sit back and watch them succeed so thoroughly. I'm not going to say that it's worth an entire trip to New York just to see this show, but if there is a show like that, it's probably this one.
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