Theatre 2024: Something Rotten! @ Stratford Festival

My husband Rich and I first became aware of the musical comedy Something Rotten! when we watched an outstanding performance of its showstopping number “A Musical” at the 2015 Tony Awards where it was nominated for 10 Tonies including Best Musical. After that, we waited impatiently for the show to come to Toronto. When it didn’t, we decided to drive to Buffalo,NY in 2018 to watch a touring production at the Shea Theatre. I wrote extensively about the Buffalo performance in my travel blog, which is available from the following link, so I won’t go into that much detail about the plot again for this review.

https://arenglishtravels.blogspot.com/2018/03/buffalo-2018-something-rotten-musical.html

We enjoyed Something Rotten! so much that we were thrilled to hear that it would be mounted at the Stratford Festival as part of their 2024 season.  We jumped at the opportunity to watch this delightful show again and encouraged all our friends to do so as well.  Stratford is the perfect venue for mounting this show since its two major topics, musicals and Shakespeare, are also the festival’s two mainstays.

Brothers Nick and Nigel Bottom, two writing contemporaries of William Shakespeare, are struggling to come up with new ideas for their next play or risk losing funding from their patron Lady Clapham.  Jealous of Shakespeare’s success and fame, Nick steals his family’s savings and hires a dubious soothsayer Thomas Nostradamus (not the famous or reliable one) to predict what will be the next big thing in theatre.  Nostradamus foresees the advent of the musical and tries to explain the concept to a skeptical Nick, which leads to the unforgettable number that was performed on the Tonies.  Hearing that in a musical, people break into song for no apparent reason, Nick protests “That’s the stupidest thing that I have ever heard”, but of course, he sings the lines (for no apparent reason and to much laughter). While still not sold on the concept, Nick exclaims that it all sounds miserable, to which Nostradamus retorts “I believe it’s pronounced Misér-a-a-a-bles”.

If you love musicals, then Something Rotten! is a love letter to the classics of the past, with musical references whizzing by faster than your brain can absorb them.  Tiny snippets of melody, lyrics, dance steps, costumes and props allude to iconic shows including Music Man, Chicago, Rent, Follies, Cats, Sweet Charity, Phantom of the Opera, Annie, A Chorus Line and many, many more. 

If you love Shakespeare, then there is much for you to recognize and relate to as well.  Nick’s wife Bea is named after Beatrice from Much Ado About Nothing and Nigel’s love interest Portia is named after the heroine in Merchant of Venice and Shylock the moneylender from that play is also a character here.  A judge named after Falstaff from the Henry IV plays appears towards the end of the show.  Actual lines from Shakespeare’s more famous plays are often quoted.  And if you like musicals but not Shakespeare, there’s something for you as well, since one of the songs that Nick sings is literally called “God, I Hate Shakespeare”.  Something Rotten! portrays Shakespeare as a genius, but also a pompous, arrogant rockstar from the Renaissance. Refreshingly, the female characters Bea and Portia are portrayed as intelligent, strong women who could rule the world if the idiot men around them would just let them.

Having already watched and loved this show, we were a bit wary that a second viewing would not stand up to our memories of the first time.  We needed not fear since the Stratford production was every bit as wonderful and hilarious as the Buffalo one.  Director Donna Feore (wife of actor Colm Feore) put her own personal touches to the Stratford version with new sets and costumes and most notably, incorporating her own personal musical references from Stratford shows that she directed in the past including Rocky Horror Picture Show, Guys and Dolls, Fiddler on the Roof, Sound of Music, Crazy For You and Little Shop of Horrors.  The nods to her past works were extra special when she was able to assign current cast members who were also in one of those shows to recreate a snippet of their past performances.  It became a whole new game of spot the musical.  I think I recognized a few more obscure ones including the cowboys from Will Rogers Follies and miners from Billy Elliot.  The highly anticipated “A Musical” number induced the almost expected, extended standing ovation.  But a subsequent extravaganza number in the second act was so thrilling that the audience jumped up to applaud for a second time.  A standing ovation in the middle of a show is already rare, but I have never seen this happen twice in the same show before.

The entire cast was spectacular including Michael Uhre who played the passionate and exasperated Nick Bottom, Jeff Lillico as a sexy, strutting Shakespeare, and Dan Chameroy, who we have seen many times in Ross Petty’s annual Christmas Pantomimes, playing a befuddled, wacky Nostradamus.  Having also watched La Cage Aux Folles, Stratford’s other musical this season, we recognized Steve Ross playing Shylock since he also starred as Albin/Zaza in La Cage, as did many of the male dancers in the Something Rotten! chorus, who played drag queens in the show that we watched earlier this season.

Taking advantage of Stratford’s 2 for 1 ticket sale at the beginning of the year, we ended up in the best seats that we have ever had at the Festival Theatre.  We sat 2nd row centre and were able to see subtle nuances in the performances that we usually miss when further back.  Luckily, we did not pick the first row since this was actually too close to the stage.  There were barriers, meant to stop the dancing chorus from falling on top of the audience, that might have blocked my line of sight.  We were so close that we could see the beautiful designs on the costumes, the expressions on the characters’ faces, but also their sweat from exertion, spit from enunciation and the gigantic smiles from the chorus that needed to be large enough for the back row to see, but looked almost unnatural from the second row.

We absolutely love Something Rotten! and it remains our favourite musical to this day, which is saying something considering how many musicals we have watched and continue to watch over the years.  It is wonderful to be able to go to the theatre and experience a show that is intelligent and witty without hammering you over the head with some serious message, that is fun entertainment and just a pure joy to watch.  If you hate both Shakespeare and musicals and don’t enjoy a good laugh, then Something Rotten probably isn’t for you.  Everyone else should rush out to see it before its run ends, although the show has been so successful that it is now extended two more weeks through mid November.