New Line Theatre’s staging of Something Rotten! is, to my knowledge, the first one in St. Louis since the national touring company visited the Fox Theatre in 2017. New Line’s terrific production increased my admiration for the 2015 hit Broadway musical by Karey Kirkpatrick (book, music, and lyrics) and Wayne Kirkpatrick (music and lyrics), and John O’Farrell (book).
Something Rotten! is a flight of fancy in which the main character, Nick Bottom, has the same name as a character in Shakespeare’s comedy, A Midsummer Night’s Dream. In Shakespeare, Nick is a stagestruck weaver who wants to play every part in a show he is rehearsing with his friends. In Something Rotten!, Nick is a rival of Shakespeare, not his creation.
Nick and his brother, Nigel, run a theater company that competes with Shakespeare’s. The Bottoms are rehearsing a play about King Richard II when their patron, Lord Clapham, tells them Shakespeare is writing a play on the same subject. Lord Clapham says he will withdraw his support if the Bottoms do not come up with a new idea by the next day.
In desperation, Nick steals money from his family’s savings so he can pay a soothsayer to reveal what the next big thing in theater is going to be. Nick goes to Thomas Nostradamus, the nephew of the famous Nostradamus, who predicts that the “biggest, most fantastic thing in theater” will the musical, where “an actor is saying his lines and then, out of nowhere, he just starts singing.”
What follows is brilliant number called “It’s a Musical,” which is filled with references to many popular shows. The hilarity in the lyrics come not only from what Nostradamus gets right about the musicals he foresees, but also from what he gets wrong. Fans of musicals will have a hard time resisting the cleverness of this number and the playfulness in the treatment of musicals throughout Something Rotten!
When I saw the show during its first national tour, I was put off by inaccuracies in the portrayal of the Elizabethan era. I had no such problem at New Line because the director, Scott Miller, does not anchor the show in a single historical period. The program says the setting is “London, 1595. Or Hollywood, 2022. Maybe Both.” The original script does not include this description, but the ambiguity works very well in the New Line production.
Miller’s encyclopedic knowledge and boundless love of musicals make him an ideal interpreter of Something Rotten! His insightful program notes draw attention to the show’s warning that the pursuit of commercial success can be at the expense of personal and artistic success. Also, Miller points out that Something Rotten! uses the traditional form of the musical comedy in a modern, self-referential way. Miller gets the metatheatrical humor and knows how to put it across to the audience.
New Line’s cast is splendid. Chris Kernan fully embodies the drive for commercial success that leads Nick Bottom to betray his brother and his wife. As Nick’s wife, Bea, Carrie Wenos is a determined but sympathetic protofeminist. The sweetness and reticence of Marshall Jennings’s Nigel Bottom effectively contrasts with Nick’s relentlessness.
Clayton Humburg’s insufferably egotistical Shakespeare acts like a contemporary rock star. Jeffrey Izquierdo-Malon is delightfully unhinged as Nostradamus, who has a gift for seeing into the future but does not always understand what he sees.
Melissa Felps is a charmer as Portia, the young Puritan who loves poetry and falls in love with Nigel. Jason Blackburn blusters appropriately as Portia’s fanatically religious father, Brother Jeremiah. Robert Doyle gives nicely contrasting performances as Lord Clapham and Shylock, a moneylender to whom Nick owes money. Chris Moore has a winning presence as the minstrel and Peter Quince.
The fine ensemble includes Mara Bollini as Francis Flute, Kent Coffel as Robin Starveling, Brittany Kohl Hester as John Snug, Ian McCreary as Tom Snout, and Maggie Nold as Helena and a psychic, and Alyssa Wolf as Miranda and an astrologer.
The musical numbers have enlivening flair under music director Mallory Golden and choreographer Alyssa Wolf.
Sarah Porter’s costumes are a clever mix of modern and period designs. Rob Lippert’s attractive set includes columns and an upper level that call to mind Shakespeare’s Globe. The production benefits from the sound by Ryan Day, the lighting by Matt Stuckel, and the props by Todd Schaefer.
Something Rotten! continues at 8 p.m. Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays through October 15 at the Marcelle Theatre, 3310 Samuel Shepard Drive.
—Gerry Kowarsky
Photo by Jill Ritter Lindberg
Chris Kernan (left) as Nick Bottom and Jeffrey Izquierdo-Malon as Nostradamus in Something Rotten!
