Through November 19, 2017
Segerstrom Hall
Aliso Laguna News was invited by SCFTA this past week to see Something Rotten! This completely new and energized musical was so fun and funny! The show was first on Broadway in the spring of 2015. It was well received and audiences connected with the quirky plot! The show closed on Broadway in January 2017 and shortly after started it’s U.S. national tour.
Something Rotten! will run at Segerstrom Center for another week. If you are unable to see it then, it will also be at the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles from Nov. 21 through Dec. 31.
“It is directed and choreographed by Tony Award winner Casey Nicholaw (The Book of Mormon, Aladdin), with music and lyrics by Grammy Award winner and Tony Award nominee Wayne Kirkpatrick and Golden Globe Award and Tony Award nominee Karey Kirkpatrick and a book by Tony Award nominees Karey Kirkpatrick and best-selling author John O’Farrell. From the director of Aladdin and co-director of The Book of Mormon and the producer of Rent, Avenue Q and In the Heights, this hilarious new musical comedy tells the story of brothers Nick and Nigel Bottom, two playwrights stuck in the shadow of that Renaissance rock star Will Shakespeare”. – SCFTA
When a soothsayer foretells the next big thing in theatre involves singing, dancing and acting at the same time, the Bottom brothers set out to write the world’s very first MUSICAL! With the most singing, the most dancing and the most gut-busting laughs on Broadway, it’s something wonderful… something for everyone…it’s Something Rotten!, “the funniest musical comedy in at least 400 years!” – Time Out New York.
Shakespeare experts will know that the show’s title comes from one of the well-known lines in Hamlet: “Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.” Shakespeare’s character is more like a rock star, and in this show, he’s very self-important. (Does anyone really know what Shakespeare’s true personality was like? Maybe he was a little affected!) These writers have fun poking fun at the possibility that his personality would be arrogant.. and in our era of super pop stars, this is what he would act like. The charming aspect of the show brings to light what hilarities can take place when you try and combine societal norms and oddities from two different eras.
The writers have brought 21st-century perspectives and humor into a 16th-century-time frame. They make fun of Shakespeare, the people of that time and musicals in general, but all in good fun. We connected to all the classical musical illusions interwoven through the plot and dance numbers. Speaking of dance numbers, there are a lot of tap dancing numbers – which we and the audience loved. In fact, there was so much applause after the dance numbers that the actors had to wait.. a while… until the thunderous applause stopped, and then they went on and danced some more! The show was fabulous! Go see it!
Photo Credits: Segerstrom Center for the Arts
scfta.org
