Tony nominated for best musical, Something Rotten has hit TPAC’s Jackson Hall for a week long run. Much like Beautiful: The Carole King Musical, it was a smash on Broadway that was bound for a great run on the road. Also much like Beautiful, you need to go to see this hilarious, wildly entertaining hit.
I’ve been to TPAC many times in the past few years. Never before have I seen a standing ovation in the middle of the first act. After the song "A Musical," the audience leapt to their feet and gave an incredibly deserved round of thunderous ovation. That does not happen on press night. But every press member that I could see was on their feet.
The show is a comedy set in 1595 at the beginning of The Renaissance. Nick and Nigel Bottom (Oh yes, there are gay jokes galore) are playwrights but can’t seem to get a more popular show than a pesky, petulant writer named Shakespeare. Nick (played masterfully by Rob McClure) pays a Soothsayer named Thomas Nostradamus (Blake Hammond) to look into the future to try and figure out what the next big thing in theatre will be. The future he sees? Musicals. Nick then decides to make one and change his life forever. What ensues is a hilarious time of hating a very pretentious Shakespeare (Adam Pascal) to learning that your wife (Maggie Lakis) is your right hand man.
The gay jokes are as plentiful as cars on I-40 during rush hour, and each one is more hilarious than the last. There’s even a song called "Bottom’s Gonna Be on Top." There’s a gay Puritan, there’s a drag queen… it’s made so the gays can be all giggly. I’ve never laughed more in TPAC than with this show. I pulled a muscle in my side I laughed so hard. The cast is all incredibly talented and very recognizable. Rob McClure and Adam Pascal are bona fide Broadway Royalty. Pascal was the originator of the Roger Davis role in Rent while McClure was Tony nominated for the title role in Chaplin: The Musical. The rest of the cast is incredibly experienced as well. Almost all the main cast has had a role on Broadway at some point. It shows.
Open until July 2, tickets are available online.