Mark Uhre as Nick Bottom and Steve Ross as Shylock in Something Rotten!Ann Baggley/Supplied
- Title: Something Rotten!
- Written by: Karey Kirkpatrick, Wayne Kirkpatrick and John O’Farrell
- Performed by: Olivia Sinclair-Brisbane, Jeff Lillico, Mark Uhre, Henry Firmston, Steve Ross, Starr Domingue, Dan Chameroy
- Director: Donna Feore
- Company: Stratford Festival
- Venue: Festival Theatre
- City: Stratford, Ont.
- Year: Runs until Oct. 31
Critic’s Pick
When Something Rotten! opened at the Stratford Festival two years ago, I was exultant: Here was a musical about William Shakespeare, peppered with references to other musicals, that could handle the choreographic might of Donna Feore’s famous dance breaks. The 2024 production was close to perfect, and in my review for Intermission Magazine, I joined a growing chorus of critical raves, writing that Something Rotten! was one of the best things I’d ever seen on any stage.
Two years – and a lot of great musicals – have passed since then, including Feore’s revival of Guys and Dolls, which opened at the Stratford Festival on Tuesday with choreography so good that I’m less convinced than ever that Feore is entirely human.
But Something Rotten! remains singular. The show, a loving send-up of Shakespeare so silly it hardly makes sense, couldn’t be better suited to the Stratford Festival, where audiences are preconditioned to catch the Elizabethan jokes in Rotten’s script and lyrics, written by brothers Wayne and Karey Kirkpatrick and John O’Farrell.
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Near the top of the show, a high-energy tap number, fittingly titled A Musical, also gives the festival a chance to raid its closet for brief sight gags about Broadway shows: Curly red wigs pay homage to a certain 1930s orphan, while a saucy bustier feels like a double homecoming for actor Dan Chameroy, who in 2018 wore a similar garment as Frank N. Furter in Feore’s Rocky Horror Show.
In its remount at the Festival Theatre, Something Rotten! remains exquisite, an exercise in just how far Feore can push the limits of live theatre. The show’s still worthy of the (two!) midshow standing ovations it received on its opening night, and it’s still such a smart piece of programming for the festival that it’s tough to conceive why it took the company so long to jump on the rights in the first place.
The dance numbers in 'Something Rotten!' are so delightful that they feel brand-new, writes Aisling Murphy.Ann Baggley/Supplied
Story-wise, we’re with the Bottom brothers: Nick (Mark Uhre, outstanding) and Nigel (Henry Firmston). It’s the height of the Renaissance (explained to us in a catchy, tuneful prologue sung by Jeremy Carver-James), and the siblings are at risk of losing funding for their theatre troupe. Nick in particular fumes with envy: He wouldn’t be having such a tough time if that scoundrel William Shakespeare weren’t so good at writing plays.
When Nick finds out he’s expecting his first child with wife Bea (Starr Domingue), he jumps into action, hiring a soothsayer (Chameroy, terrific as ever) to predict Shakespeare’s greatest play.
But Thomas Nostradamus isn’t great at reading the future, and so his vision isn’t quite right: Shakespeare’s most famous work, he declares to Nick, will be a musical tragedy called Omelette, about a breakfast-eating prince with a murderous uncle named Scar.
The rest of the show is as absurd as its inciting incident. When we eventually meet the Bard himself, played with campy swagger by Jeff Lillico, it feels a little like meeting Mickey Mouse at Disney World – the actor is utterly believable as the smarmy, ego-driven version of Shakespeare cooked up by the Kirkpatricks and O’Farrell. When he sings Hard to Be the Bard, a British Invasion-tinged bop complete with Beatles-y ascending chords, it’s not hard to see why Nick can’t stand the guy: Lillico’s Shakespeare is a talented, detestable pest.
Donna Feore’s production easily volleys between sincerity and hilarity.Ann Baggley/Supplied
The excellence continues in Feore’s supporting cast. Beyond Uhre and Lillico, Firmston is a dandy Nigel, a would-be poet who supplies some of Rotten’s only pathos. Olivia Sinclair-Brisbane, in a pious romantic role not dissimilar to Guys and Dolls’ Sarah Brown, is similarly enchanting as Portia. The show’s pop-informed score sits well in her voice, and her sunny smile adds extra warmth to the young poetry lover’s dramatic journey.
As Bea Bottom, Domingue is more convincing now than she was in 2024 – her song Right Hand Man is somewhat more in tune, and the scenes that see her wear a series of disguises are funnier and less wooden than they were two years ago. While, on the whole, the actor remains miscast – Right Hand Man sits in a fluttery spot in her voice, and there’s room yet for her to find nuance in the non-musical scenes – the rest of Something Rotten! is so incontrovertible that Domingue’s solo moments slide by without too much friction.
Because even with quibbles, Something Rotten! is irrefutable. Its dance numbers, including a spectacular one about eggs in the second act, are so delightful that they feel brand-new, even if, like a certain Globe and Mail theatre reporter and critic, you saw the production three times in its first year. Feore’s production easily volleys between sincerity and hilarity – To Thine Own Self Be True, an earnest song about following one’s heart, transitions seamlessly into the Bottom Brothers’ eggs-travaganza – and while the show revels in ridiculousness, it’s surprisingly touching, too.
“A big, bold, extraordinary show,” sing the Bottoms about their latest scheme near the end of Something Rotten!, their egg-punning days long behind them as they venture to safer shores. Big, bold and extraordinary: Couldn’t have said it better myself.