In “Something Rotten!,” two penniless sibling playwrights living in Elizabethan England try to come up with a hit show. The only problem: They have some competition in a cocky and charismatic writer named Will Shakespeare.
Hooking up with a soothsayer named Nostradamus, they discover that the future of theater, many years hence, lies in a preposterous form called the musical. But when asked to foretell Shakespeare’s greatest play, Nostradamus’ vision is a little less legible: It will be a tragedy about a Danish prince called “Omelette.”
Thus is born “Omelette: The Musical,” perhaps the rottenest piece of work to emerge from a backstage spoof since “Springtime for Hitler,” which you may recall was the handiwork of another down-and-out pair of theatrical impresarios, as penned by Mel Brooks in “The Producers.”
"Something Rotten!" (book by Karey Kirkpatrick and John O'Farrell; music and lyrics by Wayne and Karey Kirkpatrick) galumphed into the Fox Theatre on Tuesday night, directed and choreographed by Broadway heavyweight Casey Nicholaw ("The Book of Mormon") and starring musical-theater icon Adam Pascal (from the original company of "Rent") as Shakespeare.
This raucous show, a pun salad that smashes the works of the Bard with the history of Broadway in the style of Brooks and Monty Python, is hardly Pascal’s show, however.
Rather, Pascal's Shakespeare, who strikes a rock-star pose in form-fitting tights, a wiry Tudor collar and an oversize codpiece (all the men sport exaggerated codpieces in this tale), is the fly in the ointment of brother-dramatists Nick and Nigel Bottom (Rob McClure and Josh Grisetti).
Nick, who is so poor that his wife, Bea (Maggie Lakis), has to chase lambs and collect old cabbage off the street to make supper, is well-meaning but tone-deaf in the literary department. Nigel, on the other hand, is a dreamy wordsmith to rival the Bard. This being a musical, Nigel naturally finds a love interest: Her name is Portia (Autumn Hurlbert). She’s the daughter of hypocritical Puritan minister Brother Jeremiah (hilariously played by Scott Cote), who has a bit of swish under his dour demeanor.
Before the brothers Bottom can create history’s first musical, with its hilarious chorus of dancing egg shells and spewing yolks, they must recruit Nostradamus (the terrific Blake Hammond), who indoctrinates them into conventions of musical comedy.
You don’t have to be a theater nerd to notice references to “Cabaret,” “A Chorus Line,” “Annie” and “Oklahoma!” sprinkled hither and yon, as well as names and characters lifted straight from the Bard. (Jewish money-lender Shylock, for instance, played by Jeff Brooks, ends up investing in “Omelette.”) Characters don disguises, and the idea that Shakespeare stole from others (and vice versa) is very much at play.
It does take a minute for the premise to reveal itself, which makes Act 1 feel a bit labored, and songs like “Welcome to the Renaissance” and “God, I Hate Shakespeare” can get monotonous.
Though Grisetti and Hurlbert have achingly beautiful voices and Lakis is a fine belter, it’s up to Pascal to bring the gritty rock sound and play the king of mean. I get the necessity for tension. But for a man whose genius was his empathy, Pascal’s take on Shakespeare, as a spoiled, selfish and entitled boor, can feel a little one-dimensional.
And yet, the show marches on, a pageant of tomfoolery designed by the top drawer team of Scott Pask (sets), Gregg Barnes (costumes) and Jeff Croiter (lighting).
In the end, “Something Rotten!” is relentlessly silly and a whole lot of fun. When I say it stinks, I mean that in the very best way.
THEATER REVIEW
“Something Rotten!”
Through Sunday. 7:30 p.m. Wednesday-Thursday; 8 p.m. Friday-Saturday; 2 p.m. Saturday; 1 and 6:30 p.m. Sunday. $30- $125.50. Fox Theatre, 660 Peachtree St. N.E., Atlanta. 1-855-285-8499, foxtheatre.org.
Bottom line: More ham than "Hamlet."
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