LOGAN – The last time that I saw a production of the musical Something Rotten! was a national touring show that played here in Logan back in 2018 or 2019.
But don’t feel bad if you missed that show, because the joint local effort by the Cache Theatre Company and Music Theatre West now playing at the Ellen Eccles Theatre is better.
Way better, as a matter of fact.
That preference is partially based on the simple fact that this sensational show is being performed by members of our own theater community – in other words, amateur actors, actresses, dancers and chorus members.
The opening night performance of Something Rotten! on Sept 13 was professional in every sense of the word, however.
From the first notes of Cameron Greed’s opening anthem – “Welcome to the Renaissance” (with his trademark acrobatics) – the audience sensed that they were about to see something extraordinary.
How extraordinary? Well, if you can keep a smile off your face while a stage full of people tap dance in Elizabethan costumes — not once, not twice, but three times – then you’re more judgmental than I am.
Something Rotten! is a 2015 rock musical comedy with a book by John O’Farrell and music/lyrics by Karey and Wayne Kirkpatrick.
Set in 1595, the story follows the Bottom brothers, Nick and Nigel, as they struggle to find success in the theatrical world in competition with the wild rock-star popularity of their contemporary William Shakespeare, the dominant dramatist of the Elizabethan era.
In desperation, they create a new theatrical genre – the musical comedy – which fails disastrously, with a little assist from the jealous Bard.
Chris Metz plays the role of Shakespeare with egomaniacal glee as a “bad actor” in more ways than one. He’s perfectly willing to steal another playwright’s work because, as he confesses in the Act 2 opening song, it’s “Hard to be the Bard.”
The victim of that theft is Nigel Bottom, played with touching sincerity by Landon Weeks. Inspired by his Puritan girlfriend Portia (a winsome Nicole Martineau), Nigel has just written Hamlet, which Shakespeare deftly purloins, leaving the aspiring playwright to pen the abysmal musical Omelet.
Blinded by his hatred of Shakespeare, Sam Teuscher as Nick Bottom fails to see the hit potential of Hamlet, because he’s determined to invent the next big theatrical thing about 350 years too early.
With his booming, operatic voice, Teuscher plays the frantic Nick perfectly, revealing his anger in the song “I Hate Shakespeare” and an unforgettable tap dance duel with Metz that closes Act I.
Something Rotten! is also chock full of inside theater jokes, quotes lifted from Shakespeare (the real one) and references to various musicals that come so fast and furious that you’ll miss them if you blink.
Other cast members who performed hilariously included Brad Noble as Nostradamus (but not the real one), Cary Youmans as Shylock (who’s in for a bad rep in Merchant of Venice), Bennett Floyd as Brother Jeremiah (a Puritan with a serious case of foot-in-mouth disease) and young Haven Draper as the premature feminist Bea.
Director Stephanie White has also assembled a huge male and female ensemble appearing as Puritans, townsfolk and Shakespeare groupies who are at their best when singing and dancing their hearts out.
Performances of Something Rotten! will continue from Sept. 14 to 21 at the Ellen Eccles Theatre in downtown Logan.
The Ellen Eccles Theatre is located at 43 South Main Street.