London Calling… from downtown L.A.

“Something Rotten!” – a final whiff

You need lemons to make lemonade, but you don’t need water to make a splash–or a splashy musical, which is what brothers Wayne and Karey Kirkpatrick did when they conceived and then wrote music and lyrics for “Something Rotten!”, which is playing out its run at the Ahmanson Theatre through Sunday (with added matinees this week).
Haven’t yet seen it? Kids out of school? Time on your hand? Money in your pocket from that Christmas bonus? Then read on; I’ve written this just for you.
Here’s a fanciful tale about the birth of the world’s first musical, and it takes place in Elizabethan England in 1595. Two brothers, the pragmatic (and now desperate) Nick Bottom (Rob McClure) and the dreamy, Keatsian Nigel Bottom (Josh Grisetti), are playwrights of limited success and coming up empty-handed in the long shadow of William Shakespeare (Adam Pascal). The latter has all the swagger (and seeming self-confidence) of Freddie Mercury, David Bowie, or Tim Curry in “The Rocky Horror Picture Show.” He is, in short, a superstar.

The Bottoms need a hit play or they can kiss goodbye to a career in show business. Nick’s wife, Bea (Maggie Lakis), reveals that she’s pregnant, but in order to keep the household solvent she starts dressing up like a man in order to land part-time work (yes, social commentary). Meanwhile, artsy Nigel meets a young woman, Portia (Autumn Hurlbert), who loves poetry (and Shakespeare’s work) as much as he does. However, Portia’s father is Brother Jeremiah (Scott Cote), a devout Puritan who regards the theater as a den of iniquity and crusades to have all of them shut down.
Because he is envious and jealous of Will Shakespeare’s apparently effortless success, Nick counsels with Thomas Nostradamus (Blake Hammond), a nephew of the better-known Nostradamus, with hopes that he’ll be able to one-up the Bard. But our Nostradamus could be described as psychically nearsighted. He sees into the future all right, but his fried eggs come out scrambled, so to speak, and instead of being able to snatch “Hamlet” out of the ether before Shakespeare gets around to it he produces the title “Omelette” and mistakes “Danish” for the pastry and not for the people.
Soothsayer that he is, Nostradamus also declares that “Omelette” will be the world’s first musical, although the concept of actors speaking, then breaking out into song, befuddles everyone who hears about it. Not only that, Nostradamus also glimpses lines and phrases and titles of future musicals, many of which the modern-day audience will recognize since these range from “The Sound of Music” to “Cats” and “The Phantom of the Opera.” One may think of “Forbidden Broadway.”
From these scattered bits of information, erroneous though they be, the Bottoms begin to concoct their own theater piece. But as Nick has no qualms about stealing from the Bard, so Shakespeare (now in disguise) has no qualms in stealing from or plagiarizing the Bottoms. Makes you wonder, maybe literary pilfering back then was a legal sport or an acknowledged artform in itself?
“Something Rotten!”, with a title that alludes to “Hamlet,” takes all of the ingredients and all of the actors mentioned above and churns them into one of the most exuberant musicals you’ll ever see. We’re put on notice right away with the company belting out “Welcome to the Renaissance,” and later on singing and dancing to “Something Rotten!” and “Make an Omelette.” It’s all sort of like a marriage between “Spamalot” and the halftime show at the Super Bowl.

Some of this can be attributed to the book by Karey Kirkpatrick and John O’Farrell, and some can be attributed to director and choreographer Casey Nicholaw, whose recent credits include “Aladdin,” “The Book of Mormon,” and “The Drowsy Chaperone” (I’d also give a big nod to the scenic designer, Scott Pask). While there’s something of a formulaic template to the ups and downs of this show, it manages to do a few cartwheels and somersaults, and that has a lot to do with the swell ensemble acting (even when it gets a bit hammy). The Broadway production netted one Tony Award (for Christian Borle as Shakespeare), with nine or ten overall nominations, but not having seen it in New York this writer isn’t able to compare and contrast that lineup with the cast in the touring production. But I can say that the latter is loads of fun and that, to single out but one actor, Adam Pascal (who starred as Roger in the Broadway production of “Rent”) is captivating as the Bard.
The show does get a little silly now and again, the characters occasionally veering close to becoming caricatures as well, and yet the zaniness and the energy, the wit and the imagination, add up to a worthwhile and enjoyable outing. Remember those questions I threw at you in my second paragraph? Think it over, but don’t wait too long.
Something Rotten! is onstage through Sunday at the Ahmanson Theatre, 135 N. Grand Avenue, downtown Los Angeles at the Music Center. Wednesday and Thursday at 2 and 8 p.m., Friday at 8 p.m., Saturday at 2 and 8 p.m., and Sunday at 1 and 6:30 p.m. Tickets, $30 to $140. Call (213) 972-4400 or go to CenterTheatreGroup.org. ER