VIDEO: A Backstage Visit and Q&A With SOMETHING ROTTEN!'s Josh Grisetti

By: Aug. 03, 2016
Get Show Info Info
Cast
Photos
Videos
Enter Your Email to Unlock This Article

Plus, get the best of BroadwayWorld delivered to your inbox, and unlimited access to our editorial content across the globe.




Existing user? Just click login.

When Josh Grisetti finally made his Broadway debut in last year's musical comedy of wedding day blues, IT SHOULDA BEEN YOU, he made his first entrance as an audience member seated in a box, anxious to make his way onto the stage.

Perhaps that entrance was a bit symbolic of the near-misses that preceded them. Grisetti won a 2009 Theatre World Award for his hilarious Off-Broadway performance in ENTER LAUGHING, THE MUSICAL, a show that was long rumored for a Broadway transfer that never happened.

He was then cast as one of the leads of Neil Simon's BROADWAY BOUND, a revival that was to play in repertory with a new mounting of Simon's BRIGHTON BEACH MEMOIRS, but that one abruptly closed in rehearsals.

But the talented actor and clown is back on Broadway again as the sensitive poet and playwright Nigel Bottom, replacing the role's originator, John Cariani.

Grisetti took a bit of time before today's matinee to hold a livestreamed Facebook Q&A, where he talked about making the role his own, his "Game of Thrones" fandom and seeing the first West End preview of HARRY POTTER AND THE CURSED CHILD.

Something Rotten!, the ten-time Tony Award-nominated smash hit musical comedy, recently welcomed four new cast members to Broadway's St. James Theatre (246 West 44th Street). Joining Rob McClure (Nick Bottom) are Will Chase (Shakespeare), Catherine Brunell (Portia), Josh Grisetti (Nigel Bottom) and Leslie Kritzer (Bea).

The completely original new musical Something Rotten!, directed and choreographed by Tony Award winner Casey Nicholaw (The Book of Mormon, Aladdin), features music and lyrics by Grammy Award winner and Tony Award nominee Wayne Kirkpatrick and Golden Globe Award and Tony Award nominee Karey Kirkpatrick and a book by Tony Award nominees Karey Kirkpatrick and best-selling author John O'Farrell.

Something Rotten! also stars two-time Tony Award nominee Brad Oscar (The Producers), David Beach (It's Only a Play, Fish in the Dark, Mamma Mia!), Edward Hibbert (It Shoulda Been You, The Drowsy Chaperone, "Frasier"), Gerry Vichi (The Drowsy Chaperone) and André Ward (Rock of Ages, Xanadu).

From the director of Aladdin and co-director of The Book of Mormon and the producer of Rent, Avenue Q and In the Heights comes something original... something fresh... Something Rotten!, a world-premiere musical comedy about the musical comedy that started it all.

Welcome to the '90s - the 1590s - long before the dawn of premium tickets, star casting and reminders to turn off your cell phones. Brothers Nick (McClure) and Nigel Bottom (Cariani) are desperate to write a hit play but are stuck in the shadow of that Renaissance rock star known as "The Bard." When a local soothsayer foretells that the future of theatre involves singing, dancing and acting at the same time, Nick and Nigel set out to write the world's very first MUSICAL! But amidst the scandalous excitement of Opening Night, the Bottom Brothers realize that reaching the top means being true to thine own self...and all that jazz.

With its heart on its ruffled sleeve and sequins in its soul, Something Rotten! is an uproarious dose of pure Broadway fun and an irresistible ode to musicals - those dazzling creations that entertain us, inspire us, and remind us that everything's better with an exclamation point!



Videos