Music Theatre International Acquires Worldwide Licensing Rights To SOMETHING ROTTEN!

Theatrical licensor Music Theatre International (MTI) has secured worldwide licensing rights to the Broadway hit and Tony winning musical comedy SOMETHING ROTTEN!

Set in 1595, SOMETHING ROTTEN! follows brothers Nick and Nigel Bottom, two playwrights stuck in the shadow of the Renaissance rock star Will Shakespeare. When a soothsayer foretells the next big thing in theatre involves singing, dancing and acting at the same time, the Bottom brothers set out to write the world's very first "MUSICAL!" The book is by John O'Farrell and Karey Kirkpatrick and music and lyrics by Karey and Wayne Kirkpatrick.

This is a big, brash meta-musical studiously fashioned in the mold of Monty Python's SPAMALOT, THE PRODUCERS and THE BOOK OF MORMAN, loaded with crowd-pleasing showstoppers," wrote David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter.

SOMETHING ROTTEN! began with an idea that brothers Karey and Wayne Kirkpatrick had since the 1990s. They eventually joined with John O'Farrell to write several songs and presented those songs and a treatment to the producer Kevin McCollum (HAND TO GOD, MOTOWN THE MUSICAL) in 2010. The team then joined with Casey Nicholaw (THE BOOK OF MORMON, THE DROWSEY CHAPERONE), who brought in several of the actors, resulting a workshop in 2014. It opened on Broadway on April 22, 2015 at the St. James Theatre and was nominated for ten Tony Awards, with Christian Borle winning for Best Featured Actor in a Musical.

The show includes references to numerous musicals. According to Jeremy Gerard from Deadline "SOMETHING ROTTEN! revels in its silliness while delivering such a nonstop blitzkrieg of production numbers, each out-doing the one before, that you hardly notice how much you've fallen in love with the Bottom bros." Variety wrote "A deliriously funny show."

"Something Rotten! was the first show I saw where the audience gave it two standing ovations before the show was over. What was immediately clear about this hilarious and original musical was that it has all the elements that audiences love: a great score, brilliant book and show-stopping production numbers. Every group from regional theater to schools will want to perform this show. Bottoms up!" stated Drew Cohen, President of MTI Worldwide.

SOMETHING ROTTEN! is now on a national tour. For more information about MTI and licensing, please call (212) 541-4684 or email licensing@mtishows.com

About Music Theatre International

Music Theatre International (MTI) is one of the world's leading theatrical licensing agencies, granting schools as well as amateur and professional theatres from around the world the rights to perform the largest selection of great musicals from Broadway and beyond. MTI works directly with the composers, lyricists and book writers of these shows to provide official scripts, musical materials and dynamic theatrical resources to over 70,000 theatrical organizations in the US and in over 60 countries worldwide.