A Merry Madness: A review of PCPA’s SOMETHING ROTTEN!

Many years ago, a TV commercial imagined how Reese’s peanut butter cups were invented. A handsome man with peanut butter crashes into a beautiful woman with chocolate:  

     “You got your chocolate in my peanut butter!”
    “You got your peanut butter in my chocolate!”

"Something Rotten!," now playing at the Solvang Festival Theater by PCPA, imagines a similarly absurd collision between Shakespeare and the American musical. Two great tastes that, it turns out, taste very silly together.

Set in Renaissance England, "Something Rotten!" opens as Shakespeare has just wowed London with "Romeo and Juliet." Meanwhile, brothers Nick and Nigel Bottom, both struggling playwrights, are desperate to break out as dramatic poets. With help from a soothsayer (a wonderfully manic Erik Stein as Nostradamus), Nick catches a glimpse of the future where musicals dominate the stage. He decides to beat Shakespeare to the punch by combining an incomplete prophecy about "Hamlet" with the conventions of the musical. Enter madcap chaos, upstage center.

Directed by Roger DeLaurier, "Something Rotten!" constantly lets the audience in on the joke. It’s a gleeful parody of both Shakespearean drama and musical theater that hits its stride in the musical numbers. Choreographer Keenon Hooks filled the dance numbers with nods to iconic Broadway classics. Even occasional musical theatergoers will enjoy spotting the references; for seasoned theatergoers, their cups will runneth over.

In the showstopping number “A Musical,” Nostradamus explains the strange tropes of the genre to an incredulous Nick Bottom (played with charm and comic desperation by Cordell Cole). The number builds into a frenzy of singing, dancing, and fourth-wall-breaking pastiche. Later, in “Make an Omelette,” the show gallops through a dizzying array of references—from Busby Berkeley to Bob Fosse—with tap, jazz hands, and even a surprise transformation into a Jellicle cat from Cats. Musical phrases drop in like comic Easter eggs, sometimes layered so tightly it’s hard to keep up. The result is a rollicking pace and laugh-out-loud spectacle.

Cordell Cole, a familiar face to PCPA audiences, brings impressive depth and agility to Nick Bottom. His comic timing and dancing chops are on full display, especially in a tap-dancing face-off with George Walker’s Shakespeare. Walker plays the Bard as a self-obsessed diva who is not above stealing material from fellow poet Nigel Bottom (Alexander Pimentel). 

Thomas J. Bernard’s costumes recreate Elizabethan silhouettes with impressive precision, highlighting the strangeness of the period to our own. Codpieces and bum rolls quietly work to support the comedy. In costuming Bea (Emily Trask), Bernard supports her feminine lines with a stunning cornflower blue, boned bodice, making it all the more funny when Bea dresses as a portly man to pick up some extra money working the docks. Lighting designer Michael Palumbo also deserves credit for navigating the challenges of an outdoor venue. His lighting works around the lighting given by the setting sun. And, in the second act, cold uplights cast a chilly glow over the “Hamlet” scene, adding an eerie counterpoint to the show’s usual warmth.

"Something Rotten!" is a frothy and fun evening of theater. What makes it more than just a string of superficial references is the ensemble’s virtuosity and the creative team’s deep knowledge of contemporary and classical theater. If you know your Shakespeare or your Sondheim, there’s something sweet in it for you.