SOMETHING ROTTEN! to Make South African Premiere With Waterfront Theatre School
The Tony Award-nominated musical comedy will run for a limited season at Artscape Arena.
Waterfront Theatre School will present the South African premiere of hilarious, Tony Award-nominated musical comedy Something Rotten! The production will run for a strictly limited season at Artscape Arena from 10 to 18 𝐉𝐮𝐥𝐲.
Something Rotten! is a tap-dancing, jazz-handed love letter to theatre that asks one very important question: what happens when the Bard's competition gets desperate enough to invent the musical? The answer, as it turns out, is chaos, spectacle, and a lot of rhyming couplets. Performed by the talented Waterfront Theatre School students, direction is by Paul Griffiths with choreography by Ursula Lubbe, the same dynamic team who dazzled audiences with sold-out hits Heathers – The Musical and Everybody's Talking About Jamie.
Thinus Viljoen completes the powerhouse creative team as Musical Director. He brings his wealth of performing arts experience and musical knowledge to the production. He says it's fitting this is his first time in the role of musical director for WTS, as the first song he sang during his time as a student there was from Something Rotten!
Written by Karey Kirkpatrick and John O'Farrell with Music and Lyrics composed by Wayne Kirkpatrick and Karey Kirkpatrick, Something Rotten! was nominated for ten Tony Awards, including Best Musical.
“Something Rotten! is a joyous celebration of theatre itself. It reminds us of the power of imagination, collaboration, and storytelling to bring people together,” says Director Paul Griffiths.
“However beneath the laughter, the spectacle and the wonderfully irreverent humour, there lies a deceptively simple question: what happens when we spend so much time trying to be someone else that we forget who we are?”
“Following our previous productions of Heathers and Everybody's Talking About Jamie, Something Rotten! felt like a natural next step in an ongoing conversation with our students and audiences about identity, authenticity, and self-discovery, because ultimately, whether in theatre, education, or life itself, success is rarely found in becoming somebody else. It is found in the often difficult, but deeply rewarding, journey of becoming more fully ourselves,” says Griffiths.
Set in the Renaissance yet remarkably contemporary in its message, Something Rotten! follows Nick Bottom's relentless pursuit of success as he struggles under the shadow of the seemingly perfect Shakespeare. His journey is driven by comparison, self-doubt, and the belief that fulfilment lies in becoming more like someone else. It is only when he reconnects with his own voice and vision that he begins to understand the true meaning of success.
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HIGHLIGHTS Homecoming Centre (8/26-8/29) |
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MAMMA MIA! The Musical! Teatro at Montecasino (10/16-11/22) |
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The 5th annual Aviva Pelham Operetta Competition The Baxter Theatre Concert Hall Rondebosch (8/18-8/18) |
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Swan Lake Teatro at Montecasino (8/07-8/21) |
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MAMMA MIA! Artscape Theatre (9/03-10/11) |
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HIGHLIGHTS UJ Arts & Culture (8/20-8/23) |
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MAMMA MIA! Teatro at Montecasino (10/16-11/22) |
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Enrico Brignano - Bello di Mamma 2026 Mapo Club (9/01-9/01) |
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MAMMA MIA! The Musical! Artscape Theatre (9/03-10/11) |