Broadway Philadelphia presents 'Something Rotten'

Worst of all is the song's pinnacle, when we learn that William Shakespeare is "just so friggin' awesome!"

Once this musical by Karey Kirkpatrick and John O'Farrell (book) and Wayne Kirkpatrick and Karey Kirkpatrick (music and lyrics) settles down a bit, though, it proves to be a clever sendup not only of Shakespeare but of modern musicals.

God, I Hate Shakespeare

Philly-based actor Rob McClure (who proposed to another Philly actor, Maggie Lakis, after a performance on the Walnut Street Theatre’s stage) and Josh Grisetti play Nick and Nigel Bottom. The pair are theatrical entrepreneurs outclassed by archrival Shakespeare, portrayed as a vain rock god by Adam Pascal, the only character with a British accent. Nick is so desperate for a hit that he gives all his money to a soothsayer, Thomas Nostradamus (Blake Hammond) — nephew of the famous one — intending to preempt Shakespeare's upcoming hit.

Nostradamus reaches too far into the future, predicting in a boffo production number that the key to theatrical success is to create a musical. One of the show's two standout songs, "A Musical," loads an incredible number of punning references to every famous Broadway musical imaginable with lyrics, music, and dance.

He also misses Shakespeare's big play, predicting something about an omelette and a danish. "Breakfast foods!" Nick exults. This results in the show's other knock-your-eyes-out number, "Make an Omelette," which combines even more musical jokes with Shakespeare references, a twisted retelling of Hamlet, and an omelette recipe set to music. There are so many sly in-jokes about musicals and Shakespeare plays that the loud guy across the aisle had to talk nonstop through the show to mansplain them all to his wife.

Meanwhile, Shakespeare infiltrates the company to steal the script and Nigel falls in love with Puritan girl Portia (Autumn Hurlbert), whose pious father Jeremiah (Scott Cote) adds many gay innuendoes before spectacularly coming out in "We See the Light."

What price fun?

All this big-budget silliness wears a bit thin over two and a half hours; there's a great 90-minute show hiding inside it. The Nigel-Portia love story feels perfunctory, and the effort to tie up the plot with a pastiche of the trial scene from The Merchant of Venice feels labored. Lakis, as Nick's wife Bea, disappears from this male-dominated show for a long time. A relatively minor Hamlet speech by Polonius becomes the show's tidy thematic refrain: "To thine own self be true."

Scott Pask's sets are big, cartoonish representations of Elizabethan London, lit with dazzling color by Jeff Croiter, but Gregg Barnes's costumes steal the show. His period dresses adapt for leggy chorus girls, he contributes many of the show's visual references to modern musicals, and his egg-and-omelette costumes for "Make an Omelette" are hilarious.

Something Rotten lacks the heart of The Book of Mormon, a Tony win for director Nicholaw (who codirected it with Trey Parker), the absurd genius of Spamalot (Tony-nominated for Nicholaw's choreography), and the seemingly effortless wonder of The Drowsy Chaperone (another Tony nomination, for directing). For those who love Shakespeare and/or musicals, Something Rotten is something fun.