Something Rotten
Karey Kirkpatrick & John O’Farrell (Book); Wayne & Karey Kirkpatrick (Music & Lyrics)
Hillbarn Theatre & Conservatory
With eyes sparkling their excitement and a spry body moving almost like a stringed puppet, the Minstrel sings, “Welcome to the Renaissance, where we ooh and ahh you with ambiance … where everything is new.” Touting the age’s “trendy beards,” “houses all Tudor,” and a printing press with “fancy fonts,” Jon Gary Harris (as the Minstrel) and the gathered crowd – all dressed in their Renaissance best and dancing in moves like those seen on Dick Clark’s “American Bandstand” – save their real praise for one and only one: Will Shakespeare. As the crowd transforms into revival-like frenzy singing, “We love him, we love him,” even we in the audience cannot wait to lay eyes on “the bomb, the soul of the age, the whiz of the Elizabethan stage” as he enters down the aisle in full Elvis style and voice.
And in just these few, opening minutes of the 2015 Broadway premiering musical Something Rotten(Karey Kirkpatrick and John O’Farrell, book; Wayne and Karey Kirkpatrick, music and lyrics), we already realize that Hillbarn Theatre & Conservatory has once again proven that their Foster City, intimate setting is fast becoming the Bay Area’s ‘Great White Way’ for big-stage musicals that time and again exceed all in-coming expectations.
For all the swooning over the crooning Will, it does not take long for us to realize not everyone in Merry Ol’ London of 1595 is all a-gaga about the young Avon-transplant. Struggling playwright Nick Bottom is not shy at all in declaring “God I Hate Shakespeare,” with Brandon Savage fully employing wake-‘em-up vocals that sizzle, snap, and snicker: “I just don’t get it how a mediocre actor from a measly little town is suddenly the brightest jewel in England’s loyal crown.”
Nick is on a crusade to belittle the Bard to his shocked fellow troupe-mates, who respond with “Don’t be a penis; this man’s a genius.” But Nick will have none of their adoration, summing up with sung notes that pop with his wonderfully sung contempt, “I can give it to you straight; every little thing about Shakespeare is what I hate.”
His brother and play-writing partner, Nigel Bottom, totally disagrees with Nick as Andrew Cope sings sincerely and with flowing vocals that often shimmer with tenor splendor, “What majesty flows from his pen” … “[how] he captures my soul.” His gushing praise does nothing but make Nick boil over more in his venom for the so-called toast of the town, so much so that he high tails it to the seedier part of London to seek help in how to outsmart Shakespeare by having the great Nostradamus (well, actually his niece, Marlo Thomas Nostradamus) look into the future to tell Nick the next big thing in theatre.
A red-haired, green-gowned Nostradamus (a near-show-stealing Caitlin Beanan) conjures up as Nostradamus the answer to Nick’s problems, singing with wonderfully quirky sparkle, “Nothing’s as amazing as a musical, with song and dance and sweet romance and happy endings happening by happenstance.”
Nick is highly skeptical that anyone could possibly like such a spectacle. However, the soothsayer produces a stage full of tap-dancing singers in glitzy, modern costumes to prove her point. They proceed to sing/dance in Anything Goes style a myriad of snippets resembling everything from Music Man to Chicago, Chorus Line, and Annie. Nick finally cannot help but join in, ready to write what Nostradamus describes as “a big and shiny, mighty finey, glitter, glitz and chorus-liney … shake your hiney mu—si—cal” (important to draw the word for full effect).
The creation process to the brothers’ shot at a big hit is an arduous one, as even the Bard himself could tell them it would be. After a first attempt with a musical entitled “The Black Death” that is hilarious for us in 2024 but cannot find a ticket-buyer in 1595 (too soon?), Nick returns to the laugh-out-loud, soothsaying antics of Nostradamus and hears the sure answer to his prayers: The name of Shakespeare’s next big hit. So confident is he that he will now best his rival with a musical called “Omelette,” Nick leads the company in another tap-dancing extravaganza, “This Bottom’s Going to Be on Top,” one of the evening’s several fabulous stage-filling ensemble numbers choreographed with exacting high energy and modern-day moves and motions by Leslie Waggoner, giving all that is new in the Renaissance a bit of 21st Century pizzazz.
While always supportive of a husband who has yet to bring home the bacon from his writing career, Nick’s wife Bea is ready to jump in and be his “Right Hand Man.” Bay Area favorite on the musical stage, Melissa Wolfklain, sends us into howls with her comic moves, mood shifts, and manners, while her Bea also wows us with crystal clear soprano vocals as she sings to her hubby in fun and confidence, “I’m not a shrinking violet, a solid rock am I, so don’t be thinking I’ll crumble when the you-know-what hits the fan.”
Of course, the man on everyone’s lips (even the snarled, totally jealous ones of Nick) has to make an eventual appearance or two. When Julio Chavez as Shakespeare explodes on stage in full rock-star attire and his own entourage of back-up boys, all of London goes wild singing about “Will Power,” eventually swaying with lit candles to his Elvis-like crooning. Will later comes back for another, laugh-out-loud number (with his boys now all in Folsom-Street leather) as he sings in a voice the King of Rock ‘n Roll himself would envy, “Hard to Be the Bard.”
Not everyone is all caught up in the theatre scene of Queen Elizabeth’s London, namely (shocking though it is) the religious right … in this case, the Puritans. Their pompous, tch-tching leader, Brother Jeremiah, is played to a wonderful, comedic pitch in full self-righteous style by Hillbarn’s much-loved, former Artistic Director, Dan Demers, who – like several others – commands the stage every time his poo-pooing, pompous self struts to the spotlight.
Brother Jeremiah is particularly perturbed when his daughter, Portia, suddenly falls in love with the poems of the poet, Nigel Bottom. As Portia, Jill Jacobs joins Nigel with her lyrically delightful soprano in an extremely funny “I Love the Way” where poetry reciting takes on love-making eroticism.
Beyond the big ensemble numbers that are packed with tongue-in-cheek allusions to famous musicals by the dozens, the enormous array of costumes so deliciously designed by Pam Lampkin are a reason alone to grab a ticket, often being a showcase of characters from musicals that vary from Phantom to Beauty and the Beast to Sweeney Todd. But the costume creation of the night just might have to be when four cracked eggs come out tapping across the floor as part of Nick’s premiere of Omelet. Much of the fun and funny of all the many characters also comes from Stephanie Dittbern’s whimsical, oft over-the-top touches in wigs, hair, and make-up.
And the magic of the evening does not stop there. The shadow-and-spot-rich lighting of Pamila Gray, the perfectly balanced sound design of Jeff Mockus, and the many chuckle-producing properties of Rosie Issel all add their touches to ensure the Hillbarn Stage has the look and feel of the best of Broadway.
But the biggest round of standing ovation must go to Director Randy O’Hara who has inserted not scores, but hundreds of innovative surprises and inspirations to make this Something Rotten production anything but rotten. From spot-lit heads popping out on all sides of the stage as they sing a line or two to a host of visual, modern references mixed into the Renaissance setting to a pace that never slows a second as scenes shift and as yet another, hilariously dressed dance line appears, Randy O’Hara is a rock-star as the production’s director.
Bottomline about this tale of the Bottom brothers, Hillbarn Theatre and Conservatory’s Something Rotten is a definite must-see, an evening guaranteed to bring lots of laughs to any audience member who has even the slightest knowledge of Shakespeare and/or the history of the Great American Musical.
Rating: 5 E, MUST-SEE
A Theatre Eddys Best Bet Production
Something Rotten continues through May 12, 2024, in a two-hour, thirty-minute (with intermission) production by Hillbarn Theatre & Conservatory, 1285 East Hillsdale Blvd., Foster City, CA. Tickets are available online at www.hillbarntheatre.org or by contacting directly the box office by emailing boxoffice@hillbarn.org or by calling 650-349-6411.
Photo Credits: Tracy Martin & Mark Kitakoa
