– By Cate Marquis –
The Muny decides to wrap up it’s 2026 season with a bit of fun – no, a whole lot of fun – with the crazy meta-musical laugh riot “Something Rotten,” “Something Rotten” is a hysterically funny mad musical about musicals that is set in Elizabethan London, where theater company leader Nick Bottom (Matt Doyle) is just trying to capture some audience attention, when everyone is mad about that William Shakespeare fellow (a hilarious, preening Jacob Dickey). With his playwright/poet younger brother Nigel (Will Burton), Nick Bottom is hard at work trying to come up with a show that will capture some of audience attention, and money. He is desperate for a hit, before his nobleman patron, Clapham (Gary Glasgow), leaves and takes his money elsewhere. While his brother is single, Nick has a wife, the good-hearted and supportive Bea (Bryonha Marie), to think about too.
The musical opens with a song and dance number celebrating that it is now the Renaissance and the Middle Ages, with their plagues and darkness, are over, led by the entertaining Minstrel (DeMarius R. Copes). The Middles Ages may be in the past but now we have the Reformation, and London has Puritans like the fanatical Brother Jeremiah (Lara Teeter), who is accompanied by his black-suited followers and his pious daughter Portia (Elizabeth Teeter). Well, not entirely pious, as she is a Shakespeare fan – as is Nigel Bottom.
Nick Bottom – that name sounds familiar, doesn’t it? Yes, not only is “Something Rotten” packed with winking Shakespeare references and quotes (and names), but once it gets rolling, it also name checks or references nearly every famous musical, or at least it feels that way. The result is madcap crazy but also terrific fun. This is the premier performance of this hilarious comedy at the Muny, leaving just one question: what took so long?
Lord Clapham isn’t too pleased with what he sees at the rehearsal for Nick and Nigel’s new play, and asked why his plays can’t be more like Shakespeare’s. With financing teetering, Nick even considers an offer by Lord Clapham’s banker, Shylock (a delightful Adam Heller), banker who loves theater but who is forbidden by law to finance theater just because he is a Jew. Of course, Nick wonders if maybe there is something else they could call him, if he produced the play…or produced the money, in a sly little “The Producers” reference. That kind of stealth reference is typical of the impressive cleverness of this musical.
Then Nick hits on solution: a soothsayer. He’ll just have the soothsayer look into the future and predict Shakespeare’s greatest play. And he may have found just the one: Nostradamus. Well, Donna Nostradamus (Jen Cody), the sister of the famous Nostradamus. And see does seem to have something. She predicts that the biggest thing in theaters is going to a new type of theater, something called a “musical.” As for Shakespeare’s greatest work, she’s getting mixed signals. Something about a danish.
Jen Cody’s Nostradamus is a delight of craziness, a bundle of humorous energy in one tiny figure. She dances, prances and mugs with an amazing flexibility, a performance that gives the character a kind of magic, even if her predictions don’t quite hit the mark.
Acting is great, with singing and dancing, along with comic acting that requires the cast to cram in as many musical and Shakespearean references as they can without cracking a smile. Matt Doyle’s Nick Bottom is his own bundle of obsession as he tries to make her off-the-mark prediction take form, no matter what. As Bea, Nick’s loyal wife, Bryonha Marie is charming, as a resourceful, hardworking cheerful proto-feminist. Nigel and Elizabeth Teeter’s Portia provide the romance in the story, two theater/poetry nerds who are perfect for each other, funny and sweet. As an egotistical rock star Shakespeare, Jacob Dickey is a hilariously bawdy Bard, preening and strutting while still a bit worried that Doyle’s Nick Bottom may be on to…something. Even if it is rotten.
Sorry, can’t help it. This is the kind of show that encourages that. On top of all that, the sets are excellent, a mix of built Tudor houses with screen projections to extend those, and a rotating central stage that serves as the Bottom brothers’ theater, the town square and other things. There is plenty of room for the singing and dancing extravaganza all this is leading up to.
For an evening of smart, silly, Shakespearean fun and more hilariously clever references to musicals than you can imagine, rush out to see the absolutely delightful “Something Rotten” at the Muny, now on stage through Aug. 23, 2026.
© Cate Marquis
