Something Rotten!

Aug. 17–23 Shakespeare Meets Showbiz!

Performance time 8:15 p.m. nightly

Get ready to laugh! It’s the Renaissance, and Nick and Nigel Bottom are desperate for a hit play but are stuck in the shadow of the egocentric, charismatic dramatic megastar of the time, William Shakespeare! When a soothsayer predicts that the future of theatre involves singing, dancing and acting at the same time, the brothers set out to create the world’s first musical. But fame isn’t everything, and they realize that reaching the top means being true to thine own self — and all that jazz. Something Rotten! is a comic mashup of 16th-century Shakespeare and 21st-century Broadway that proves “nothing’s as amazing as a musical.” A Muny premiere!

Book by Karey Kirkpatrick and John O’Farrell • Music and lyrics by Wayne Kirkpatrick and Karey Kirkpatrick • Conceived by Karey Kirkpatrick and Wayne Kirkpatrick

Rob Ruggiero

Director
Parker Esse

Choreographer
Anne Shuttlesworth

Music Director/Conductor
Edward E. Haynes Jr.

Scenic Designer
To be announced

Costume Designer
Rob Denton

Lighting Designer
Joshua Hummel

Sound Designer
To be announced

Video Designer
To be announced

Wig Designer
To be announced

Production Stage Manager
The Telsey Office, Bethany Knox, CSA

Casting
The Telsey Office, Cesar Mendoza

Casting

Music Theatre International licenses this production with a PG13 rating. We offer the following additional notes regarding content that may affect patron comfort.

Brothers Nick and Nigel Bottom seek to destroy William Shakespeare’s theatrical preeminence by writing the world’s first musical — a suggestion offered by the soothsayer Nostradamus. After much drama ensues, they reclaim the Bottom brotherhood when Nigel pens the line “To thine own self be true,” making even megastar Shakespeare weak at the knees.

Language • The words shit and hell are each used 10 times. The words heathen, ass and damn are used four times. The words whores and butt are each used twice. The words turd, bastard, penis, bitchin’, twits, tuchus, sexist, shite, piss, sexy and goddammit are each used once.

Sexual content • Numerous lines of dialogue directly reference or allude to sex or sexual situations.

Drugs and alcohol • Characters are shown drinking, smoking or mentioning alcohol or tobacco in numerous scenes.

Violence • There is mention of witches burning at the stake, the tragic deaths of Romeo and Juliet by poison and dagger, hanging the black death and other general references to killing.

Mature content • There are numerous references to Jewish people and women that depict racial and gender bias.

Creative Team

ROB RUGGIERO

Director

Muny: Dear Evan Hansen; Fiddler on the Roof; West Side Story; Sweeney Todd; 1776; Gypsy (starring Beth Leavel); The Music Man; Oklahoma!; Hello, Dolly!; South Pacific; The King and I. He has also directed many award-winning productions at The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, including Follies, Sunday in the Park With George, Take Me Out and Evita. His award-winning work has been seen at regional theatres all over the country. Broadway: High (starring Kathleen Turner) and Looped (starring Valerie Harper). Off-Broadway, Rob conceived and directed Make Me a Song (Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle nominations). In 2011, he directed a new version of Show Boat at Goodspeed Musicals, where he is a frequent collaborator and where he recently directed a 50th anniversary production of A Chorus Line. He is the artistic director at TheaterWorks Hartford.

PARKER ESSE

Choreographer

After performing on Broadway in the Tony-winning Fosse, Parker was associate for Finian’s Rainbow and A Tale of Two Cities (Broadway), Follies (pre-Broadway) and five City Center Encores! productions. Choreographer: The Light in the Piazza and Sondheim and Marsalis’ A Bed and a Chair (Encores!); Oklahoma! 50th Anniversary (Arena Stage); West Side Story and Fiddler on the Roof (The Muny); Beautiful and White Christmas (Fulton Theatre); and productions at Arena Stage (18 productions), Goodspeed Musicals (10 productions), Ed Mirvish (Toronto), Kennedy Center, Washington National Opera, Paper Mill Playhouse, Omaha Symphony/NBC holiday televised specials, 92NY Lyrics & Lyricists, York Theatre, Signature, Ogunquit, Bucks County Playhouse and The Rev. Recently: Cats and West Side Story (Casa Mañana); A Chorus Line (Goodspeed Musicals). Upcoming: Funny Girl (Shaw Festival), Anastasia (La Mirada).

ANNE SHUTTLESWORTH

Music Director/Conductor

Muny: Dreamgirls, Bring It On. Broadway: Annie, Les Misérables, Miss Saigon. National tours: Tina: The Tina Turner Musical (first national tour), Wicked, Jesus Christ Superstar, Spamalot, Miss Saigon, Les Misérables, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, Dreamgirls, Annie. Regional credits include work as music supervisor/MD at Riverside Theatre in Vero Beach, Fla. (Thoroughly Modern Millie; La Cage aux Folles; Carousel; Evita; Gypsy; Hello, Dolly!; My Fair Lady; Mamma Mia!; Legally Blonde); North Shore Music Theatre (IRNE Award nomination); Maltz Jupiter Theatre (Carbonell Award); Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera; and others. Anne’s work as a conductor, keyboardist, copyist and transcriber has spanned Meat Loaf to Metallica and beyond, with 2024 spent as music director for Engelbert Humperdinck’s world tour.

Something Rotten! is presented through special arrangement with Music Theatre International (MTI). All authorized performance materials are also supplied by MTI. mtishows.com