"Something Rotten" at Bass Hall

SOMETHING ROTTEN
play program

The Travelling Toe and Dear Friend attended the Sunday matinee performance of "Something Rotten" at Bass Hall. It is a touring show and Bass Hall was one of it's many stops along the way.

The original play opened at the St James Theater in April, 2015.  Then in January, 2017 the US national tour was launched.  It was nominated for several Tony awards and did manage to win a few.

Something Rotten
Playbill 

The play begins with a Minstrel welcoming the audience members to the European Renaissance, with the song "Welcome to the Renaissance".  

We then meet brothers Nick and Nigel Bottoms.  They run a small but struggling theater.  Nick is determined to be a success no matter what the cost. Nick vents his frustration about another famous playwright of the times in the song, "God How I Hate Shakespeare".

When The Baird does make his appearance, he is like a rock star of the late 1500's.

In a effort to best The Baird, Nick steals the money his wife has been saving so they can have a better life and takes off to consult a soothsayer.  This particular soothsayer is none other than Nostradamus.  He tells Nick that the next play Shakespeare is producing has something to do with ham (Hamlet) but Nostradamus gets it mixed up and tells Nick to write a play about Omelets.  He also tells Nick that he needs to make the play a musical but Nick does not know what a musical really is.  So Nostradamus explains it to him, along with the cast, singing "A Musical".  This song brought down the house with extended applause.  

It gets even funnier in the second half.  Dear Friend and I laughed a lot during this play.  If it ever comes you way it is worth seeing and we would certainly see it again!

Bass Hall