Nicholaw-Helmed, Broadway-Bound SOMETHING ROTTEN! Presents Starry NYC Lab Today

A New York City developmental lab of the Casey Nicholaw directed and choreographed, and Broadway (via Seattle) bound new musical, Something Rotten! will be held today, October 9.

Leading the cast (of the Lab, and not necessarily future productions) will be Christian Borle, John Cariani, Allen Fitzpatrick, Brian d'Arcy James, Beth Leavel, Brad Oscar, Kate Reinders, Jeff Steizter, and Gerry Vichi.

The ensemble includes Taryn Darr, Eric Giancola, Linda Griffin, David Hibbard, Jenny Hill, Stacey Todd Holt, Aaron Kaburick, Beth Johnson Nicely, Aleks Pevec, Angie Schworer, Michael James Scott, Brian Sears, Brian Shepard, Brendan Stimson, Chelsea Morgan Stock, Ryan VanDenBoom, Marisha Wallace and Bud Weber. Tony-award winner Kevin McCollum is the show's lead producer.

In the spring, The 5th Avenue Theatre in Seattle will welcome its 17th new musical to its stage with the world premiere of an original musical: Something Rotten! (April 29-May 24, 2015). The Tony Award-winning director and choreographer of The Book of Mormon, The Drowsy Chaperone, and Disney's Aladdin, Casey Nicholaw returns to The 5th to helm. Nicholaw made his professional debut as choreographer of The 5th Avenue's first new musical, The Prince and the Pauper in 2001, and returned to The 5th in 2011 to direct the world premiere of Disney's Aladdin, which makes its Broadway debut on February 26.

The time is Renaissance England, where two brothers, Nick and Nigel Bottom, are desperate to write a hit play. But how can they when the competition is the biggest star of the era, everyone's favorite bard: William Shakespeare? So they seek out the soothsayer Nostradamus. But not the Nostradamus, his nephew Thomas, who gives our heroes a completely original idea from the future - write a play with songs. And thus, the first ever musical is born. But not without much mayhem, madness, and musical mishaps. There is indeed Something Rotten! - and it will have audiences rolling in the aisles.

Something Rotten! is an original musical conceived by and featuring music and lyrics by Wayne Kirkpatrickand Karey Kirkpatrick. Wayne Kirkpatrick is a hit songwriter and record producer based in Nashville. His songs have been recorded by celebrities including (to name a few) Faith Hill, Garth Brooks, Babyface, Amy Grant, Trisha Yearwood, Wynonna Judd, Bonnie Raitt, and Eric Clapton, whose version of Kirkpatrick's "Change the World" won a Grammy for Song of the Year. Karey Kirkpatrick is screenwriter and director, whose films include James and the Giant Peach, Chicken Run, and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, among others. Something Rotten! Also includes a book by Karey Kirkpatrick and John O'Farrell (book An Utterly Impartial History of Britain, or 2000 Years of Upper Class Idiots in Charge; TV series "Spitting Image").