Interview: A Fun Game of Tennis: SOMETHING ROTTEN! Cast Discusses MSMT Production

“As an actor, I have a huge sense of play, and this show is very much that. It’s really like a fun game of tennis with lots of back and forth. We don’t always know what is going to happen until we are in the moment, declares Tyler Hanes, who portrays Shakespeare in SOMETHING ROTTEN!, the musical which closes out MSMT’s 2023 season.

Artistic Director Curt Dale Clark concurs, “SOMETHING ROTTEN! is like a game I love to play; it teases you verbally, vocally, and instrumentally to name those Broadway musicals. It is so much fun!”

“It is everything I love about musical theatre all in one show,” agrees Lucy Godinez, who plays Bea Bottom. “It’s joyful; it’s fun; there is love. The sense of play in this show gives you the license to fill in the blanks.”

Bryant Martin, who plays Nick Bottom, adds that not only is the show great fun with lots of great musical numbers, but it also “speaks to the struggle all artists have dealing with validation. Nick asks why his peers are having success and he isn’t.  It’s a situation with which we as actors can easily resonate.”

The foursome are serving on a panel moderated by BWW World Maine Editor, Carla Maria Verdino-Süllwold, at MSMT’s final Peek Behind the Curtain on August 16 at Brunswick’s Curtis Memorial Library to discuss MSMT’s hilarious production of SOMETHING ROTTEN!  And judging by the laughter in the room, the large audience agrees that the musical by Karey and Wayne Kirkpatrick is not only clever and hugely funny, but a crowd-pleasing hit.

Clark compares the style of humor to other musicals like SPAMALOT, THE PRODUCERS, or YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN. “It is very irreverent; the show uses every device in the book: puns, slapstick, double entendres, innuendos. I love to watch the audience; in the beginning of the show there is often a five-second uptick before they get the meaning of the double entendre, so the actors continue and then the laugh comes. As the show goes on, the audience is looking for the laugh, and they respond right away.”

Asked to cite a few of their favorite humorous moments, each panelist chooses.  Hanes enjoys the joke about Nostradamus’ nephew Thomas, and he loves the way disguises are used for comedy.  Clark agrees mentioning, the “looney tune moment” when Shakespeare sheds his disguise as Toby Belch and returns quickly as the Bard to deceive Nigel Bottom. Godinez enjoys the “Will Power” number because “I wonder what Tyler is going to do today?”  And Martin notes that as Nick Bottom, he is the straight man off whom the others bounce the jokes, but that it is sometimes hard for him “not to break on stage.”

But as laugh-out-loud funny as SOMETHING ROTTEN! is, Clark says there are touching moments as well. “I love Tyler’s line near the end that ‘beheading would have been out of the way, too.’ You realize there is a good guy in there somewhere. Or the moment in the reprise of “Right Hand Man” when Lucy tells Nigel [Jordan De Leon] that he might have to carry his brother for a while – that’s a beautiful thought for all of us. And my favorite for Bryant is his singing of the soft reprise of “I Hate Shakespeare” because we realize what is really upsetting him is how Shakespeare makes him feel as a person and an artist.”

The actors expand these thoughts, talking about their approaches to character. Hanes says he doesn’t see Shakespeare as a villain. “All artists have to have a healthy ego to put themselves out there every day.  In this show, Shakespeare views himself as misunderstood. Some of the things in this play are probably truish, but it is a heightened version. Shakespeare is so revered in history, and this play goes in a different direction and does not take him so seriously.”

Godinez sees Bea as one of Shakespeare’s strong and original women. “I play her as a grounded, vaudevillian version of myself – outspoken, political, confrontational. I really enjoy the forward-leaning aspect of the character.  I love the boy drag parts in her quest to share the family responsibility.  She doesn’t want to be a man; she just wants to work and to be herself.  In Elizabethan England and throughout history, you have instances of women cross-dressing to fulfill their dreams  -  fighting in wars – strong powerful women far back in time.”

Martin segues by describing how his character reacts to his wife Bea’s quest. “Nick is very paternal.  He wants to take care of everything, be successful, and provide for his family.  Bea helps him realize they are a team and should ask the question ‘What can we accomplish together?’”

Godinez adds, “Nick and Bea are cut from the same cloth. They have been together for a long time, and their story is not all roses.  They make a nice contrast to Nigel and Portia whose love story we get to watch developing.”

The panel points the conversation toward another of the major elements in the appeal of SOMETHING ROTTEN!: the dazzling choreography by Marc Robin. Hanes, for whom this is his seventh show working with the director/choreographer, says “ Marc and I have such a strong working relationship. There is a lot of collaboration, and the clothes are tailored very well [to fit the performer]. Our styles are very similar; he gives me a lot of freedom and trusts me. Marc is a brilliant tap dancer, and he has created this bit of a battle with Bryant on stage. The timing of the matching text and the comedy are so clever and have such a big payoff.”

Martin demurs: “It’s not really much of a battle.”  He is referring to the fact that dance is not his forte. “Even if I did tap a little, it would never be credible that I would win a tap-off with Tyler, so brilliant director that Marc is, he rises to the challenge and finds a solution that is believable and funny.”

Clark concurs that “Robin sets us up for success every time he does a show because he is good at knowing who can do what.  Once he figures that out, he makes sure the organization leading up to the show is all in place.  He gets the nuts and bolts (like blocking, knowing lines) out of the way very quickly so the cast has time to play, and the comedy has space to happen.”  This is especially important because, Clark maintains, “The technical demands of comedy definitely make it harder than tragedy to do well.

So, to have a group of actors, as we do in this show, who continue to find new things every day, who continue to get better and better is a blessing.”
 

Photos courtesy of MSMT, Stephanie Dupal, photographer

SOMETHING ROTTEN! runs until August 26 at MSMT’s Pickard Theater, 1 Bath Rd., Brunswick, ME www.msmt.org 207-725-8769

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