Review: SOMETHING ROTTEN! IN CONCERT, Theatre Royal Drury Lane

‘Twas the year 2015 and the hallowed boards of Broadway were on fire. On one side of the road, Hamilton was making history and becoming a watershed in the industry; on the other, Something Rotten! was taking 21st Century audiences back to 1595 in a medley of Renaissance poetry and pop extravaganza. Karey and Wayne Kirkpatrick ended up sort of going the same way as their characters when the Tony Awards came along, bagging only one of the nine nominations. In any case, the show enjoyed two solid years at the St. James Theatre and assembled a loyal fanbase. Not too shabby.

When the pandemic hit, a Birmingham run of the project was announced for late 2021. Sadly, nothing ever came of that. Three years later, a stripped-down version of it is finally hitting London. On for three performances only, it’s obviously presented by a starry cast on Drury Lane. Jason Manford is Nick Bottom and Gary Wilmot takes on the lesser known and half-hack nephew of Nostradamus. He's the one who suggests the broke writers pen the very first musical ever. Richard Fleeshman explodes on stage as the Bard (sexy doublet and disproportionately oversize codpiece included) while Marisha Wallace comes full circle as Nick’s wife Bea, the headstrong and uncompromising feminist of the lot, after being in the original ensemble. It’s loads of fun. 

In line with the trend of the moment, this is more than a concert and less than a full production. The set has been kept to a minimum, featuring only two wooden tables with chairs and banners with Tudor insignia. While there’s enough costumes and choreography to have a proper glimpse of what it might look like fully staged, the tap numbers have, unfortunately, been almost completely cut. Whether this is due to a time restraint or a choice in Tim Jackson’s direction, you feel the absence of one of them in particular: the infamous tap battle between Nick Bottom and Shakespeare, which has been turned into a fencing match with quills instead. You can even hear the beats in the music, it’s such a shame.

The stunt cast is joyous. Nick Bottom is a role tailored for Manford. Thick Yorkshire drawl and a larger-than-life personality, what he lacks in acting skills he compensates in presence. It’s to be said, though, that most of the company could have done with more rehearsals, with the quality of the spoken deliveries suffering because of it. Wallace tears the house down as per her usual style; playful and thoughtful at once, she was born to be Bea. Cassius Hackforth completes the trio as Nick’s sensitive and poetic brother Nigel. He and Evelyn Hoskins’s Portia make an adorable star-crossed couple and Shakespeare superfans.

Richard Fleeshman looks like he’s having a ball on stage. The Bard is an inherently mischievous part, and Fleeshman makes the most of it. He swaggers in - dangly pearl earring and fancy black brocade - with all the gusto of a vain rockstar at the top of his game. His act is utterly delectable. Wilmot’s exuberant prophet and Cameron Blakely’s puritan minister conclude the main ensemble, one is aloof and the other adds an accidenta sexual innuendo to every sentence he speaks. Something Rotten! is one of those objectively silly and slightly risqué pieces; with all its (sometimes desecrating) references, meta in-jokes, and winking at the audience, it’s ambrosia for musical theatre stans.

Among the hot satire, crisp humour, and easy quips, even the most on-the-nose gag works. The comical aspect probably hits differently in a country where Shakespeare is the king of kings than it did in New York, and the direction of the production sees slight changes even at a staged concert state. The original accent play (everyone spoke with American inflections but Christian Borle’s Bard) has been scrapped entirely in favour of the cast keeping their own cadence. A more interesting choice might have been having everybody maintain Received Pronunciation except for Shakespeare - but we can see the risk and this is only a first introduction, after all. Nonetheless, it remains a big-hearted, relentlessly funny musical. Or, as one would say, "a big and shiny, mighty fine-y, glitter, glitz, and chorus line-y, bob your head and shake your heiney musical". London deserves the full thing!

Something Rotten! In Concert runs at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane until 6 August.

Photo credit: Pamela Raith

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