The banner for the new musical: “Something Rotten”
Well everyone, at last there’s a new Shakespearean musical on Broadway! It was nominated for 10 Tony’s and won Best Actor! I caught one of the numbers during the Tony awards on Sunday and I would highly recommend checking this musical out!
The show is set in the 1590s, when all of theater is dominated by a powerful playwright called “The Bard”, who can seemingly do no wrong, (obviously a nod to Shakespeare) . The show then, centers around his competition; two actors who conceive and create the world’s first musical, paying the Bard a backhanded compliment by implying that the only way to beat Shakespeare is to come up with something he hasn’t done before.
Not only do I love the show’s tongue-in cheek wit, I also enjoy the fact that it has some flirtation with real history- Shakespearean plays were actually put to music in the 1640s, as a way of getting around the Puritan’s laws against spoken dialogue in plays. More importantly, the show is a loving parody of both Broadway and Shakespeare and who doesn’t just love loving parody?
So for all of you musical Gleeks and Shakespeare Nerds, go see “Something Rotten” if you can. Below is a link to their official website:
The Shakespearean Student 