Something Rotten: It Smells

Today’s post is a review of Something Rotten, playing July 25-30 at Kansas City’s Starlight Theater.

This is the first Starlight experience in awhile that I have nothing to comment on besides the show.  The rest of the experience was suitable and without incident.

Let me start by saying this play is worth seeing — once.

There are a lot of cute moments in this play. If they didn’t spoil it by the perpetual sexual innuendos that are so overt that they almost cease being innuendos it would have been even better. These lend a certain sort of high-schoolish  immaturity to the musical, an attempt to appear adult that proves oneself even more juvenile instead.

There is a number about halfway through the first act, A Musical, that was good enough, and got the sort of ovation, that a show should end on. It was almost a pity that the show didn’t end at this point.

There is a main plotline, and then there is a secondary plot about the romance of Nigel and Portia. Unfortunately, the secondary plot is more engaging and satisfying than the primary plot. I Love the Way, a song about poetry and art and lovers, is a gorgeous piece as well.

My final main complaint is about an entire character in the show: William Shakespeare. They play him up as a rock star, and have him dressed like a medieval rock star, with rock music, and all the affectations. Now, a similar sort of attempt is done in the musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, where Pharaoh is turned into Elvis — “The King”. Except the use of Elvis blends better into the fabric of Dreamcoat better than Shakespeare does into Rotten. Shakespeare is oversold in this musical. He drags down the plot, and every scene he is in.

There are other nice songs in the repertoire — Right Hand Man and its reprises comes to mind — but they aren’t able to overcome the other elements I have described, the infantile fixation on sex and the lack of empathy for the main plot line.

I’m sure my perspective does not agree with a lot of people. So, go see the show — once so you can say you have seen it — and tell me whether you agree or disagree with my analysis.

_________________________________________________________________________________

NOTE: Here is the “usual” Thursday update for the Cedar Fair All Season Dining Plan