Something Rotten! is a Broadway musical comedy with a book by screenwriters Karey Kirkpatrick and John O'Farrell, and music and lyrics by Grammy Award-winning songwriter Wayne Kirkpatrick and Karey Kirkpatrick. The show opened on Broadway in 2015 and ran for over 700 performances, earning ten Tony Award nominations and taking home the award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical for Christian Borle's performance as William Shakespeare.
Set in 1590s London, the story follows brothers Nick and Nigel Bottom, two struggling playwrights who are unable to compete with Shakespeare's cultural dominance. Desperate for a breakthrough, Nick consults a soothsayer who predicts that the future of theatre lies in a new form in which actors sing, dance and act simultaneously. The brothers set about creating the world's first musical, with comic consequences.
The show is structured as a broad theatrical satire, drawing on the conventions of Renaissance drama and the 20th-century American musical tradition simultaneously. It includes large-scale song and dance numbers, including tap sequences, and features a cast of exaggerated comic characters. The production runs 120 minutes, including an interval, and carries a PG age restriction.
Parking is available on-site at Artscape. The Artscape Theatre Centre is within walking distance of the Cape Town CBD and is served by the MyCiti bus along the Foreshore.