iTunes Exclusive Episode Something Rotten
Rob and Don Ford review Something Rotten, a musical stage production at the Winspire Opera House (part of the AT&T Performing Arts Center) through June 25th. The show, about brothers Nick and Nigel Bottom competing with Shakespeare to create the first musical, features Rob McClure, Josh Grisetti, and Adam Pascal in lead roles. Rob calls it his favorite stage production of the year, praising the comedy, choreography, performances, and the way it appeals to both musical theater fans and general audiences.
About this episode
Key takeaways
- Something Rotten is not family-friendly due to adult references, but handles them in a classy way
- The show earned standing ovations during musical numbers—something Rob said he'd never seen before in a stage production
- The comedy style blends Mel Brooks, Monty Python, and the Zucker Brothers, with parodies of other musicals throughout
- Don Ford recommends sitting in the middle section on the floor for the best viewing experience
- The cast and orchestra, which included local musicians, delivered tight performances with excellent chemistry and choreography
Q&A
Is Something Rotten appropriate for families?
No, it contains many adult references, though they are handled in a classy way. It's not like The Sound of Music or The King and I.
Who are the three lead actors?
Rob McClure plays Nick Bottom, Josh Grisetti plays Nigel Bottom, and Adam Pascal plays William Shakespeare. All three were in the final Broadway lineup of the show.
When does Something Rotten run at the Winspire Opera House?
Through June 25th.
Who wrote the music for Something Rotten?
Wayne Kirkpatrick, a music industry figure who has also worked as a Christian artist, and his brother worked on the musical's music.
Read Transcript
Greetings Empire member and or members. If you are hearing this voice currently it means you have successfully navigated the following items. At least once in your life you have checked out the Clubhouse podcast live every Sunday night, 70's during four Pacific, your one-stop shop for all things pop culture.
But it also means you listen to this show on your favorite podcast app because it is time for another Autonesister number 298. That milestones right there within reach my friends. Welcome.
My name is Rob. I am the executive producer of the Clubhouse podcast and somebody called me a bard once they really didn't but I just wanted to say that. But I'm not alone for this particular episode joining me across the desk as he does from time to time.
Is the official fact checker of this show and a man who leaves the singing to the singers. You may know him as fondongo but his mom and name him Don Ford. I'm going to call him Don Ford.
Welcome sir. You know I'm bad enough from my viola. You don't want me to do carry.
I know we can't have you do both. You don't want me to carry Oki. Whatever we do one of these things here is to review something on this particular episode is no different.
Normally we would be joined by my co-host Chad Womack but he's a little under the weather tonight but nothing stops the wheels of progress people nothing. But he does have a written review of what we're about to talk about because it's time for us to review a stage production that's in town at the windspirer Opera House as part of the AT&T Performing Arts Center. It is called something rotten.
Hey first off, where's his review it? That would be currently located at www.theclubhousepodcast.com which is our website that's correct. Before shut the rest of this thing, we got to thank everybody at the AT&T pack.
We got to thank Cindy everybody at the windspirer. Such fans of everybody over there. We love all those people.
We have a facility. We have a beautiful night. We had a nice little thing before.
We didn't see. Yes we did. They have their brand new center cafe open.
Yes. You have to sample them where it's good times. So here's what you need to know.
It is the 1590s for something rotten with an exclamation point. Right. It is the right.
And you have a pair of brothers, Nick and Nigel bottom bottom bottom. I always make sure you think of the minions. They are play one's a playwright, the other one's a songwriter, and they are having some trouble because they're trying to compete with the William Shakespeare Shakespeare Shakespeare.
They do that every time. It's like the big rock star. He was a rock star.
We also find out that they used to work together in an acting troop and that didn't quite work out. So now they're competitors. Yes.
Well, they're out down on their luck. They're running out of money. They're running out of time before they lose their theater.
So Nick goes to a youthsayer who just happens to be named Nostradamus. And Nostradamus tells him that he looks into the future and the next big thing is going to be the musical. It's never been done before.
So Nick and Nigel set apart to write the very first musical and at the same time they want to try to steal by the suits there. They want to steal that the greatest idea that Shakespeare will ever have. That's about as deep as I want to go.
Because the rest of it, you really kind of got to see for yourself. And when I say you've got to see it for yourself, you've got to see it for yourself. But we're going to put a disclaimer on this.
Not a family show. No. A lot of adult references in this.
Because if you go to write review at www.clobaspodcast.com, that's our website. Yeah, I put on there that this is not for the entire family. It is not.
But there are a lot of adult references, but it's done classy. This is brewing. I'm not going to bury the lead here.
This is the best time that I've had at the theater in years. And we've seen some amazing production even more than Book of Mormon. Even more than Book of Mormon.
Right now, this is my favorite production of the year. Wow. And it's going to be tough to beat.
Because the way I start by writing review is real simple. If you want to know what this thing is, it's Mel Brooks combined with Money Python and the Zucker Brothers who did the airplane movies. And it's turned into a musical.
Nothing is sacred and no one is safe. You want to talk about a musical that makes fun of musicals. This is that musical.
I laughed all the way through this. But I think they don't respectfully. Oh, absolutely.
Yes. It's completely easy. It plays on everybody gets it.
Play so much to those ones that already set the bar. Like, for instance, there's one. Oh, Jasper.
He intends. There's Jasper. He's my hand boy, which is a what kind of animal is it?
He's cat. And what he has black what? He has black fur.
Well, another word for it's on top of my head. Oh, yeah. I mean, they really, they're, the thing was watching this, which kind of got to me.
They were making like a reference to a lot of productions through this. I was like, I said, nobody's safe. Yes.
Nobody's safe. But it's like, they did some kind of reference. And like, which one was that?
Which one were they making the thing yet? Because I can remember what's happening. And even if you have a basic knowledge of musical theater, it's still okay.
Because you're probably, you might be thinking to yourself, Rob, I don't know a lot about musicals. I don't think I'm going to enjoy this. It's not like if you don't know every musical ever, you're not going to enjoy this.
Because the comedic moments here are so great. And I'm going to say something else that I've never seen before, ever in a musical production, ever. Normally, you're major applause will come at the end of the musical.
Everybody gets the standing oh, and the cast comes out. Yeah. I have never in my life seen a number inside the musical that got a standing ovation.
And it happened twice. Yes. Once in each act.
Because first of all, the music, one of the songwriters, Wayne Kirkpatrick, if you might have heard that name before, this man is huge in music. He's also a Christian artist. He's done a lot of great writing in his time.
His brother also worked with him on this. The musical loan. Some of the, some of the music in this very complex rhythms, very, very wordy.
And this cast nails it every beat. There was never a point where they were thrown off their game. Now, your three leads, both bottom brothers and the guy in the plays William Shakespeare.
We have you through names out there. Nick bottom played by Rob McClure, Nigel bottom played by Josh Grissetti and Shakespeare played by Adam Pascal. All three of these guys were in the final lineup on Broadway, not the original, but the final lineup on Broadway.
Okay. So the chemistry was already there. And it was apparent.
Like he was palpable, the chemistry that these three had. I laughed all the way through this. These performances were brilliant.
The choreography is completely on point. During the song called a musical, when they start going into tap, oh my god. This choreography was, was tight as a drum.
Beautiful in that. Everything worked out. I had so much fun with this more than I thought I would.
And the thing I liked about it is they tried to act serious, but they had the comedy in it. They tried to be serious. They knew the balance and they knew how to strike the balance.
Yeah, they tried to act serious, but it's like me trying to act serious with the dictionary in English class. Yeah, that did do it. Yeah, okay.
Doing a seminary on pronunciation and vocabulary. Yeah, I could try to be serious, but when it happens, watch out. There's going to be a lot of laughter.
That's the best way to put it using the as a reference on that. Visually, beautiful, gorgeous. The layer of Nostradamus.
I love he's the nephew of Nostradamus. Yes. That set with that lighting beautiful.
You felt like you were in a layer. But they only had about six sets. You could say overall, I think about give or take.
Sounds about right. But they all look beautiful. The all look pure Broadway professional.
And by the way, Thomas Nostradamus played by Blake Hammond, who undermined it me a lot of Bobby Moynihan on Saturday night live. I thought his performance was great. Beautiful.
Incredibly funny. Yes. And you want to talk about funny.
Let's talk about Brooke got coat playing brother Jeremiah. Oh, yeah. The Puritan minister who thinks the theater is the work of the devil.
And he's going to be trying to make things happen. Who? Oh, Larry.
I like to say he has closeted tendency. Yes. The best way to put it.
And then Autumn Hurlbert, who plays Porsche, his daughter. I thought she was great. Yes.
Very, very funny. She kind of has a little bit of love connection with Nigel. And the scene they have together is just absolutely a riot.
But what's the song I'm looking for? I believe it's called, I love the way where she's like, you need to help him out. And he's like, do you think that could really happen?
Probably not. But I will, I will say that it just mix so well. The acting was perfect.
The sounded not the music to not over, you know, shallow, shallow the scene. And a great orchestra. Great orchestra band down there.
And they were all a chunk of them were local musicians too. But I was like, in visual overload on this thing, because like that scene where they do the tap dance in all the sudden, there's the, the back brown with the stars in it. I mean, in the lights in it.
You know, it looks like they're on stars. Just like you did not see that coming. Which was also a part of the parody.
Yes. I mean, there are literal straight up parody to other musicals in this. And it's what to me is the brilliance of this thing.
And the thing is, okay, I took my lady friend faith to this. You did indeed. And she was a couple of the seats down for me.
But during this thing, she laughed and laughed. Because I was going to ask you about that. What her view went away.
And she loved it. But the thing that really got it is she would start seeing it to musical. It's I'm like, okay, it's okay to laugh at people like it.
I appreciate that. But you know, she got into it. She really got into it.
Lapt on the thing. Start it singing. And then there's one saying, all you guys say is the word genius.
She walks out. Genius. Yeah, it's just, I mean, she loved it.
This is a happy. This is a musical for non-musical people. It's really what it is.
And just as much as it's a musical for musical people, who will get all the references. This is the kind of production that you can go to and not feel like you're at the snobby. You're going to go.
You're going to have a good time and you're going to laugh. And it's just I was so impressed by this. I didn't know what to expect.
But I was really blown out the water too on this. And I just can't get back to those references. There's so many.
I did not get because I heard you guys in fact, which one does that one, which one but I mean, even for the people who don't really know it, when he says, hair, you know, it's just like, oh, they're, they're moving. This is just direct. There were moments where Chad and I just looked at each other at one.
Wow, that just happened. But in a way that was, I was like, does a bold choice and it's funny and it works. It did.
Again, this is just direct. This is the best. This is the best.
This is the best. This is the best night of theater. I've spent a long time.
And again, we've seen some amazing productions. This one is head and shoulders above the rest from me right now. Really?
Anything else you want to add for me to the final analysis? I just go and have a good time. Leave your brain at the door like you like to say.
And just, you know, if you get offended, it's like put a Mormon. You might get offended but deal with it, but they do a classy. They do a classy.
Don't come here with your proper on here for a mother. Phil, no, no, no, no, no. It's a call.
That's supposed to be proper. No, you're not going to get that. This is not going to be something like sound of music or King I.
Exactly. As much as we love those, but we do love those. Yes.
All right. So the way we do the final analysis on the show. We're not going to give you a thumbs up thumbs down.
We're not going to give you letter grades, numbers, guillotines, whatever. We're going to ask two questions. Question number one is, would you see this production again?
If the answer's no, we're done here. But if the answer's yes, the question becomes, since this is a stage production, where do you want to sit? Because where you want to sit?
Of course, ticket prices change and that will determine the desirable of this. Don, would you see this again? Well, that's a definite where you sit.
Usually recommended. I would say, yeah, I would say kind of in the middle, in the middle section on the floor, kind of not too close, but maybe close to the mid area. Okay.
I would see this again like, can we go right now and get in the building? I don't care how you get in the building. Get in the building.
This production acted. They did pack it. And this production is wonderful.
This cast is amazing. There's nothing about this particular production. I said earlier, I'll say it again.
At this point in the year, this is my favorite stage production that we've seen. And we've seen some amazing, amazing things. And it's only June.
Beautiful, beautiful. But keep in mind, this is, if you don't live in the DFW area, you know, this could come to your area. This is a tripod.
Yeah, this plays at the Winspir Opera House through June 25th, June 25th. So again, we got, thanks, Cindy Evans. We got figure by the ATT.
And actually we're letting us come see a little musical called something rotten. Let's do the plugs. Visit our website.
We've mentioned it before. We will mention it again. www.theclubhousepodcast.com.
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I mean, come on it's a run-as-off. You're going to have everyone those really awesome beautiful dresses and she could just saunter around to do what she does. Come on, get with it, people!