Something Rotten has final hit the UK shores, at least in concert form. It feels like a long time coming for a show that is centred around Shakespeare and his birth place and I was thrilled to see if the show lived up to the hype.

The show tells of the Bottom Brothers Nick and Nigel, writers who are around during the Renaissance and when William Shakespeare was churning out his works. Nick soon starts to feel the pressure to write a hit as big as Shakespeare and enlists the help of Nostradamus (no not the famous one – his nephew) to foretell which of Shakespeare’s plays will be the biggest and this sets him down the path of producing a musical all about eggs!

Something Rotten is a rare find as it is a musical that is hilarious from start to finish. As a self proclaimed musical theatre geek the 11 ‘o’ clock number ‘Something Rotten/ Make An Omelette’ along with ‘A Musical’ had me crying with laughter. Equally for any Shakespeare buffs in the audience there were plenty of his famous lines, plot points and titles thrown in to raise a chuckle. The wonderful thing about this show however was that you didn’t need to be a theatre geek or a Shakespeare buff to find it funny, the whole show is cleverly written and silly in the best of ways.

The music by Wayne and Karey Kirkpatrick again hone in on the idea of fun and silliness, sometimes to the detriment of a memorable tune but, as with the script, if you simply succumb to the madness you are in for a good time.

It certainty helped that the cast in its entirety were willing to throw themselves into the spirit of the show. Jason Manford lead the cast as Nick Bottom and his comedy background was able to shine in this role. He looked entirely at home in the role not only making the audience laugh over and over again but also showing that his singing is nothing to laugh at. He won the audience over easily as Nick and despite Nick’s character flaws he had the audience rooting for him. Richard Fleeshman played an egotistical and self important Shakespeare, strutting his way across the stage in a perfect portrayal of this role. Full of swagger, Fleeshman convinced the audience that the whole of England was utterly besotted with him, mostly because after seeing his performance as Shakespeare the audience felt the same.

Nick Bottom’s long suffering wife, Bea was played by Marisha Wallace in a full circle moment for her having begun her Broadway career in the same show. Wallace played Bea, a woman ahead of her time, with a huge amount of gumption and her number ‘Right Hand Man’ was the perfect vehicle to show off her incredible vocals. Evelyn Hoskins and Cassius Hackforth played lovers Portia, a Puritan and Nigel Bottom, the brother with the writing talent and together they struck the balance of playing two young lovers yet being able to ham up their lines and the entrendre within them brilliantly.

The cast was supported by the 28 strong London Musical Theatre Orchestra under the musical direction of Freddie Tapner and they sounded superb alongside the London Musical Theatre Chorus which added some beautiful depth to the vocals.

The set was kept simple and being billed as a concert it didn’t need anything more and in fact demonstrated that for some of these concerts when it comes to set and lighting less can be more. The choreography by Tim Jackson and Claira Vaughan and was struck at the perfect level. We were able to get a flavour of what a full scale show would be like from it and it was used cleverly to enhance the comedy but equally it wasn’t so elaborate that it didn’t look polished (as can sometimes be the way with the current tranche of musical theatre concerts).

This concert has got the formula for a musical theatre concert spot on, an in demand show, cast perfectly with an incredible orchestra and enough detail in the direction and choreography to give us a real taste of the show but not so much as to overwhelm the cast. This show is far from Something Rotten, it is Something Special!

4th Wall Live, London Musical Theatre Orchestra and JAS Theatricals are also putting on Oklahoma in concert. You can buy tickets here.

If you like this review you might also like my review of Pippin in Concert, Diana the Musical in concert and Death Note in Concert.