‘Something Rotten!’ coming to Theatre Cedar Rapids stage

Something may be rotten in Denmark, or at the back of your fridge, but the next musical bouncing onto the Theatre Cedar Rapids stage Feb. 9 to March 3 is rotten in name only.

“Something Rotten!” landed on Broadway in 2015, under the guidance of director/choreographer Casey Nicholaw, who shepherded “The Book of Mormon,” and producer Kevin McCollum, a producer for “Avenue Q,” a naughty parody of “Sesame Street.”

While “Something Rotten!” is every bit as wild and energetic as those two shows, it’s more family-friendly — suitable for middle-schoolers on up, said guest director Matt Hagmeier Curtis, 41, a TCR veteran now living in Boston.

Which is not to say it’s squeaky clean.

“A lot of the jokes that are more adult-themed are gonna go right over the kids’ heads, so it can play on a double level,” Curtis said.

He added that the “raunchiest thing” in the show is the moment where a young man reads a poem he’s written for the young Puritan woman he fancies, which Curtis likened to “poetic intercourse.”

Will viewers want what she’s having?

“Yes,” he said with a laugh. “(It’s) very Meg Ryan.”

The cast is full of young adults, with a few veterans in key roles. That was intentional, Curtis said, calling “stamina” one of the production’s biggest challenges.

“There are no less than five major dance numbers in the show,” he said. “The pacing of all of them is rapid and quick, and keeps the actors on their feet and me as a director on my feet — and hopefully the audience will be at the edge of their seats, and on their feet, perhaps.”

If you go

What: “Something Rotten!” mainstage musical

Where: Theatre Cedar Rapids, 102 Third St. SE, Cedar Rapids

When: Feb. 9 to March 3; 7:30 p.m. Thursday to Saturday, 2:30 p.m. Sunday

Tickets: $25 to $59; TCR Box Office, (319) 366-8591 or theatrecr.org/event/something-rotten-2/2024-02-09/

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Plot thickens

The action takes place in South London in 1595, but history gets twisted and bent into a rockin’ Renaissance tale for the ages, told in modern vernacular.

“Shakespeare is a rock star,” Curtis said. “He is the Mick Jagger of his time, and he’s sucking up the spotlight from all the other would-be writers and poets of the time, who can’t get their share of any (fame).”

In other words, they can’t get no satisfaction.

“Our protagonist, Nick Bottom, aptly named, pays a fortuneteller to look into the future and tell him what the next biggest thing in theater is going to be, so that he can get the jump on theater,” Curtis said. “And the fortuneteller says, well, it’s musicals.”

But no one knows what that means.

“So the fortuneteller tries to explain it — and he may be a good fortuneteller or he may not be a very good fortuneteller. So (Nick) sets about to write the world’s first musical, to get a leg up on Shakespeare.”

Nick’s brother, Nigel Bottom, joins him in the quest. Will it be an impossible dream?

Audience members need not be schooled in Shakespeare to enjoy the show, Curtis noted, but those who are in the know will pick up on some not-so-subtle clues, like the name “Nick Bottom.”

The real Shakespeare is thought to have been writing “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” between 1595 and 1596, and in putting pen to paper, he not only named one of those characters Nick Bottom, but gave him the head of a donkey. In the “Something Rotten!” re-imagined world, Nick Bottom is stealing ideas from his former friend-turned-nemesis, Shakespeare, so of course, The Bard would view him as a jackass.

People who groove on musical theater will hear words like “Shipoopi” and “Chicago” bandied about, while choreographer Megan Helmers has the cast tap dancing around reality, tossing in bits of the hand jive and a conga line. Just in time for Lent, little Easter eggs are scattered about the dialogue, dance and costumes, just waiting to be found as the story unfolds.

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Character studies

Sure, the show has main characters, like the Bottom brothers and Shakespeare, but all 25 players onstage see more than their fair share of action.

Brandon Burkhardt, who recently loosened up the Tin Man in “The Wizard of Oz” at TCR, taps his way into the role of writer Nick Bottom, while Jeffrey Harrington, last seen as a high-flying monkey in “Oz,” is now playing Nick’s younger brother, the wooing poet Nigel Bottom.

“It’s a very strange, but fun family dynamic,” said Burkhardt, 24, a senior at the University of Iowa, who is student teaching at Marion’s Linn-Mar High School.

“They had lost their parents when they were young, so Nick, the older brother, took the younger brother under his wing, and they both started writing for Nick’s theater troupe. Nigel, from a really young age, became very good at writing,” Burkhardt said.

“Nigel is the primary playwright for the group, but Nick’s the showman. And so they make a good duo.”

Their relationship is “unique,” Harrington said, “because Nigel is very anxious. He has very heightened emotions. When he likes something, he really likes it. And when he doesn’t like something, he really doesn’t like it. And when he is nervous, freaking out, he really freaks out, so Nick is always calming him down.”

“These two brothers have fought through everything together,” Burkhardt added, “and even though they’re exact opposites, that’s what makes them work so well together.”

It’s not Burkhardt’s first go-round with the role. He played Nick last year at the University of Iowa, and leapt at the chance to hop on the merry go-round again.

“It’s the combination of my two favorite worlds, getting to play a part that I love with a company that love,” he said.

Katelyn Halverson, 22, of Iowa City, a Kirkwood Community College student, portrays Puritan Portia, the object of Nigel’s affections and target of his scintillating, steamy wordsmithery.

Halverson saw that UI production, and knew TCR was going to be doing it, too.

“That was my first exposure to the show, and I loved it so much,” she said. “I was listening to the music, and I was like, ‘I need to be in the show. I need to audition for the show.’ So I just auditioned, and now here I am, and I’m very, very grateful.”

Looks can be deceiving for her character, whose father doesn’t approve of theater or any arts endeavors. But she loves poetry, and soon, Portia loves Nigel.

“She’s able to dive into this world that she hasn’t been able to fully immerse herself in, and she’s able to share it with somebody else,” Halverson said. “Portia’s character very much exists with Nigel — the two of them are kind of a pair — so she really finds her voice and her true self during the show. ...

“You assume Portia to be one way. When you first see her on stage, she’s in her Puritan garb. But then you find out that she’s silly, she’s quirky (and) she loves to read, which probably was uncommon for a woman at the time.”

Through Nigel’s poetry, she has her own spring awakening of sorts, Curtis said.

“She’s experiencing all these feelings that she’s never really felt before,” Halverson said, “that she previously maybe thought to be shameful. But it’s OK. She knows it’s fun, it’s good.”

Halverson said her own biggest challenge is keeping a straight face, “but it’s wonderful working with (director Curtis). He’s opened my eyes to so many different little things that I would never have thought about before.”

Greg Smith, who hammed it up with wry as Col. Mustard in “Clue,” is cloaked this time as the fortuneteller Nostradamus. But he’s not THE Nostradamus, he’s the royal seer’s younger, possibly inept brother, Thomas Nostradamus. Yes, it rhymes, in a rather rhythmic, sing-songy way.

Smith, 55, of Marion, a TCR veteran, saw “Something Rotten!” on Broadway with the original cast.

“I fell in love with the show right away,” he said. “It was one of those where we brought the whole family in, and I just couldn’t stop talking about it.” When he found out TCR was doing the show, “I just had to audition.”

Like his famous brother, this Nostradamus “does have the gift, because he’s right enough that you know he’s not making it up. But he’s wrong enough that he’s just wrong,” Smith said. “And many times, it sets the brothers — especially Nick — on a path that is just very foolish. And so of course, that sets up the whole story.”

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Director’s notes

Curtis, a Cedar Rapids native, said his participation in Theatre Cedar Rapids and Youtheatre shows, “The Follies” and Jefferson High School shows and Thespians club instilled in him “the lifelong love of theater.”

“Today, I can see the benefits of being exposed to theater as a young person,” he said.

That translated to him studying musical theater, then getting an advance degree in theater education, both at the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley. He’s now the content and marketing director for the Educational Theatre Association, a national association for theater teachers. The organization also runs the International Thespian Society and its summer festival.

The son of Lori Hagmeier and the late Terry Hagmeier, he reconnected with TCR while he was working for Disney on Broadway. When he found out TCR was doing multiple Disney shows in one season, he reached out to director Angie Toomsen. He offered his expertise on “Shakespeare in Love,” since he helped develop that script.

He returned when TCR was doing “Newsies,” which he said was his “pride and joy,” since he “launched that into the licensing world.”

Toomsen invited him to return if he ever wanted to direct a TCR show, but he was too busy in New York to make that kind of time commitment.

Then the pandemic shut down Broadway, so he and his husband moved to Boston later in 2020. His new job there allows him to work remotely by day and direct in Cedar Rapids by night, before returning to Boston and a well-earned vacation.

“I couldn’t be more thrilled that (TCR) offered me (‘Something Rotten!’),” he said. “I remember seeing the show on Broadway and it was one of those shows where I think I peed my pants five times during Act One, laughing so hard. And then it was a show where if I had people coming into New York to visit me, we would be going to see that show.

“It’s accessible to any sort of theater-going audience,” he said. “It’s funny, it moves quickly.

“It’s just a gem — a little gem.”

Comments: (319) 368-8508; diana.nollen@thegazette.com