By Jacob Ying
Something may be rotten in the state of Georgia, but it wasn’t Lovett’s spring musical Something Rotten.
Theater Arts Director Mr. Decker’s show was a brilliant spectacle of a production. Set in the late 16th century, Something Rotten follows brothers Nick and Nigel Bottom (Carson Tinkler and Rodes Cole) as they try to overtake their rival William Shakespeare in popularity. Searching for a great idea, Nick visits soothsayer Nancy Nostradamus (Susan Googe), niece of the famous Nostradamus, who reveals to him that the future of theater is musicals. Meanwhile, Nigel falls in love with Portia (Olivia Jaje) over poetry, much to the chagrin of Portia’s Puritan father, Brother Jeremiah (Shannon Collins). Nick returns to Nancy to steal Shakespeare’s ideas; he asks her to divulge his greatest play. Nancy mistakes the legendary Hamlet for Omelette, setting the plot into motion.
While Something Rotten’s premise is inherently ridiculous, the musical was funny, exciting, and insightful.
Poking fun at theater cliches is one of the show’s strong suits, according to Mr. Decker. “It was also a sort of tongue-in-cheek spoof on the time period and the topic,” he said. It features an entire five-minute number parodying musical theater tropes.
And, the musical parodies Shakespeare by copying some of his most common tropes. It features a forbidden romance, comedic characters, and a crazy plot. It also takes hints from one of Shakespeare’s favorite techniques: innuendo. The show uses Nigel and Portia’s relationship to insert some funny, seemingly inoffensive jokes. She’s obviously talking about poetry when she says it makes her tingle. Of course, the play also uses situational humor, dramatic irony, and the silly fact that it’s about eggs.
The plot is action-packed. The whole way through, something drives the plot forward, usually a conflict. The show features infighting between the brothers and disappointment from Portia’s father, both developing themes about self-worth and family.
What made Lovett’s production of Something Rotten so good? Mr. Decker used a meticulous process to select and direct his musicals.
“I usually choose my musicals based on the cast members that I have. So I look at my casting pool first and I see how many women, how many men, ages, experience levels, all that sort of thing. And I try to fit the musical to the casting pool that I have,” said Mr. Decker.
By doing this, he can create a production that caters to the strength of his actors. He also aims for novelty. “We’ve never tackled the world of the play. We’ve never done anything about Shakespeare’s London before,” he explained. Mr. Decker really wants to love a show when he selects it, saying that he picks something with a “no skips” soundtrack.
After choosing the perfect musical for the year, Mr. Decker begins directing the show. Because Lovett is time-constrained, and the production consists of students, not professionals, Mr Decker tries to multi-task when directing. “We try to multitask as much as possible where we like to break the work up into three parts. So I’ll be working on an acting scene while Ms. Puckett is working with the singers on a singing moment, and then Ms. Metzger is working with the dancers on a dance moment…then we come all together, and we put the pieces together,” he said.
Obviously, it worked. The actors loved the show. Ella Williams, who played William Shakespeare said, “My favorite part was probably when it all came together at the end with our costumes. It was really cool to just see it all accumulate into something that was really funny and with still the historical elements that are pretty good.”
Ensemble member AJ Wills agreed. “The energy for all musicals… it’s just incredible,” he said. “But Something Rotten and its mocking of Shakespeare just makes it so much more funny and have so much more energy.”
Ella also extolled Mr. Decker as a director.”You never feel like you are trying to push through things by yourself,” she said. “He’s really good at working individually with you and character work and just making sure it’s a collective, enjoyable experience for everyone.”
According to Ella, Mr. Decker has an inclusive philosophy. “My favorite thing that he says is that his favorite word about theater is ensemble,” she said. “So it’s never about how many lines you’ve got, how many songs you’ve got. It’s all about that collectivity that everyone feels in theater.”
Actors put a ton of work into making the production and following Mr. Decker’s direction.
AJ explained he prepares “by researching what they would actually do, what that kind of character would actually do, and probably just getting myself in the mindset of I am this person.”
Ella’s extensive preparation included learning lines, practicing songs, doing character work, and rehearsing choreography.
While she thinks the “biggest part in preparation” is learning lines, the hardest part for her is definitely harmonizing in large ensemble pieces. “I think having so many layers of harmonies, so many things going on at once. [It] is really difficult. You’ve got to learn all your harmonies while learning all your dance parts and your lines at the same time,” she said.
As an actress, Ella had to change her personality to become Shakespeare. “I like to think that I’m not a massive diva every single day of my life, so it was kind of a big thing for me to get out of my comfort zone a bit into that, not caring what people think. And just being kind of narcissistic. It was kind of difficult, but after you got into the swing of it, it was really fun.”
All in all, Something Rotten was certified fresh.
