New musical production of "Something Rotten" reimagines Shakespeare as a rock star

Take a trip to the past when Shakespeare may have been treated like a rock star! In the Lyric Stage Company's production of "Something Rotten," that's bad news for two brothers stuck in the shadow of the bard.

Director Ilana Ransom Toeplitz explained that "if you're here for historical accuracy, this isn't the show for you."

"I think 'Something Rotten' is really just like a brilliant contemporary version of like a golden age musical," said actor Ryan Mardesich.

The musical lovingly tips its hat to those beloved shows of the past.

"We loved sifting through the script and finding all the references to like other existing musicals," Indijhan Richard, a member of the ensemble, said. 

There are dozens of those references in the dialogue, choreography, and score.

"This music is great," says music director Katya Stanislavskaya. "It's probably one of the most inclusive musicals, musically speaking. There's something for everyone."

The piece tells the story of the Bottom brothers, who are competing with a guy named Will.

Mardesich said, "It's imagining Shakespeare as what he would have been like to the general public back then, which is basically a rock star. "

"It does comment on celebrity culture much like we know it today, but you put it into those times and who he was. You really could imagine this very pompous, very sensual, but also struggling artist version of the Bard as we know it today," actor Kristian Espiritu said.

"We don't know that much about Shakespeare," explained Ransom Toeplitz. "We don't know how much of his own writing he actually did or how much he borrowed from other writers. So this is all sort of what if….?"

While the musical takes place during the Renaissance, Stanislavskaya told WBZ-TV there is a modern sensibility.

"The idea of women having agency and not depending on men, and the female character's music is probably the most positive in terms of its musical energy and originality."

Espiritu said, "If you're a big musical theater fan, if you are a Shakespeare fan, if you just love being able to enjoy art in community, I think it's worth it to laugh and love out loud and this show definitely encourages that."

You can see "Something Rotten" at the Lyric Stage Company in Boston through June 7th.