"Something Rotten!"

July 2, 2025 — In its 95th season, The Barnstormers Theatre in Tamworth, New Hampshire chose for its first presentation of 2025, Something Rotten! by Karey Kirkpatrick and Wayne Kirkpatrick. This production was directed for The Barnstormers by Jordan Ahnquist who is also assuming his new duties as artistic director.

It's 1590 in Elizabethan England and Nick Bottom (Ryan Halsaver) and Nigel Bottom (Jacob Erdody) are trying to stage a play, but they're competing with the greatest playwright the English language has ever known. Need I mention who? William Shakespeare (Lee Hollis Bussie, tall and dominating, preening and effete in garish costumes, in one of the best performances of the play).

When it's suggested to Nick they produce their play as a musical, he's dubious at first. You mean combine singing and dancing in the same play with dialog? Who ever heard of that? Shylock (Jorje Barranco) convinces Nick to go ahead with it and the resulting play is entitled "Omelette: The Musical" after Nostradamus misunderstands Hamlet as Omelette. That's not the worst pun in this production. Nostradamus is played by veteran comic actor Doug Shapiro, one of my favorites. He's always a show-stopper. He just takes all the oxygen out of the theater when he's on.

Outstanding song and dance numbers are the highlights of this production, performed by a multi-talented cast. There are also plenty of laughs. The story line is complicated. Nigel meets and falls in love with Portia (Mary McNulty). Brother Jeremiah (Scott Cote) discovers the lovers and imprisons Portia. Nick's wife, Bea (Rachel Alex Norman), discovers she's pregnant. In a court scene near the end, Nick, Nigel, Nostradamus and Shylock are sentenced to beheading.

 The format of the program doesn't make all the actors and their roles clear, so I apologize if I've missed or misidentified any. There was an error in lighting. A row of lights of different colors were mounted above the stage, behind the actors. Occasionally, bright white lights came on briefly, causing those of us nearest the stage to shield our eyes and rendering actors nearly invisible.

My complaints are minor. This high-energy, beautifully directed and staged production will be hard to top for the rest of the season by any theater.

Sara Coombs was the choreographer and Michael Ursula music director. Alison Pugh did masterful work on the many costumes.