Something Rotten! NYC Reviews and Tickets
Show-Score Member Reviews (6,482)
See it if I LOVED this show so much than I saw it 26 times; and would have gone more if I could have afforded it. My favorite musical EVER.
Don't see it if you don't like farce-and/or not familiar with Broadway musicals-they are all referenced in some way in song/staging.
See it if you like fun, you are fun, and you like to talk about fun things. Because, you will be talking about this forever. Sometimes, you will sing.
Don't see it if you don't have a good sense of humor, or are unfamiliar with Broadway. Also if you are not a fun person. Then, stay away.
See it if you like Shakespeare (or like to see him attacked.) You like musicals and will get inside jokes.
Don't see it if You get offended with lines like "Don't be a penis, the man is a genius."
See it if if you like anything Broadway, Shakespeare, or both... it's a must see. One of the few plays/musicals I would see again, and again.
Don't see it if you are uptight.
See it if you love musicals or want toe-tapping great entertainment!
Don't see it if you don't like musicals or don't like being entertained
See it if you are suffering from lack of laughter. It is hilarious. I had my dosage of laughter for the week after seeing it on Sunday (11/20/16)
Don't see it if you don't like to laugh
See it if you are a fan of musicals and the cultural history of such. Weaving musicals into Shakespearean England is both clever and hilarious.
Don't see it if you are looking for a boring, low-key evening.
See it if You want to laugh out loud and enjoy an entertaining show. You've seen a number of musicals & enjoy comical references .
Don't see it if You are looking for serious Shakespear
Critic Reviews (42)
"Unchecked enthusiasm is not always an asset in musical comedy, despite the genre’s reputation for wholesale peppiness. “Something Rotten!,” the rambunctious new show that opened on Wednesday night, dances dangerously on the line between tireless and tedious, and winds up collapsing into the second camp."
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"Something Rotten is a big splashy puffball of a musical that has been way over-thought, over written and over-worked. There is not room for one more note, one more reference to a Broadway musical, one more historical factoid, one more nod to Shakespeare, one more word or gesture or even breath. We waddle out of the theatre stuffed, but not satiated."
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"'Something Rotten' is simply false advertising. Something Absolutely Brilliant would be closer to the mark, but I imagine modesty prevented those involved from telling the truth about this parody. It is, quite simply, the best musical I have seen in ages."
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"Nicholaw’s genius for reducing an audience to helpless giggles is on blazing display in Something Rotten! — a new show so steeped in the tradition that it often seems like a concordance. Anything you’ve ever liked in a musical comedy (and a few things you haven’t) are here, just waiting to sing-and-dance you into submission...It’s total silliness, of course; Nicholaw keeps the lights bright, the sound loud, and the plot moving at a furious boil. (That’s part of why it evaporates so quickly.)"
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"The cast is resolutely lively, and “Something Rotten!” has enough punch to partially conceal the thinness of the material. Nevertheless, this one’s for backward sophomores only."
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"Supremely silly...the musical love child of “The Carol Burnett Show” and “Forbidden Broadway.” In other words, this showbiz offspring has some darn fine DNA. And a terrific core idea...And the formula works — mostly. Some tunes and dance pieces recur. So laughs dry up as “Something Rotten!” becomes a deju vu-sical. There’s compensation, though, including a mouthwatering production that looks like more than a million bucks."
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"Shamelessly silly parody of Broadway musicals — an outrageous spoof of all things Shakespeare...Although comic desperation descends on the second act, it’s still a deliriously funny show."
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"Smells like a hit, a very palpable hit...This is a big, brash meta-musical studiously fashioned in the mold of Monty Python's Spamalot, The Producers and The Book of Mormon, loaded with crowd-pleasing showstoppers, deliciously puerile gags and an infectious love of the form it so playfully skewers...Even if the show doesn't finish as strongly as it starts, its giddy high spirits prevail."
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