Category: Comedy

Creating a big production number

Night after night on Broadway, the fifth number in the hit show Something Rotten! earns an early standing ovation. It’s called “A Musical”, sung by unreliable soothsayer Thomas Nostradamus as he explains to baffled Elizabethan-era writer Nick Bottom what the...

Q&A with “Something Rotten!” associate director Steve Bebout

Q – Can you take me back to when you started working on the big show-stopping number “A Musical”? A – I work with Casey [Nicholaw, director & choreographer], and he has an associate choreographer John MacInnis as well. And...

Q&A with “Something Rotten!” director and choreographer Casey Nicholaw

Q – What made you decide to say yes to Something Rotten!? Was it because of Kevin McCollum’s [producer] involvement and the potential you saw in the material? A – It sort of started with Kevin, just because of our...

Q&A with “Something Rotten!’s” Karey Kirkpatrick (Book, Music & Lyrics) and John O’Farrell (Book)

Q – Can you talk about the initial idea/concept? K – I think it was a series of conversations that happened over a series of meetings, Christmas dinners, since Wayne [Kirkpatrick, Karey’s brother] and I don’t live in the same town. We...

Q&A with “Something Rotten!” music and lyricist Wayne Kirkpatrick

Q – You and Karey [Kirkpatrick, Wayne’s brother] had this initial idea 20 years ago. Can you remember how it surfaced? A – We wish we could. It was such an organic process. We were in musical theater in high...

Creating an original musical in “Something Rotten!”

Something Rotten!, the Tony Award-nominated show that’s touring the country this season, is an increasing rarity among Broadway musicals: it’s a completely original work not based on a movie, play, book or other source material. The show originated from an...

The silly songs of “Something Rotten!”

Something Rotten! is brimming with countless references from some of the most beloved modern musicals throughout history. Jazz hands out! Below is a list of just some of our favorites from the show-stopping number “A Musical”.  “Some musicals have no...

Creating the completely new Broadway musical “Something Rotten!”

Most Broadway newcomers don’t get their first show produced by Tony Award-winner Kevin McCollum, and they don’t typically land Tony-winner Casey Nicholaw as their director-choreographer. But brothers Karey and Wayne Kirkpatrick and British comedy writer John O’Farrell, the creators of...

The world of “Something Rotten!”

The Renaissance Something Rotten! transports today’s audiences from the seats of a Broadway house across the Atlantic and back through the history book pages to Renaissance England. But what is the Renaissance, and how did it change England in the...
Something Rotten

The unique humor of Broadway’s funniest show

The laugh lines in the Broadway hit Something Rotten! flow from different sources. Some come at the expense of William Shakespeare, the rock star of his day, here played as a world-weary writer who finds being famous so much more...
rendering of Pat McAfee's Barstool Heartland headquarters in Indianapolis

Pat McAfee to open ‘Barstool Heartland’ headquarters in Indianapolis

The most successful punter in Indianapolis Colts history—Pat McAfee—has turned his mind toward comedy and now he’s creating a media empire in downtown Indianapolis with Barstool Heartland.