What if Shakespeare was the villain?
I imagine that was the springboard for the story of Something Rotten. What if Shakespeare struggled to find inspiration, and instead "borrowed" from his contemporaries - people with names like Nick Bottom, Shylock, and Portia?
Whatever the genesis of this show, one thing's for sure: it's Shakespearean in tone and scope. The humor ranges from clever and witty to low and base. Subplots abound, and there are wheels within wheels.
Several of us were lucky enough to see the show at Park Playhouse this summer, and that company did everything exactly right. It was a spectacular production, and one that intimidated me until a few weeks ago. How could we possibly imagine the show looking any different than their production, well, we did. And it does.
The energy of our cast is - as always - worth the price of admission alone. These kids work hard, review their choreography during their downtime (thank you, Kaleigh, for posting rehearsal videos after every day's progress), and bring big life to these big musical numbers.
And we didn't cut a single measure of dance music. Not one. This is the show as written; we took no shortcuts. It helped that we started our Saturday rehearsals in December instead of January. It helped that kids brought multiple pairs of shoes to every rehearsal. It helped that our leads - even those who weren't called - came to rehearsal anyway to help any way they could.
There's nothing "rotten" about this one. We hope you enjoy it. And Shakespeare redeems himself at the end; don't worry.
Special thanks are due as always to the parents and families of the Guilderland Players, to the Guilderland High School Music Department, to our Maintenance and Custodial staff, to Melissa Drislane, and to Alex Finsel, Bob Winans, Dr. Wiles, and the Board of Education for their support of Music and the Arts.
The Fred Heiktamp/Guilderland Players Award recipients for 2023 was Mia Oppy. If you’d like to make a donation toward the Award, please send it to The Guilderland Players at Guilderland High School, Guilderland Center, NY, 12085.
