The newly discovered Shakespeare's original first folio is seen in the Saint-Omer library, northern France, Wednesday, Nov. 26, 2014.Michel Spingler/The Associated Press
William Shakespeare is heading back to Broadway – but this time he'll be mocked in a musical.
Tony-winning producer Kevin McCollum said Tuesday that the sweet and goofy new show Something Rotten! will play the St. James Theatre in March. Tony winner Casey Nicholaw will direct and choreograph the musical.
The comedy is set during the Renaissance and portrays Shakespeare as an arrogant, rock star playwright. Two brothers desperate to write a hit show in his shadow stumble on the notion of writing the world's first musical. There's plenty of tap dancing, clever rhyming and fortune-telling. "It takes place in 1595 but it's also about today and theatre-going and entertainment and celebrity and status and economics and success and joy and the crucible of creativity," McCollum said.
The musical has music and lyrics by the brothers Wayne Kirkpatrick and Karey Kirkpatrick. Wayne Kirkpatrick is a Grammy Award-winning songwriter of such tunes as Change the World for Eric Clapton and Wrapped Up In You by Garth Brooks. His brother helped write such films as Chicken Run and The Smurfs 2.
The show's book is by Karey Kirkpatrick and John O'Farrell, an author known for the books The Man Who Forgot His Wife and The Best a Man Can Get. The new musical will mark the trio's first Broadway show.
"It's got good-old-fashioned entertainment in a fresh package," said Nicholaw, whose credits include Aladdin and The Book of Mormon. "It feels kind of contemporary and the music sounds contemporary. I love it. I'm so excited I get to share it with people." A previously planned stop in Seattle to get the show ready for Broadway has been dropped. "We developed it much faster together than we even thought possible," McCollum said. The theatre became available when Side Show announced it would close early at the St. James.
Previews begin March 23 with an opening set for April 22.