#so im playing around with that difference and what brad would do in shoes similar to mine that just don't quite fit

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Something Rotten Tour: Previews

This is going to be a LONG post with a lot of notes from the Something Rotten Tour! I saw it January 14th and 15th in Schenectady.

WARNING: SPOILERS. DO NOT READ IF YOU ARE GOING TO SEE THE TOUR. YOU WILL ENJOY IT MORE IF YOU DO NOT KNOW THE CHANGES. TRUST ME. 

If I wrote UPDATE, its something that either changed or I didn’t notice the first night but did in the next show

Welcome to the Renaissance: Instead of saying ‘and everything is new’ the minstrel said ‘whats a famous bard to do’

UPDATE: He was perfect this time!

It is so weird seeing the new ensemble, especially when two shakespeare understudies next to each other, because they look identical

2 ensemblists had to pull open the theater for the beginning since nothing is mechanic

Nick and Bea’s house is made of 2 different boards and a door, also brought on by ensemblists

MAGGIE AS BEA IS SO CUTE. Its similar to Heidi’s Bea but not exactly like her

During Right Hand Man, when she says ‘Then I’m your go to guy’ he does finger guns and when Nick said ‘You’re not a guy’ he does these half assed finger guns back

When she says ‘So don’t be a sexist pig’ she grabs Nicks collar, pulls him down to be shorter than her (she is probably 5-6 inches shorter than Rob), then puts him in a choke hold while she continues singing

Instead of flopping down on the bed, Josh kneeled down then crawled in a circle once or twice like a dog before settling down

AUTUMN. IS. GORGEOUS. Her Portia was adorable, although it sounds a bit forced

Bro Jerry was hilarious. He got so many laughs in places that didn’t get laughs before

Shylock was so funny. It is weird seeing someone who's younger (50s-60s as opposed to 78) in the role but he brought new life to it

Nostradamus is a mixture of Brad and David. Not quite as outgoing as Brad (nothing can replace Brad!), but very very funny

New shoes for A Musical!! No longer red, now sparkly purple and green!

UPDATE: the shoes changed because now they work for both A Musical and Bottom’s Gonna Be On Top, I’m assuming this was done to lighten the load of shoes needed for tour

Still weird seeing the set being brought on by the actors

I Love the Way was adorable as usual, I love Autumns singing voice, she reminds me more of Kate than anyone else

Autumn doesn’t say ‘IT’S A LETTER’ which upsets me deeply

SHAKESPEARE VALET IS NO LONGER ITS OWN CHARACTER. ITS JUST A LEATHER BOY WITH A HAT.

Will Power was the same, except the stage, again, is dragged out by the leather boys

I am loving the new leather boys though (no one can replace the broadway leather boys, but for a tour cast I love them)

New Shakespeare Jackets! This one is a sparkly silver, similar to the last one, and the act 2 jacket is all gold and very shiny. Its basically the Sciottospeare jacket revamped

Instead of the ‘thanks for helping with my wood’ line, Rob screamed at the leather boys ‘WE ARE HAVING A BABY!!!!’ and they were so confused

Nick screamed off to Bea ‘IM GONNA BE A FATHER’ before he was alone on stage and did the usual ‘I’m gonna be a father….!’

Portia is wearing a coat similar to the blue one in I Love the Way in pastel green for the party scene

Before she falls over, she tried to sit on the bench, but someone was sitting there, so she stumbled around to the back and fell forward on to her stomach behind the couch instead of backwards

“CHESS. No wait that cant possibly work” was changed to “HAIR. That would just be weird”

Bottoms Gonna Be On Top had a few changes

In response to “Master Bottom you’re such a wonderful writer”, instead of saying “Why thank you”, Rob said ‘I can hear ‘em now!’

Instead of Lord Clapham saying “You’re the greatest” and Shylock saying “You da man!” Shylock says “You’re the greatest” and EVERYONE- Nigel, Bea, the Ensemble, and Shylock say “You da man!”

Hard to Be The Bard was pretty much the same, just different tracks did different things (I know a majority of the tracking at this point so I can say for sure things were changed)

In We See the Light, the male puritan carry in the benches while they all walk in singing ‘no no that won’t do’

Bro Jerry has 2 less puritans following him (he has 2 instead of 4)

UPDATE: Josh dropped the hat. He almost dove for it, but the throw was nowhere near him

Nigel and Portia didn’t dance during we see the light! I think it works because its supposed to be their dream, so when they danced it kind of ruined it. Now they stand in the middle of everything holding each other and its adorable

UPDATE: Dancing is back!

After Nigel goes ‘Let it speak for my soul’ he usually sits down at his desk and starts writing while the troupe comes in and then they start rehearsing. That was not the case.

After he said it the first time, the music changed and he said ‘Let it speak for my soul’ again, AND THEN “Sure as the day, follows the night, sure as the sky turns to blue, this much I know, this much is true, above all else in whatever you do, to thine own self be true” in a new tune

Then, Nigel wants to start with “The Princes Soliloquy”

Normally when the ensemble starts saying ‘this much I know, this much is true, above all else in whatever you do, to thine own self be true’ they do a soft shoe tap number with the music while Nigel watches. NOW- the music stops and they start singing a cappella, and Nigel joins in. Personally I am not a fan of this change

Update: I miss the tapping, but the a cappella this time was REALLY GOOD

To Thine Own Self is not really as much of a song anymore. It’s become more like arguing to music with the chorus being sung. If you saw previews its similar to that. I have most of the dialogue typed out if anyone wants it. Here is a snippet where there was a MAJOR change.

Troupe+ Nigel: “Sure as the day, follows the night, sure as the sky turns to blue, this much I know, this much is true, above all else in whatever you do, to thine own self be true” -

Nick: It’s beautiful but we don’t have time for this. I know, for a fact, that Omelette will be known as perhaps the single greatest play ever written 

UPDATE:  It drastically changed from Nick appreciating what Nigel wrote to him 

Nick: *screaming* ‘WHERE’S THE OMELETTE!?!?!?!?!?!?!??’ 

The ensemble also would put on jackets before they started on broadway, however there are no longer jackets

Shylock line change: He walks in and says “Nickkk you’re not selling any tickets…. BECAUSE YOU’VE SOLD OUT!”

New eggs and Omelettes! They seem MUCH lighter and I think the eggs are collapsable

Someone dropped their omelette tonight but was able to catch it

UPDATE: Omelette was a mess today. First, a piece of bacon nearly ended up in the pit. Then one poor guy had such bad luck with his egg. First his yolk undid inside his costume and went out the bottom, leaving him with 2 feet of fabric around his feet. He tried his hardest to tap but he nearly fell over because he was getting stuck in the fabric. Then, the egg shells on their head are magnetic, and I think their are multiple magnets (there is one on the side for like a piece of ham or a mushroom once they turn into an omelette) and his egg shell got stuck on the wrong magnet which ended up covering his eyes. At that point, the poor guy gave up and tapped off into the wings.

Court scene: ‘Exit Shakespeare!’ is followed by ‘Shakespeare’s leaving’ at which point everyone in the stands runs after him

Stage door: It was INSIDE which was amazing. Night 1 I met Rob, Josh, Maggie, and Adam. There were maybe 20 people in a nice calm line that night.

Adam greeted me with ‘Hi Sweetie how are you!? Thank you so much for coming!’

Rob greeted me with a hug and saying how it was so sweet that I came

Maggie is SO SWEET. I told her how I’ve seen it *just a few* times on broadway and she was like oh my god thats amazing, thank you for coming!

The next say stage door was MAD. There were probably 60-80 people there just mobbing the stage door. Adam, Rob and Josh came out again, and this time Daniel Beeman (my second favorite in the ensemble AND Shakespeare u/s), Kyle Anderson (my favorite in the ensemble and Nigel u/s, he took over Brian Ogilvie’s track), and Scott Cote (Brother Jeremiah) came out.

Daniel, Kyle, and Scott clearly were not planning to stage door and were shocked when they opened it to the mob that was there. Daniel was super sweet and signed autographs and took pictures anyway. As did Scott, who also appreciated that I thought he was the funniest Brother Jeremiah after I’ve seen the show so many times. However, Kyle really did not want to stage door. As soon as he walked out, he stood against the door and was like ‘OH MY GOD.’ He truly is Nigel, and he will make an AMAZING Nigel and I hope he replaces Josh once Josh’s contract is up. He signed a few autographs before he ran out. I sadly didn’t get to talk to him, and even though he was standing behind me I figured I should just leave him be.

I talked to Adam for a bit and asked if he got new jackets, which he confirmed and was very impressed that I noticed.

I waited for the mob to dissipate a bit before I talked to Rob, and once it did I asked him about the line changes, mainly ‘WHERE IS THE OMELETTE’. Rob said they asked him to try that in the show that morning (I saw a matinee, so maybe at 4 or 5 hours earlier). I told  him how with that line I can finally see Nick as a bad person, like you are supposed to. He appreciated that because that is what you are supposed to be thinking there.

I really love this cast, at leas those who I have been fortunate enough to meet. They are all such sweet people.

All in all, I enjoyed the tour. It is definitely not broadway, but it is as close as it could get. A lot of the changes help to clear up confusion that may have been there, and the rest make the show better as a whole. There are some things I miss from broadway, but this isn’t broadway, its the tour, so it is a good time for a change! If the tour is going anywhere near you I would definitely recommend going!

#Something Rotten #Something Rotten Tour #Rob McClure #Josh Grisetti #Adam Pascal #Shakespeare #Nick Bottom #Nigel Bottom