Seeing Something Rotten! at ASU Gammage

Stage

On November 4th, I went to see Something Rotten! at ASU Gammage, and let me tell you, it was unforgettable.

This started about two months before the show. My mom and I were talking and I mentioned the show and that Adam Pascal was in it. She responded by saying that we should get tickets to go see the show and that is how it all began.

My mom got these for me as a birthday present and bought an extra ticket so that I could invite a friend. I decided to invite my friend Liliana because, a) she loves musical theatre and b) she gets just as excited about musicals as I do. She said yes and everything was set in place for seeing Something Rotten! 

Program

In a blink of an eye, November 4th came around and the four of us (My parents, Liliana, and I) went down to Tempe to see a matinee showing of Something Rotten! We get there in plenty of time and were able to get our Playbills (or Gammbills as they call them) and find our seats before the curtains went up.

ACT 1

As the first act began, my excitement grew. It just seems so surreal to me that I was going to see Adam Pascal perform before my very eyes. The songs were energetic and funny and I was laughing my butt off. Watching this hilarious story unfold before me; there is nothing like it. I loved when the song "A Musical" started. A friend of mine had played me this song once before and I thought it was hilarious. I will say that my favorite part was all of the musical references in the song, and in particular, the Rent reference. When they started playing the opening piano of "Seasons of Love" I half expected Adam to pop on stage and start singing the song. But once the song finished, everyone was applauding and the applauding continued for about 1 minute with the actors just standing there waiting for us to stop.

Then it was time for "Will Power", the moment I had been waiting months for. The song was incredible and I absolutely loved all of the Shakespeare references. Plus I enjoyed watching Adam Pascal perform.

*I know I keep talking about Adam in this post. I am sorry, I was just really excited to see my favorite Broadway actor perform and I still can't believe this dream of mine came true.*

The act ends with the song "Botton's Gonna Be On Top" and it was magnificent. I actually felt like Nick Bottom's dream could come true, but as we all probably know, when you have William Shakespeare as your competition, there is no point of even trying.

Me and Liliana

INTERMISSION

Intermission comes and we are all in awe of what we just witnessed. Liliana and I are talking about it and we are over the moon.

Just before Act 2 started, Liliana and I went to the concession stand to get something to eat. On the way, we saw the souvenir stand and new we had to get something after the show was finished.


ACT 2

Act 2 kicks off and we are introduced to the song "Hard To Be The Bard". This ended up being my favorite song in the entire show. It was so cleverly written and gave us some insight into how Shakespeare was going to take on the Bottom Brothers.

As everything came together and more musical references came into the mix, I continued to enjoy myself and everything about this show. I laughed so hard during it. From Shakespeare putting on a fat suit to a Puritan saying "God Dammit".

When I wore my shirt to school

The show concludes and everyone is giving a standing ovation to the amazing cast and crew that put this show together to make it as amazing as it was.

Now we went to the souvenir stand and bought some merch. I ended up getting the t-shirt that has a picture of William Shakespeare wearing some shades and it says "IT'S HARD TO BE THE BARD". Liliana got the t-shirt that says "God, I Hate Shakespeare" with a tomato on it and a CD of the cast album.

But as we left the theatre, we wanted to get a photo in front of the Hamilton and Something Rotten! banner since we are now huge fans of both. We were able to get the Hamilton banner one, but unfortunately the Something Rotten! one was covered by a metal detector so we couldn't get that photo.

Hamilton Banner

We got to the car and asked my dad if he could put Liliana's CD into his CD player so we could listen to the album on the way back. We were all laughing along with songs and my mom even had to clarify a few lyrics, in particular, the line in "God, I Hate Shakespeare" that says, "Don't be a penis, the man is a genius."

That was the day when I went to see Something Rotten! It was by far the best show I say in 2017 and if tickets weren't so darn expensive, and ASU Gammage wasn't that far from my house, I would have definitely gone to see it again. I would highly recommend you see this show! Every actor was phenomenal and the writers of the show are absolute geniuses!!!  And I am so excited to go back to ASU Gammage to see Hamilton in a months time!!!



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