State Theatre New Jersey presents the completely original, new musical Something Rotten! on Friday, November 2, 2018 at 8pm and Saturday, November 3, 2018 at 2pm & 8pm. Something Rotten! centers around Nick and Nigel Bottom (the last name comes from A Midsummer Night’s Dream), brothers desperate for a hit in Elizabethan London, where William Shakespeare is a rock star-like god of the stage.

Nick’s wife Bea, a can-do gal in the style of Shakespearean heroines who cross-dress to get things done, tries to help. Nigel falls for a pretty Puritan named Portia, whose daddy strongly disapproves. Flawed soothsayer, Thomas Nostradamus, nephew of the Nostradamus, looks into the future and tells Nick that theater’s next big thing will be— tahdah! — “musicals,” where people sing, dance, and act all at the same time!

Something Rotten! is laced throughout with humor for Shakespeare aficionados and musical theater geeks. Book writer John O’Farrell observes, “If it works as a musical for people who don’t know musicals or Shakespeare, then I’m happy. It’s about show business and putting on a show. The show works on many levels, but the main level it works on, I hope, is that it’s just a great fun night out.”

From the director of Aladdin and co-director of The Book of Mormon and the producer of Rent, Avenue Q, and In the Heights, Something Rotten! is “the funniest musical comedy in at least 400 years”—Time Out New York.

Something Rotten! is directed and choreographed by Tony Award®-winner Casey Nicholaw (Aladdin, The Book of Mormon), with music and lyrics by Grammy Award®-winner and Tony Award® nominee Wayne Kirkpatrick, Golden Globe Award® and Tony Award® nominee Karey Kirkpatrick, and a book by Tony Award® nominees Karey Kirkpatrick and best-selling author John O’Farrell (Chicken Run).

The touring cast features: Matthew Baker as Shakespeare, Matthew Janisse as Nick Bottom, Greg Kalafatas as Nostradamus, Emily Kristen Morris as Bea, Mark Saunders as Brother Jeremiah, Jennifer Elizabeth Smith as Portia, and Richard Spitaletta as Nigel Bottom.

Rounding out the ensemble are Drew Arisco, Abby Bartish, Emma Benson, Zachary Bigelow, Katie Scarlett Brunson, Julian Burzynski Jr., Brian Cowing, Alex Eisenberg, Tim Fuchs, Robert Head, Devin Holloway, Danny Lopez, Keeley Anne McCormick, Nick Pankuch, Aveena Sawyer, Allison C. Scott, Peter Surace, and Dorsey Ziller.

Nominated for 10 Tony Awards®, including “Best Musical”, Something Rotten! is “a deliriously entertaining new musical comedy that brings down the house!”—New York Post.