By Ryan Paul
One of my favorite things about working at the Utah Shakespeare Festival during the season is the interaction I have with the many guests and patrons attending play orientations and seminars in the Balcony Bard’s Seminar Grove. I especially enjoy answering questions about the many aspects of the Festival. For the last ten years, one question I have been asked a lot is “When will USF bring Something Rotten! to the Festival?” To which I always reply, “Season selection is above my pay grade.” However, I can now confidently answer: in 2026!
For those of you who don’t know or wonder why Something Rotten! would be of interest to USF, well, simply, it is a Shakespeare-themed musical. “A musical. And nothing’s as amazing as a musical. With song and dance and sweet romance. And happy endings happening by happenstance.” That quote will make more sense about halfway through Act I.
The story is simple: the Bottom brothers — Nick and Nigel — run a theatre troupe in 1595, producing plays that pale in comparison to their competition. Their competition? A certain William Shakespeare, already the rock star of London stages, with ego the size of the Globe Theatre itself. Naturally, Nick hates Shakespeare and is envious of his success.
Desperate to outdo the Bard, the Bottom brothers consult a delightfully unhinged soothsayer (also known as Thomas Nostradamus, nephew of the famous prophet) who predicts the next big thing in theatre: a show with singing, dancing, and acting at the same time — a musical. Originally, befuddled by this concept, the Bottom brothers eventually warm to the idea and decide that this will be the thing to dethrone the Bard from his theatrical high ground.
The result? A story that’s no less about self-belief, creative panic, rivalry, and spectacle than it is about the mechanics of a joke about eggs - and another about how eggs are eggs. That will make more sense about halfway through Act II.
Something Rotten! is the kind of show that assumes you love theatre but also that you’re not afraid to laugh at its pretensions. Shakespeare is an arrogant icon of Elizabethan popular culture here, musical theatre references rain down like confetti, and the Bottom brothers are likeable enough that even when they’re scheming and plotting, you’re rooting for them.
And when you lean into the world the Festival has built you find something magical. The Utah Shakespeare Festival has always been a place where tradition and community intersect — where generations gather to learn and laugh. That grounding in both reverence and ridiculousness is one of the many reasons Something Rotten! is the perfect show for our 65th season.
This USF production will be directed by Alan Muraoka, who previously directed a production of Gold Mountain produced in northern Utah at the West Valley Performing Arts Center in 2021. Muraoka studied theater at UCLA and won the Carol Burnett Musical Theatre Award for performance. He has performed on and off Broadway for many years, including a run as The Engineer in Miss Saigon. He has also directed for the stage and small screen. Incidentally, since 1998, he has played the character Alan, on a little-known PBS show, Sesame Street. In fact, this spring he received a 2026 Emmy Silver Circle Inductee for his 27 years of performing, directing, and producing on this beloved show.
I want to be crystal clear: you don’t have to be a theatre scholar, a Shakespeare obsessive, or a USF regular to enjoy this show. In fact, I believe that those who think they don’t like Shakespeare will have some of the biggest laughs here. That’s because Something Rotten! isn’t about textualizing Elizabethan language or grounding itself in the historical era. It’s about the joy of performance: the drive to create, the hilarity of human ambition, and the pure spectacle of seeing people belting show tunes about historical frustration.
Think of it as the theatrical equivalent of a rom-com combined with a Broadway revue, set in Elizabethan England, and haunted by the ghost of every musical ever written. And yes, there’s even a tap-dance battle: Shakespeare versus Nick Bottom. It’s the kind of moment that makes you appreciate just how far theatre has come…and how wonderfully eccentric it can be. In some ways, watching Something Rotten! feels like being part of a conversation, one where Shakespeare raises a skeptical eyebrow, musicals wink knowingly, and the audience gets to laugh right along with the performers.
What I love about shows like Something Rotten! is that it shows us that theatre isn’t an artifact. It lives, breathes, and evolves with every joke, every song, every line, and every audience. This summer at the Utah Shakespeare Festival, Something Rotten! proves just how joyful that evolution can be, a reminder that even the most classical and sacred theatrical traditions and artists can benefit from a little irreverence, a lot of spirit, and yes, maybe an ode to breakfast items. So, this season, come for Shakespeare, stay for the unique Festival Experience, and let Something Rotten! remind you that the best part of live theatre is watching people risk everything for their art — and have a blast doing it.
