![\"Freewill](\"https://smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital/edmontonjournal/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/festival-theme-artwork-by-kathy-usher_304061285.jpg\" "\\"Freewill")
Fans of Shakespeare and musicals, make your way to Hawrelak Park — anon! — and do not let the rain dampen your enthusiasm to love and laugh at two of your favourite pastimes.
Freewill Shakespeare Festival’s production of Something Rotten! — playing in the Heritage Amphitheatre until July 12 — is at once a toe-tapping extravaganza and a gut-busting skewer. It posits questions you’ve always had (like why musicals sing the same song over and over again, and why Shakespeare puts words in the wrong order) and some you may have yet to ponder. (Did Shakespeare really have a cod-piece the size of a baseball cap?) The production, directed by Dave Horak, is also a celebration of the festival’s return to Hawrelak Park, and a symbol of the sheer pluckiness of a theatre troupe with the audacity to perform outdoors in July.
The opening night production was delayed by 15 minutes when the sky threw daggers, and rain and thunder reverberated throughout the amphitheatre, as if to say “don’t you dare.” But dare they did. The opening number by Minstrel (you may remember Renell Doneza from the Citadel’s 2023 production of Prison Dancer and he is just as fabulous in Something Rotten!) puts the audience at ease immediately. While small puddles at the foot of the stage caused a wobble or two on the staircase leading up to the platform, cast members in tap shoes managed to skim back and forth with grace and agility all night long.
Something Rotten! is somewhat of a departure for Freewill, which went with Much Ado About Nothing for the first of its two-show season. But the two-and-a-half-hour musical (including intermission) had a successful run on Broadway when it debuted in 2015. It’s also been at the Stratford Festival twice (2024 and 2026), where critics have positively slathered over the work. Freewill doesn’t have Stratford’s $70-million-plus budget, but Horak has nonetheless created a show with the exuberant feel of a more expensive production. (Watch for wardrobe designer Karlie Christie’s adorable take on giant, dancing eggs in the second act of the show.)
As Something Rotten! opens, the Bottom brothers, playwrights Nick (Stephen Allred, excellent) and Nigel (Eli Yaschuk, ditto) struggle to make a name for themselves in the shadow of that media hog, William Shakespeare (Brian Christensen). If only they could create something new, a form that would sweep the 16th-century stage and earn enough to supplement their meagre diet of recycled cabbage. Unbeknownst to his wife, Bea (Melenie Reid in a charming example of Elizabethan feminism), Nick lifts funds from the household money box to pay a soothsayer to predict what the next big thing is bound to be. Nostradamus (Nico Maiorana, who captivates with every line) is a distant relative of the famous prophet with the goofily rhyming name of Thomas. He predicts that something called a musical will soon appear, where songs advance the plot. Nick decides to create a musical about the Black Plague, but that doesn’t resonate with his financial backer. He returns to Thomas to glean Shakespeare’s greatest future masterpiece, so he can make a “star-lit, big hit, won’t quit” musical out of it first. Thomas lands on a play by the name of…Omelette? Maybe it’s filled with ham? Served with a Danish?
With a book, music and lyrics by American brothers Wayne and Karey Kirkpatrick, Something Rotten! is frothy fare that roasts musical theatre and The Bard (did anyone else see Jesus Christ Superstar in Christensen’s egotistic, plagiaristic, just terrific take?) The Kirkpatrick brothers pay humorous homage to Broadway hits from Cats to Annie, with a swipe at Les Misérables and Rent along the way.
Something Rotten! is a true community collaboration, with a talented cast of 19 drawn from the local musical theatre and dance scene. The multi-talented Allred co-wrote and directed the Sterling-nominated Krampus, a horror musical at Workshop West in 2024. Yaschuk and Alyson Horne (in a standout performance as Nigel’s love interest, Portia) are graduates of MacEwan University’s Theatre Arts Program and have endearing on-stage chemistry. Shelley Tookey of Shelley’s Dance Company created the show’s choreography (which also spoofs classic moves like Bob Fosse’s jazz hands). Musical director Michael Clark (who heads the Edmonton POPS Orchestra) leads the 11-piece band in a propulsive performance.
Readers may think I’ve gone soft, as this is the second time in a month that I have urged them not to miss a show (Teatro Live’s Fully Committed was my other recent crush). But here I go again. Brave the weather — it’s cozy under the big white tent and there’s popcorn — and open your arms to this production. The Bard is back in the park. May he never leave.
Review
What: Freewill Shakespeare Festival’s production of Something Rotten! Book, music and lyrics by Karey Kirkpatrick and Wayne Kirkpatrick
Director: Dave Horak
Where: Heritage Amphitheatre, Hawrelak Park, 9330 Groat Rd
When: Until July 12
Tickets: From $30 (children free) at freewillshakespeare.com . Check the website for information on pay-what-you-will performances.
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