Something Rotten! Detours Premiere from Seattle to Broadway

The announcement of Side Show‘s premature closing at the St. James’ Theatre started whispers that the new Casey Nicholaw musical, Something Rotten!, will fast-track and take over residence in the theatre as early as March 2015 to make the Tony cutoffs.

Today, Playbill.com confirmed this is is a go, and Something Rotten! will begin previews on March 23, and will officially open on April 22.

This means that the scheduled world premiere at Seattle’s 5th Avenue Theatre in April – May, which I was scheduled to attend, is no longer going ahead, and although I am happy that the show has found its theatre, I’m disappointed in the fact that I won’t have the chance to see the show before it opens on Broadway.

Why do I find the show interesting and so invested in it when I know so little of it?  I am unsure myself, but perhaps it may be because…

• It’s a Casey Nicholaw directed and choreographed project. With one of the biggest Broadway shows, The Book of Mormon, and the currently running Disney musical hit, Aladdin in his resume, how can you not anticipate something equal or greater?
• It wasn’t a movie, a TV show, a book, or any other incarnation (that I’m aware of, at least).  Moreso, it does not have any indication that this will be a jukebox or catalogue musical.
• Broadway heavy hitters Christian Borle, Brad Oscar, Beth Leavel, Bryan D’Arcy James, and Kate Reinders, among others, were casted in its workshop and there’s a good chance they will be staying in the production, and if they did, can you just imagine how crazy it will be at the stage door?

5th Avenue Theatre announced that a replacement show will be announced in the next few days, and I keeping my fingers crossed that it will be a worthy replacement, but hey, for a company that premiered Hairspray, Memphis, and Aladdin, among others before it went to Broadway, we may be looking at something even more promising!

Photo borrowed from rottenbroadway.com