(Photo courtesy Little Radical Theatrics)
ORLANDO | Little Radical Theatrics will proudly present its Spring 2026 production of hit Broadway comedy “Something Rotten!” at the Doctor Phillips Center for the Performing Arts March 20-22.
Created by Grammy-winning songwriter Wayne Kirkpatrick and screenwriters Karey Kirkpatrick and John O’Farrell, the show is beloved by audiences and critics alike. It’s been hailed by “Time Out New York” as “the funniest musical comedy in the last 400 years.”
The show is set in the 1590s, where brothers Nick and Nigel Bottom want to write the next hit play but cannot help but remain stuck in the shadow of “The Bard,” Renaissance rockstar William Shakespeare.
When a local soothsayer foretells that the future of theatre involves singing, dancing and acting at the same time, Nick and Nigel set out to write the world’s first musical. But during the scandalous excitement of opening night, the Bottom brothers realize that reaching the top means being true to themselves.
Derek Hayden, who plays Lord Clapham, a flamboyant and dramatic theatre producer, says that the show is uniquely comical.
“Every single character is a comedian and you can go over the top and just keep going over the top because it’s just that type of show,” Hayden shares. “There’s no tragedy to it, no heaviness.”
Jay Marion, playing one of the production’s Minstrels, says that Little Radical Theatrics production of “Something Rotten!” will be very unique, featuring multiple Minstrels rather than one, as well as breaking traditional casting norms. They say that the show is typically filled with white male actors, but Little Radical Theatrics is giving women the opportunity to play powerful, male roles in the production.
“I think the audience is really going to be wowed and inspired when they see these women play these big, male-dominant roles, and they’re tapping, they’re rapping and there’s that strong, heavy nuance that plays into it,” Marion says. “I think us performing [during] Women’s History Month makes it even more incredible.”
Marion says that the musical’s message is to be authentic to oneself, and that the director’s choices will make that message all the more powerful. They are nonbinary and say that Little Radical Theatrics has offered them the rare opportunity to express their identity in the performance.
“The director really gave me the opportunity to explore my own personality and my own identity in the show, and he’s letting me go far beyond what the minstrel would normally perform as,” Marion shares. “It’s really inspiring to be in a show where I could be my authentic self, which is very queer, very open, very expressive, and I’m able to perform that.”
“Something Rotten!” is massively popular, and Marion says people coming to see the show are going to come in expecting it to be like every other production they’ve heard about or seen.
They say they are honored and excited for the audience to come in and see something totally different than what they initially thought.
Hayden says he hopes for the audience to sit down and just have a good, carefree time in a safe space away from the hard world we live in.
“It’s going to be a lot of fun,” Hayden says. “In our world today, and in our country where all sorts of things are going on, it’s a night where you can kind of come and just forget about all that for a moment, laugh, enjoy the performance and have a good time.”
“Something Rotten!” runs March 20-22 at the Alexis and Jim Pugh Theater in the Doctor Phillips Center for the Performing Arts. To purchase tickets, visit DrPhillipsCenter.org.
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