While the omelette is absurd, envy is familiar. Take Nick's rant, an uptempo number with toe-tapping frustration: "God I hate Shakespeare... I mostly hate the way he makes me feel about me." The hook is universal; it verbalizes the tendency to chase a better version of ourselves through the filtered lens of someone else's life. (Social media and self-doubt, anyone?) Digging deep into Nick's 21st-century-esque neuroses, Feore intends to unpack it all—celebrity, fandom and power. "They're fawning over Shakespeare," she says of audiences. "Back then, he had complete access and quick reach." Four hundred years before Instagram, followers were physical crowds. "Shakespeare figures out what audiences want, and he gives it to them," she muses. "That's what celebrities do."
Feore sympathizes, "As directors, we can't just say, 'I'm going to do my art now', we have to get people there to see it." After all, most art is meant to be seen—a play or musical requires an audience for commercial success. And this fact leads to bigger questions: Is theatre about mass appeal or inner truth? Who decides: the competition, divine inspiration or cash flow?
In Something Rotten! Nick and Nigel's patrons are risk-averse, afraid of Puritans protesting rehearsals and shrinking profits. One funder pushes for a proven model: just copy Shakespeare. Meanwhile, Shakespeare has his own problems. He is a questionable muse given his secret insecurities and habit of stealing material, regularly taking lines from unknown poet Nigel.
Shakespeare wrestles with his fame in the rock anthem, "It's Hard to Be the Bard." A spectacle of Brit rock, Feore calls the song, "a true statement of celebrity and how to sustain it." To stay relevant, "he is reinventing himself constantly." Similarly, reinvention is essential to Feore's creative vision: "When I do a revival at Stratford, as director and choreographer, I will reimagine all of it." Meaning, if you saw Something Rotten! on Broadway, "it won't be the same show," promises the director.
Feore is very much in on the irony of making Something Rotten!—a mashup of her own history with theatre—into something new. "It's very meta. Very self-referential. I've never been in a position like this before, where I'm literally sending myself up." And Shakespeare goes up with her, along with her penchant for directing musicals. The journey is in the show's punchline: "People just start singing for no apparent reason?" Feore says, laughing, alluding to both a scene and a common complaint from non-musical people. "Yes, they do. And it's great!" ![Stratford Festival Swan icon](https://cdscloud.stratfordfestival.ca/uploadedImages/LandingPages/2024-Will-Power/Section_1/Row_2/Swan-icon-Black-small.png)