Hampton High School presents musical ‘Something Rotten!’

More than 100 students at Hampton High School are prepping for the spring musical “Something Rotten!” — which they say is guaranteed to make the audience laugh.

“Something Rotten!,” which has earned 10 Tony Award nominations since its 2015 release, follows the Bottom Brothers as they set out to write a hit play and surpass the great William Shakespeare in popularity. Set in 1595, the brothers seek advice from a fortune teller, who tells them that a “musical” is the next big thing in theater — which inspires a series of dance numbers and eye-catching costumes.

“It’s a musical about people setting out to write the first musical, and I think it’s for everyone because if you like musicals or if you don’t like musicals, they make fun of musicals in this. So you’ll like it,” said Brooks Brady, a senior at Hampton. “If you like Shakespeare, if you don’t like Shakespeare, you’ll find it hilarious. There’s a whole song called ‘God, I Hate Shakespeare.’”

Brady plays fortune teller Thomas Nostradamus, who “can see visions, but he often gets them wrong” and basically serves as “comedic relief.” He said the audience can expect a lot of full-cast performances and five to six songs with “show-stopping qualities,” which isn’t typical in other musicals, and the two-hour musical even features an electric guitar in the orchestra.

Opening night is on April 21 at 7:30 p.m. in the high school auditorium. Performances are at the same time and place on April 22, 28 and 29. People can purchase tickets at the door for $12 or online at hamptoncats.org/tickets for $14.10.

Dan Franklin, a teacher at Hampton High School as well as the musical’s director and producer, said students have been looking forward to performing this script for years, and when the rights became available, they jumped at the opportunity. He described it as a “tongue-in-cheek, very self-aware comedy.”

Franklin noted that the musical is PG-13 for some mild language, but “it’s nothing kids haven’t heard before. It’s nothing terrible.”

“I think one of the things I’m looking forward to most is hearing the audience’s reactions,” he said. “There’s hilarious stuff in this that we’ve just gotten so used to hearing that we don’t hear the joke anymore.”

Franklin said in addition to an eight-person production team composed of mostly teachers, there are about 120 students who have contributed to the musical, from acting to set design to makeup. They started auditions in September.

“We try to get them as involved in every aspect as possible, so that they understand that to produce theater you need more than just actors,” Franklin said. “You need a full array of people who are skilled in many, many different things.”

One of the students who works behind the scenes is Margaret Holmes. Holmes, a senior and the musical’s student director, handles ads, blocks the show, takes attendance and boosts morale during long practices.

Holmes encourages people to come out and watch the performance. She said it’s “totally worth it,” and she’s excited for opening night.

“It’s a really sweet story packaged in just a really funny show. Like, it’s so funny. I’ve seen it so many times, and I still laugh,” she said. “I think it’s nice that it has a deeper message, even though the majority of it is a joke.”