Stratford Festival review: Something Rotten! is back and just as good as the first time I saw it

Jeff Lillico as Shakespeare (centre) with members of the company, Something Rotten!  Stratford Festival 2026.

What can I write about a production I’ve seen and reviewed before?

This season at the Stratford Festival marked the return of the hilarious musical, Something Rotten!, to the Festival Theatre stage. Helmed once again by director-choreographer Donna Feore, the production is almost entirely identical to the production of the same musical created for the festival’s 2024 season.

To refresh my memory of the original festival production before I began writing this review, I revisited my first review, reminding myself what I thought back in 2024. What follows is a few excerpts from my original review accompanied by my comments about the same aspects of this year’s production.

“I don’t think I’ve ever related so strongly to a character in a theatrical production as I did Nick Bottom (Mark Uhre). Perhaps it’s because we share the opinion that Shakespeare’s writing is overrated and overly ornate, but Uhre’s performance as the jealous, jilted playwright trying to find success and fame in the Bard’s shadow and doing anything and everything to produce that next big hit is at once hilarious, relatable and packed with talent on the song-and-dance front.”

Unsurprisingly, Uhre is still phenomenal as Nick Bottom. As the elder of the two Bottom brothers, Uhre ably portrays a blind ambition driven both by professional jealousy and a deep desire to make a name for himself as a playwright. With more experience under his belt as Bottom, Uhre’s song-and-dance performances are even more on point than when he performed them in 2024, and his onstage chemistry with his brother, Nigel Bottom (Henry Firmston), and his wife, Bea Bottom (Starr Domingue), truly grounds this year’s production and his character’s success-at-all-costs mentality with a believable emotional core.

“Henry Firmston’s Nigel Bottom, Nick’s younger brother and writing partner with actual writing talent, grounds his brother’s blind ambition and jealousy with his own heartfelt journey of self discovery and remaining true to himself – a true fan of Shakespeare’s work – thanks to the love and guidance of Portia (Olivia Sinclair-Brisbane) – the daughter of a strictly anti-theatre puritan, Brother Jeremiah (Juan Chioran) – and a secret lover of prose and poetry herself.”

The love story between Nigel and Portia in this year’s production is once again an emotional high point. The sometimes-awkward budding love between these two star-crossed lovers, fueled by their matching passions for Shakespeare’s works and the written word, gives Nigel the motivation he needs to stand up for what he believes in and write what’s in his heart.

One minor change I noticed in this year’s production is how Chioran approaches his portrayal of Brother Jeremiah. While it was clear in the 2024 production that Brother Jeremiah had some not-so-secret desires, offering a humorous and hypocritical contrast to his unceasing puritanical campaign to punish the sins of the theatrical world, Chioran really leans into the closeted gay jokes in this season’s production, both physically and in how he delivers his character’s tongue-in-cheek humour.

Personally, I think the extra emphasis Chioran puts on his character’s homo-erotic predilections works perfectly and provides a hint as to why Brother Jeremiah is so bent on abolishing theatre beyond his religious beliefs – he hasn’t yet come to terms with who he really is.

“While (William Shakespeare understudy Gabriel) Antonacci’s performance as the 16th-century rockstar playwright certainly hit hard – I can’t say how it compares to (Jeff) Lillico’s, but I did enjoy it – the supporting cast, the impeccably timed choreography of each of the song-and-dance numbers and the comedic timing of everyone on stage truly made this production shine.”

In 2024, my review was based on a performance of the musical featuring Antonacci as Shakespeare. This year, I got the opportunity to see Lillico in the role. Both actors are excellent as Shakespeare, and I can now confidently say Lillico truly brings that much needed rockstar quality to his performance as the Bard.

Antonacci, meanwhile, sings and dances in this year’s production as a member of the Bard Boys, a chef, Renaissance writer, astrologer, townsperson, Puritan, egg and an omelette. Having now reviewed this production for a second time, I paid close attention to the astounding talents of each and every performer who takes the stage. While the main actors may drive the plot forward, it’s the dancers and the singers, as well as the musicians offstage, who truly make this production so much fun to watch and sing along to.

While this season’s production of Something Rotten! is a true recreation of the 2024 rendition with a few minor polishes here and there, and a cast and crew with even more experience staging this musical under their belt, seeing it for a second time was just as fun, if not more so, than the first time around.

Something Rotten! runs at the Festival Theatre until Oct. 31.