How 3 Broadway novices wrote 'Something Rotten!'
NEW YORK (AP) ― It began with an intriguing 前提 for a musical: What would it have been like to be a fledgling 脚本家 making a living at the same time as William Shakespeare?
The result is "Something Rotten!" and all it took to get to Broadway was that 初めの idea 加える 40-半端物 songs, endless rewriting, a 簡潔な／要約する 脅す from an Oscar-winning movie, some 最高の，を越す-notch actors and some two １０年間s.
"It's 平易な," joked Karey Kirkpatrick, who co-wrote the songs with his brother, Wayne, and co-wrote the story with John O'Farrell, all of whom are making their Broadway debuts this month. "A piece of cake."
In this Tuesday, March 3, 2015, photo, Karey Kirkpatrick, 中心, is 側面に位置するd by his brother, Wayne Kirkpatrick, left, and John O'Farrell outside the St. James Theatre in New York. The three men have written the music and story for the new Broadway musical "Something Rotten!" a comedy 始める，決める in Shakespeare?s England. (AP Photo/示す Kennedy)
The comedy is 始める，決める during the Renaissance and portrays Shakespeare as an arrogant, 激しく揺する 星／主役にする 脚本家. Two brothers desperate to 令状 a 攻撃する，衝突する show in his 影をつくる／尾行する つまずく on the notion of 令状ing the world's first musical.
Karey and Wayne Kirkpatrick dreamed up the 初期の idea in the 中央の-1990s. They'd both adored musical theater growing up in Baton 紅, Louisiana, before carving out their own careers.
Wayne Kirkpatrick is a Grammy Award-winning songwriter of such tunes as "Change the World" for Eric Clapton and "Wrapped Up In You" by Garth Brooks. His brother is a screenwriter who helped 令状 such films as "Chicken Run" and "The Smurfs 2."
A musical 始める，決める in 1595 England was an idea they kicked around whenever the brothers got together. Some of their 初めの jokes 含むd having 脚本家s 支援する then 代表するd by William & Morris and the 法律 会社／堅い of Rosen, Crantz and Guildenstern.
"We would go, 'That would be funny. We should 令状 that someday,'" said Karey Kirkpatrick. "Then we would go 支援する to our own careers. And then we'd get 支援する together and go, 'Hey, I thought of something else. What if ...'"
"That went on for about 15 years," Wayne Kirkpatrick said.
O'Farrell, a British author and commentator known for the 調書をとる／予約するs "The Man Who Forgot His Wife" and "The Best a Man Can Get," joined the 成果／努力 after he and Karey Kirkpatrick 社債d while working on "Chicken Run."
"His 調書をとる／予約するs have just the 権利 量 of humor and heart. So I knew the sensibilities would 提携させる," said Karey Kirkpatrick. He told his brother: "You'll like John. He's one of us."
Work on the show was fitful and then 脅すd by the 解放（する） of "Shakespeare in Love," the 1998 film with Gwyneth Paltrow that portrayed a young Shakespeare stealing many of his best lines. The fledgling musical writers decided to keep going, mindful that any overlap would have to be 削減（する）.
In 2010, Karey Kirkpatrick got in touch with an old pal, Kevin McCollum, a Tony-winning 生産者 whose Broadway credits 含む "The Drowsy Chaperone" and "Rent." (They had both worked at Disneyland years ago). Kirkpatrick 手配中の，お尋ね者 to know how to pitch a musical. McCollum told him "Avenue Q," one of his 攻撃する，衝突するs, began as just an idea and three songs when it was first introduced.
At a pitch 会合 later that year, the brothers, after dinner with McCollum in which they explained their idea, sat 負かす／撃墜する with him in Karey Kirkpatrick's 10-foot-by-10-foot Los Angeles studio and played him five songs and 手渡すd him a 治療.
"He went away and read and （機の）カム 支援する and said, 'I think you've got something here,'" said Karey Kirkpatrick. O'Farrell 追加するd: "It happened to be the 生産者 who is the most open to new ideas and the greatest developer of new 構成要素. We got incredibly lucky."
Work on the musical began in earnest in February 2011 when all three men spent a week in an apartment in New York 大打撃を与えるing out the story.
Things went even faster when McCollum asked Tony-winning director and choreographer Casey Nicholaw to 重さを計る in. He, in turn, reached out to 最高の，を越す-notch talent.
"That's what happens when you have Kevin and Casey," said Karey Kirkpatrick. "We'd do a （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する-read and Casey would say, 'I'm just going to get a few of my friends together and we'll read it.' And you show up and it's 'Tony-勝利者!' 'Tony-勝利者!' 'Oh, hi, I've seen you.' 'And I've seen you!'"
That's how "Shrek" and "Next to Normal" 星／主役にする Brian d'Arcy James, Tony-勝利者 Christian Borle ("Peter and the Starcatcher" and Tony-指名された人s John Cariani and Brooks Ashmanskas （機の）カム 船内に.
"Everyone's the A-Team except us," said O'Farrell.
A workshop 見解／翻訳／版 of "Something Rotten!" was shown in New York last 落ちる, which went so 井戸／弁護士席 that a planned stop in Seattle to get the show ready for Broadway was dropped. Only one song has 生き残るd from the beginning "Welcome to the Renaissance," which remains the first song.
The Kirkpatrick brothers and O'Farrell have since 追加するd three songs, moved one, 訂正するd a lopsided first 行為／法令／行動する, and sliced away at the script. They 行為／法令／行動する on 合意 and their guts. They are having a ball, but it's not a stroll in the park.
"I remember we'd see and show and saw, 'Yeah, we can do that,'" Karey Kirkpatrick said. "They make it look so 平易な. And then when you start doing it, then you go, 'This is hard!'"
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Online: http://www.RottenBroadway.com
In this Tuesday, March 3, 2015, photo, Karey Kirkpatrick, 中心, is 側面に位置するd by his brother, Wayne Kirkpatrick, left, and John O'Farrell outside the St. James Theatre in New York. The three men have written the music and story for the new Broadway musical "Something Rotten!" a comedy 始める，決める in Shakespeare?s England. (AP Photo/示す Kennedy)
