Yes, those standing ovations at Something Rotten! are real — just ask Portia and Bea
iPhoto caption: Starr Domingue and Olivia Sinclair-Brisbane in Something Rotten! at the Stratford Festival. Production stills by David Hou.
Two mid-show standing ovations? Really?
Yes, really. Or so say the leading ladies of Something Rotten!.
For those who’ve spent the summer living under a rock, Something Rotten! (written by Karey and Wayne Kirkpatrick and John O’Farrell) is the undisputed blockbuster of the 2024 Stratford Festival. Set in London during the Renaissance, the raucously cheeky musical follows Nick and Nigel Bottom, two brothers trying to run a theatre company under the gargantuan shadow of William Shakespeare. The show features countless high-energy dance numbers — welcome back, director-choreographer Donna Feore — and includes dozens of memorable costumes, many of which are egg-themed.
Critics and audiences alike wondered during Something Rotten!’s opening night performance at the Festival Theatre if the evening’s two mid-show standing ovations — a rarity in Canadian theatre — were started by plants, or Festival staff tasked with kicking off the applause.
But according to Starr Domingue and Olivia Sinclair-Brisbane, who play Nick’s wife Bea and Nigel’s crush Portia in the show, those eruptions of clapping are real — and they never get old.
“I’ve never been part of a show that had not one, but two standing ovations before we even get to curtain call,” Domingue shared in an interview with Intermission. “And that happens almost every day.”
“They’re definitely not plants,” said Sinclair-Brisbane. “I didn’t know until our first day of rehearsal how successful this show would be, audience-wise. But Donna is such a genius. She put this cast together so carefully, and she picked the perfect person for each job. It shows onstage — even in the rehearsal room, we could feel the energy of how wonderful this show would be. But the audience is the final cast member, and they pushed everything over the edge.
“So no, there’s no plants,” she continued. “But there was a very meticulous planning that went into this show, and making it as successful as it could be before we even hit the stage.”
And don’t worry — the cast of Something Rotten! is having just as much fun as the audience.
“There are certain Easter eggs we leave for each other behind the scenes that really energize the scenes,” shared Domingue. “The audience won’t necessarily pick up on those, but they’re a loving thing within the cast. You pick up on each other’s energy, regardless of if you’re tired or excited — it ebbs and flows. But as a group, you really get into a rhythm, and little traditions develop.”
“There’s a scene where Portia and Nigel meet,” agreed Sinclair-Brisbane, “and he drops a poem on the ground that I then read. But [scene partner Henry Firmston] realized I was actually attempting to read the dropped page, so he started writing me little notes. I’ve also started writing puns and tongue twisters and handing them back to him.
“It’s really lovely to find things within the show like that,” she continued. “It keeps things alive and new for us.” And the fun doesn’t stop onstage, she added — in the wings, the cast members often choreograph silly dances for one another, a means of keeping the energy high for a production as physically demanding as it is goofy.
To get into character, Sinclair-Brisbane says she sometimes listens to “Bard music,” a trick borrowed from Firmston that involves finding orchestral arrangements of contemporary pop music. More often, though, she’ll play cinematic scores. “I listen to a lot of movie soundtracks, specifically ones with strong, historical female heroines,” she said. “Lots of Little Women and Pride and Prejudice. Right now I’m stuck on the soundtrack to the movie Ever After, which is set in the same era, and is about the Italian Renaissance. It helps me calm down, and I try to imagine what it would be like during that time, to be a young woman who wanted something more and felt trapped by her circumstances.”
Both Sinclair-Brisbane and Domingue are doing their best to take advantage of living on-site at the Stratford Festival. The actors are nearly caught up on the rest of the season — only a small handful of plays remain for them to see — and for the rest of Something Rotten!’s extended run, they’re soaking up the joys of living in one of Canada’s capitals for live theatre.
“This is a highlight of my career,” said Domingue. “And there are so many beautiful stories this season, but we’re also so very blessed to be working actors. It’s a huge privilege, and part of that privilege is being able to witness our peers and colleagues onstage.
“This is the big leagues,” she continued. “And that means we get to play hard. This place gives me hope for the arts — we are so very blessed to be here.”
Something Rotten! Plays at the Festival Theatre until November 17. Tickets are available here.
Aisling Murphy
Aisling is Intermission's former senior editor and the theatre reporter for the Globe and Mail. She likes British playwright Sarah Kane, most songs by Taylor Swift, and her cats, Fig and June. She was a 2024 fellow at the National Critics Institute in Waterford, CT.
LEARN MORE
iPhoto caption: Photo by Fabian Hammerl.
In A a | a B : B E N D, choreographer Aszure Barton aims to rebuild dance from the inside out
“It’s so easy to over-intellectualize dance in general, but B E N D is about hearing and moving to cool-ass music together,” says Barton ahead of the show's run at the Bluma Appel Theatre.
iPhoto caption: Elinor Holt and Ellen Close in 'How Patty and Joanne Won High Gold at the Grand Christmas Cup Winter Dance Competition.' Photo by Benjamin Laird.
“We’re living in a world right now where failure is not an option,” says actor Elinor Holt. “And a lot of times people would rather not try anything at all, rather than try something and risk failing at it.”
iPhoto caption: Jane Spidell as Bettye, Kevin Bundy as Jim, and Noah Beemer as Steve in 'Twelve Dinners.' Photo by Dahlia Katz.
With TIFT’s Twelve Dinners, actor Steve Ross makes the leap to playwright-director
"I love sitting with the actors before rehearsals and discussing, especially when they ask questions,” says Ross. “I love the blocking and staging. I love directing my own work, but find it challenging."
iPhoto caption: Manus Halligan in Dan Colley's adaptation of 'A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings'. Photo by Ste Murray.
A contemporary Gabriel García Márquez adaptation touches down in Toronto
A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings has toured internationally since 2022, with a shifting cast of performers. Halligan and Beaman, the original actors and co-adaptors, will reprise their roles for the Toronto premiere.
iPhoto caption: 'Narnia' in rehearsal. Photo by Dahlia Katz.
"What emerged for us was this idea of life cycles,” reflects Narnia adaptor-director Fiona Sauder. “‘What happens when you get stuck in one season [of life], and what happens when that season comes to an end? [What things] have to die and fall away in order for new things to grow?’”
iPhoto caption: Jordan Pettle, Janelle Cooper, and Monique Mojica in CHILD-ish. Photo by Jae Yang.
Tarragon’s upcoming show gives audiences a verbatim taste of children’s wisdom, wit, and weirdness
The first inklings of CHILD-ish came to Drake in 2017. “I got to an age where I started having a lot more kids in my life,” he said. That “got me curious about what adults can learn from kids: playing with and flipping that power dynamic of who’s the learner and who’s the teacher.”
iPhoto caption: Photo by Aisling Murphy.
In the darkest months of Yukon winter, it’s all about the Sun Room
I’m here for a week in January as a guest of Nakai Theatre, a hub for theatrical experimentation and outside-the-box programming in Canada’s westernmost territory.
Armchairs, tattoos, and an online theatre magazine
When I started at Intermission, my world was limited to the confines of an armchair. Arts journalism was a high it felt dangerously fruitless to chase. The life stretched ahead of me was amorphous and frightening, a chasm filled with hand sanitizer and immigration concerns. It was worth crying over a spilled kombucha and scrubbing at the stain.
iPhoto caption: Liz Appel headshot courtesy of Liz Appel.
Five questions with Wights playwright Liz Appel
Intermission spoke with Appel over email for a brief Q&A about Wights, now playing at Crow’s Theatre until February 9.
Call for applications: Publishing and editorial assistant
Intermission Magazine is seeking a dynamic and collaborative individual to join our team.
iPhoto caption: What Writing Can Do: The 2025 Musical Theatre Critics Lab
Announcing What Writing Can Do: The 2025 Musical Theatre Critics Lab
What Writing Can Do is timed to coincide with the Grand and Theatre Aquarius’ co-production of Waitress, which will serve as a jumping-off point for discussions throughout the Lab.
iPhoto caption: A Christmas Story production still by Dahlia Katz.
REVIEW: A Christmas Story feels fresh at Theatre Aquarius
If you want to catch A Christmas Story before it closes, good luck — the show is close to sold out, and with the talent on that stage, it’s not hard to see why.
Comments