Let me start this off by saying: I have unfortunately not yet had the chance to see Something Rotten!, though I have heard good things about it. And, thanks to my Broadway Pandora station, I've had the pleasure of hearing some amazing songs such as "To Thine Own Self," "A Musical," and my personal favorite, "God, I Hate Shakespeare." The latter is my favorite because I really truly do hate the works of William Shakespeare.
I know, it sounds a little strange; an English major who hates Shakespeare? But, have any of you actually ever read Romeo and Juliet? I mean actually read it in order to understand it, not just because your English teacher said to? It's not some amazing love story; it lasted three days and six people died because of terrible communication between Romeo and his rebound, Juliet. Oh yeah, you guys did know that Juliet wasn't technically Romeo's original love interest, right? At first, he was completely crazy about Rosaline - Juliet's cousin. Rosaline isn't really mentioned too much since she's only in the very beginning of the play when Romeo sneaks into a Capulet party to see her (after basically being rejected), only to see Juliet and fall madly in love with her. If you ask me, it sounds like Romeo has trouble committing to one woman and somehow it got passed off as the greatest love story to ever grace literature.
Essentially, Romeo and Juliet supplied a terrible first impression for the rest of Willy Shakes' plays (yes, I like to call him Willy Shakes though I'm not 100 percent sure why). It also caused me to look at his other works a bit more critically. Take Othello for example; at first glance, it's a tale of Iago's revenge on Othello after being wronged by him. However, in actuality, Iago went totally overboard (I mean, he caused Othello to kill his own wife for crying out loud) with mind games and being petty all just because he lost a lieutenant promotion to Cassio. Instead of just dealing with it like a mature grown man and talking to Othello and Cassio, Iago decides to make Othello think his wife, Desdemona, was sleeping with Cassio and leads to their deaths. I mean, sure, we've all probably done some petty things, but Iago takes the cake with that elaborate, over-the-top scheme.
The only Shakespeare play I'd even be remotely interested in reading is Macbeth, but I'm worried it will turn into something as ridiculous as the others. Sure, the initial concept sounds interesting, but I've done enough analyzing of Shakespeare plays to know it could end up a horribly disappointing mess.
Either way, I'd just like to thank Something Rotten! for understanding my disdain for the Bard, as well as giving me a catchy way to express it!
