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.

Features

/By Aisling Murphy / Aug 31, 2024

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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.”

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Something Rotten! Plays at the Festival Theatre until November 17. Tickets are available here.

WRITTEN BY

Aisling Murphy

Aisling is Intermission's senior editor and an award-winning arts journalist with bylines including the Toronto Star, Globe & Mail, CBC Arts, CTV News Toronto, and Maclean's. 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.

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