It’s pretty funny to imagine a “Renaissance showgirl” on stage. But that’s exactly what Findlay native Lucy Anders plays in Something Rotten!, the over-the-top ode to musical theater now playing at Playhouse Square’s Connor Palace.
Anders, 23, a 2015 Baldwin Wallace musical theater graduate, spent several summers during college performing at Porthouse Theatre in Cuyahoga Falls, including lead or principal roles in A Little Night Music, The Sound of Music and Starmites.
Since moving to New York in 2015, she has performed as Lizzie in the Off-Broadway production of Baby, and landed a part as an ensemble member for the tour of Something Rotten!
“I knew I was right for it. It was just a matter of getting an audition,’’ Anders said of the big song-and-dance musical comedy. She was speaking by phone recently from the tour’s stop in Greenville, S.C. “To have a new show that has classic musical theater numbers is a rare find, and I think that classic musical theater is really my wheelhouse.”
The heavy tap numbers in Something Rotten also excited Anders, who has been tapping since she was 3.
“I never thought in a million years that I’d be standing next to a former Rockette [ensemble member Leah Hofmann] doing fan things” in a big chorus girl production number, Anders said.
The Something Rotten! tour started rehearsals in New York in early December as the Broadway show was in its last month. That meant that Rob McClure, Josh Grisetti and Adam Pascal were doing double duty, rehearsing for Rotten’s tour by day while also performing the show on Broadway by night.
McClure (Nick Bottom), Grisetti (Nigel Bottom) and Pascal (Shakespeare) were replacements in the Broadway show, which finished Jan. 1, right before they headlined the tour.
In the story, Nick Bottom, based on the hilarious weaver-turned-thespian from Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, is sick of “Renaissance rock star” William Shakespeare. He goes to a soothsayer, who tells him that the next big thing in theater involves singing, dancing and acting at the same time. This foretelling propels Nick to enlist the help of his brother, Nigel, to create the first musical ever.
That leads to the huge production number A Musical, a first-act showstopper that references numerous musicals in its lyrics, underscoring and movement.
“In my opinion, it’s one of the most brilliant numbers ever,’’ Anders said.
She described all the show’s borrowing from both Shakespeare and musical theater “kind of like a Shakespeare and musical theater history class.”
So what’s it like performing on tour with Pascal, the Broadway star with rock ’n’ roll roots renowned for originating the role of Roger in Rent as well as Radames in Aida?
“To me, he’s like a normal, regular guy,’’ Anders said. “He’s a husband and a dad. He’s very kind and generous. He plays around with everyone just as much as we play around with each other.”
The actress, who said she doesn’t get star struck, did admit that it was cool to be on stage with a rock star. And this is what she has to say about Pascal’s hot rock number It’s Hard to Be the Bard: “He sings the crap out of that song.”
This show isn’t all glitz and gut-busting humor. The story, by Karey Kirkpatrick and John O’Farrell, also follows a struggling relationship between brothers, a husband’s struggle to provide for his family and the journey of Portia, a young Puritan who has been repressed her whole life.
Anders is an understudy for Portia, which she describes as a “funny soprano” role.
“She kind of appears a little naive but she’s not stupid. She’s very smart and she loves poetry,’’ Anders said.
The actress said star McClure sets the tone for the tour by having a personal relationship with each cast member and devoting his time to backstage tours each night during the cast’s Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS fundraiser.
“We’re very fortunate to have Rob McClure leading our company, who is quite possibly the most generous person I’ve ever met,’’ Anders said.
“He’s an ideal person to look up to and learn from.”
The tour runs through May 14 in Cleveland, where Anders is happy to reconnect with Baldwin Wallace friends, as well as friends and family from Findlay. For tickets, which cost from $10 to $95, call 216-241-6000 or see www.playhousesquare.org.
Arts writer Kerry Clawson may be reached at 330-996-3527 or kclawson@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow her at @KerryClawsonABJ or www.facebook.com/kclawsonabj.