If you went into Tuesday night’s performance of the Broadway show “Something Rotten!” and didn’t leave having laughed your head off, you probably missed the point of the performance. “Something Rotten!” is a satirical comedy that doesn’t take itself too seriously, but it also doles out a message wrapped in all that jazz.

The show started right out with the laughs with the first musical number “Welcome to the Renaissance,” where the supporting cast sang about how thankful they were they were to be out of the Dark Ages. It was in this number that we got our first sighting of the legendary William Shakespeare. 

It was in the next number we were introduced to the main characters of the show, the struggling Bottom brothers. Nick and Nigel Bottom are playwrights who dream of fame. Nick belts out his uncommon opinion in “God, I Hate Shakespeare,” and in the next scene you find out why.

The rest of the show followed the Bottom brothers in their struggle to write a hit to outwit Shakespeare. The brothers and Nick’s wife, Bea, are poor enough they can’t make rent. Bea is quite a strong women and she probably invented feminism. After she offers to work to help out, Nick makes a decision that shapes the rest of the play.

Nick pays a soothsayer to tell him the future of theater. The answer? Musicals. The number “A Musical” is about the ridiculousness of musicals, and the audience is treated to a glimpse into the future with illusions to “Phantom of the Opera,” “Annie,” “Les Miserables” and more.

The rest of the story is spent in the pursuit of a musical hit. Along the way there is love, rivalry, espionage and quite a few sexual innuendos and outright dirty jokes. It may have taken the audience some time to get used to loosely veiled raunchy jokes, but by the end they were laughing their heads off.

Shakespeare, the ever loved and hated Shakespeare, is arrogant. He feeds off the love of others and lies to the unsuspecting and totally starstruck Nigel Bottom and the rest of the characters. When he gets word of the Bottom brother’s plans, there is no way he is letting them win. He is the kind of villain we love to hate and he takes it all in stride.

Poor, sweet Nigel falls in love. Portia is a poetry lover who stumbles into the young writer’s life. The two of them share gorgeously nerdy songs such as “I Love the Way” and “We See the Light.” Portia’s father doesn’t approve. He is a puritan who hates the arts and everything to do with them, but the audience can’t help but notice a few awkward scenes and phrases when it comes to his sexuality.

As for the musical in question? Omelette the Musical was a hit in the eyes of the 2018 audience despite flopping in 1590s England. What happened to the rockstar Shakespeare? He stole something — hint: it rhymes with omelette — from Nigel, but he saved Nick from an untimely end. Do you love or hate him? Neither, he’s just “Something Rotten!”‘s Shakespeare.

So where does this quest take the brothers? Nick’s search to write a hit no matter the cost is what eventually brings him down in the end. He crosses lines, breaks rules and breaks trust in order to cheat his way to the top. Nigel and Bea, Nick’s headstrong and cross-dressing wife, have to teach him being true to himself is what really matters.

“Something Rotten!” sends you on a rollercoaster of emotions. You laugh. You hate. You love. You cringe. Watching the characters struggle against the brightly colored, constantly moving world of the Renaissance, you can not walk away from “Something Rotten!” without learning a little something about consequences and comedy.