Today's Video Link

I'm a big fan of the musical Something Rotten and especially of a number called "A Musical" that takes place about half an hour into Act One. It's easily one of the ten best things I've ever seen on a Broadway or Broadway-type stage. If you've never seen it, here's a video. What you need to know is that the show is set in the days of Shakespeare. The character of Nick Bottom has hired a soothsayer to peer into the future and tell him what will be successful in the theater in the future…

And now we have a video of highlights (alas, not the whole thing) of the number as performed for a production of the show in Chicago at the Marriott Theatre. This was in August-October of 2019 and it's a whole different cast with a different staging. Restaging was necessary because this is a theatre "in the round," meaning that the audience is seated all around a round stage. I wasn't in Chicago to see it of course but based on this video, it looks like they did some pretty clever reinvention…