Something Rotten!, the hit 2015 Broadway comedy set during the time of Shakespeare, includes an early scene in which a rival of the Bard is encouraged to add tunes to his plays and invent something called “the musical.” The rival playwright quickly dismisses the idea before enthusiastically breaking into song.
In a new trailer for Hulu’s Mel Brooks comedy History of The World Part II, Shakespeare is seen leading what appears to be a writers room when one of the scribes suggests adding music to his plays. Shakespeare dismisses the idea before enthusiastically breaking into song.
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Something Rotten! book writer John O’Farrell took note of the similarities in a series of tweets this morning, saying the Brooks’ project “hath ripped us off.”
O’Farrell, who also wrote the book for the Mrs. Doubtfire musical, tweets:
Forsooth, Mel Brooks’ new film hath ripped us off Something Rotten!
I know writers can land on the same idea but our musical ran on Broadway for 2 years then toured for 2 more, there’s no way that everyone connected with his film was unaware of it….
Our premise was ‘What if they came up with the idea of the musical in Shakespeare’s London?’ And here is the extract from Mel Brooks’ new movie. (Ironically, or show was all about writers pinching each others’ ideas!)
In the past I’ve had ideas I later realised I’d seen somewhere else: then you just have to come up with something new. Mel Brooks has given me so much pleasure down the years, I’d be sad if he was now so all-powerful that no one could say to him ‘Mel, they already did that!’
The plots seem to diverge after the breaking-into-song moments, with the Something Rotten! character, named Nick Bottom and played on Broadway by Brian D’Arcy James, embracing the idea and spending the next couple hours taking part in just such a musical. In the Brooks comedy, Shakespeare, played by Josh Gad, appears in the trailer clip to reject it. After a bit of song-belting, Shakespeare snipes, “Anyone else, with a good idea?”
We’ll have to wait until March 6, when the series debuts on Hulu, to see how History proceeds.
Until then, decide for yourself. See the comparison clips in O’Farrell tweets below.
Deadline has reached out to Disney/Hulu for comment.
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