Spitaletta and actress Jennifer Elizabeth Smith are seen in a scene from the show.

Penn State alumni Richard Spitaletta returns to University Park in the nationally-touring Broadway musical “Something Rotten!” Nov. 7.

A 2016 graduate with a bachelor’s degree in Musical Theater, Spitaletta takes the Eisenhower Auditorium stage for the first time in front of his former professors and friends as a cheering section.

Performing before a lot of friends and faculty is “very exciting. It makes it a lot better,” Spitaletta said. “When you perform, you need to win the audience over and if you already have a group of friends there it takes the pressure off.”

When Spitaletta saw the musical on Broadway two years ago, he added the role of Nigel Bottom to his list of roles he’d like to play.

“I definitely had pinpointed that role as one I’d like to play, but I didn’t expect it to happen so soon,” he said, noting it is his biggest role to date. The audition call came while Spitaletta was in a production of “Into the Woods” in Missouri and it necessitated a one-day trip to New York City. He’s grateful the director of that show let him take the trip, even though his actions contradicted common practice of not spending money on an initial appointment about a role.

“I just bit the bullet and flew in and out in one day because I felt so strongly about the role,” he said.

“Nigel has a very different energy than the rest of the characters,” he said recently during a tour stop in Madison, Wisconsin. “Nigel and his love interest, Portia, are the heart of the show; they represent the innocent and are more thoughtful characters.”

The most important lesson he learned at Penn State, he said, was to “have a very strong sense of self, to feel comfortable whether you are on stage or on an audition. When you are comfortable and at ease it attracts people,” he said, adding that thinking too much about an audition outcome adds unnecessary stress that is counterproductive. “It’s an accessible version of confidence … it’s good not to expect too much because it adds pressure.”

A tenor, Spitaletta said the singing is “challenging because it requires me to be in a very high, floaty plain. So, I’ve learned to take care of myself, watch what I eat, no late night meals and no late nights because it is a tricky place to navigate so I try not to compromise anything.”

Nominated for 10 Tony Awards, including best musical, “Something Rotten!,” was originally directed and choreographed on Broadway by Tony Award-winner Casey Nicholaw (“Mean Girls,” “The Book of Mormon,” “Aladdin”). The touring Broadway show features music and lyrics by Grammy Award winner and Tony nominee Wayne Kirkpatrick and Golden Globe Award and Tony nominee Karey Kirkpatrick.

This comedy tells the story of brothers Nick and Nigel Bottom, two playwrights stuck in the shadow of that Renaissance rock star Will Shakespeare. When a soothsayer foretells the next big thing in theater involves singing, dancing and acting at the same time, the Bottom brothers set out to write the world’s very first musical with the most singing, the most dancing and the most gut-busting laughs … it’s something wonderful … something for everyone … It’s “Something Rotten!,” stated a news release. Reviewers have called it “the funniest musical comedy in at least 400 years” (Time Out New York).

“With its heart on its ruffled sleeve and sequins in its soul, ‘Something Rotten!’ is an uproarious dose of pure Broadway fun and an irresistible ode to musicals — those dazzling creations that entertain us, inspire us and remind us that everything’s better with an exclamation point,” stated the news release.

“I am looking forward to seeing my old professors and friends and to get a chance to walk around campus and go to Mad Max, the library, and especially the School of Theater, as it’s been undergoing improvements and construction,” Spitaletta said.

“Something Rotten!” Was originally produced on Broadway by Kevin McCollum, Broadway Global Ventures, CMC, Mastro/Goodman, Jerry & Ronald Frankel, Morris Berchard, Kyodo Tokyo Inc., Wendy Federman, Barbara Freitag, Lams Productions, Winkler/De-Simone, Timothy Laczynski, Dan Markley, Harris/Karmazin, JAM Theatricals, Robert Greenblatt and Jujamcyn Theaters.

Staff writer Patt Keith is at 949-7030.

If you go

What: “Something Rotten!” — a nationally-touring Broadway musical/comedy presented by Penn State’s Center for the Performing Arts

When: 7:30 p.m. Nov. 7

Where: Eisenhower Auditorium, University Park, Penn State University

Tickets: Section one and two tickets — $68 and $59 for an adult, $50 and $41 for a University Park student, and $51 and $42 for a person 18 and younger — are available online at or by phone at -863-0255 or 800-ARTS-TIX. Tickets are also available at three State College locations: Eisenhower Auditorium (weekdays 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.), Penn State Downtown Theatre Center (weekdays 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.) and Bryce Jordan Center (weekdays 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.). A grant from the University Park Student Fee Board makes Penn State student prices possible.