“Something Rotten,” a madcap, mishmash musical that puts an amusing spin on Shakespeare, Broadway musicals and the history of theater, comes to Diamond Head Theatre for a three-week run this week.

“What I love about this show is that it’s highly original,” said DHT artistic director John Rampage, who is directing the production. “It’s not a carbon copy of a previously successful Broadway show. So many Broadway shows come directly from films, and this one is totally original.”

Set in Elizabethan England, the story involves two playwriting brothers, Nick and Nigel Bottom (played by Kevin Pease and Ryan Dressel), who run a struggling theater company.

Unfortunately, the company’s work is constantly upstaged by Shakespeare (played by Aleks Pevec), who mysteriously seems to know what the Bottom brothers are writing about and jumps in with his own work, stealing their thunder.

“Shakespeare is the superstar hit, and he’s portrayed as almost kind of a rock star,” Rampage said.

The brothers consult Nostradamus (Garrett Hols), a soothsayer who sees the future of theater in a production called a “musical,” “where the dialogue stops, and the plot is conveyed through song.” (That’s a somewhat accurate prediction – opera, a precursor to the modern musical, got started a few decades after Shakespeare’s death.)

THE PLOT is littered with Shakespearean references. “Something Rotten” — a reference to “Something’s rotten in Denmark” in Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” — is also a description of the brothers’ new production, “Omelette,” which is about a breakfast of Danish rolls and eggs.

The work also includes a major musical number that is filled with references to modern-day Broadway, like “a stage of cats singing, and a man in a mask,” Rampage said.

Though set in Shakespeare’s England, the language of the production is modern and light.

“I don’t think it will depend on having an encyclopedic knowledge of Broadway musicals to enjoy the show,” Rampage said, though there will be plenty of quotes from Shakespeare and Broadway musicals to challenge all the amateur dramaturgs out there.

“Something Rotten,” with a book by John O’Farrell and Karey Kirkpatrick and music and lyrics by Karey and Wayne Kirkpatrick, debuted on Broadway in 2015 and was nominated for 10 Tony Awards, winning one for best actor. The album produced from the show was nominated for a Grammy.

RAMPAGE IS especially happy to have Pevec in the DHT production.

Pevec got his start in theater here, starring in “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat,” before moving to California as a teenager and then on to Broadway in New York City. He was an ensemble player in the original production of “Something Rotten,” and understudied the role of Shakespeare.

“He’s got a big ego because he’s the star of the town and everybody loves him,” said Pevec, in describing his portrayal of the Bard. “But he’s also got his own insecurities, because he writes so many plays that he raises the bar higher and higher each time.”

Pevec gets to click his dancing boots for many numbers, recalling some of his original lessons here as part of Diamond Head Theatre’s Shooting Stars program. His first big number, “Will Power,” comes near the end of the first act.

“I took some tap here when I was a kid, and then I put that on the shelf for awhile,” said Pevec, now 33. “And then my first professional job was in Los Angeles in ‘White Christmas,’ and then I had to pull out the tap shoes for that. Every couple of years, I’m in a tap show.”

“It’s a very feel-good show, very high energy throughout the whole thing,” said Pevec, who now alternates between the East and West Coast for acting jobs. “I’m very honored to be able to do it again here.”