Like that relative who picks through the chicken parts at a family picnic to find the leg or the breast or the thigh with just the right amount of crisp, playwright James Ijames has no reluctance to rummage through the bones of Shakespeare’s Hamlet to cook up the irresistible Fat Ham.
Audacious at points, quietly amenable at others, the Pulitzer Prize winning comedy carries the burden of our expectations more lightly than some other prize recipients who’ve made their way to Broadway recently, including Between Riverside and Crazy, Cost of Living and even A Strange Loop, the stage work that Fat Ham shares its concerns over masculinity (mostly of the toxic variety ), queerness, and the search for – or insistence upon – love and acceptance within the family and, very specifically, the Black faith community.
Inspired by, and borrowing its groundwork from, Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Fat Ham and its author swipe plot points, characters and, in a startling and lovely interlude, a soliloquy, to tell the tale of Juicy (Marcel Spears), a young, Black, queer man described as “thicc” by his loving mom Tedra (Nikki Crawford), “soft” by both his abusive, vengeance-seeking father’s ghost Pap and equally unlikeable uncle Rev (both played by Billy Eugene Jones), and “opulent” by an admirer who shouldn’t be revealed for fear of a spoiler.
‘Fat Ham’ company (Credit: Joan Marcus)
Set at a backyard barbecue somewhere (possibly) in North Carolina, Fat Ham follows its sensitive, mostly complacent, frequently melancholy and thoroughly indecisive (sound familiar yet?) protagonist as he struggles to find his place in the world, or at least within his own family. The barbecue is being held to celebrate of the wedding of Juicy’s recently widowed mother Tedra and nefarious uncle Rev, and follows so closely behind the death of Juicy’s mostly-despised father that a funeral wreath still stands just feet from the picnic table.
Complicating things: Dad’s ghost has just appeared (from beneath a picnic blanket) to Juicy, with news that Uncle Rev was responsible for his fatal prison shanking. Pap wants vengeance, and demands that Juicy take action.
There are enough Hamlet allusions going on to convince us that Juicy just might go through with it. Cousin Opal (the Ophelia stand-in, played by Adrianna Mitchell) is all for it, and best pal Tio (Chris Herbie Holland, holding up the Horatio end of things) needs little swaying since he too has seen the ghost. We suspect even mom Tedra would be all that sad to see the nasty Rev get his comeuppance, and family friend Rabby (Benja Kay Thomas, in church lady mode) is mostly there for the ribs. We get hints at what handsome childhood friend and new Marine (and Laertes fill-in) Larry (Calvin Leon Smith) has in mind, but we won’t know for sure until he has a moment alone with Juicy.
Excellently performed by the entire cast, Fat Ham is cleverly transferred to Broadway by director Saheem Ali from the smaller Off Broadway Public Theater space (the play originated in a Covid-era filmed presentation at the Wilma Theater in Philadelphia). By turns sweet and saucy (and very funny), the play stays just close enough to Hamlet to keep us off-balance. Although there will be blood (well, a little) and death, along with a fine rendition of Radiohead’s “Creep” and recitations of at least some of Hamlet‘s greatest hits – no To Be or Not To Be, though, as Juicy’s self-doubts are of a less existential sort – Ijames’ play resolves on an exhilarating, life-affirming note. Or, to be more precise, notes, as in song, and dance, and enough good-time gender-bending disco sparkle to win over all but the grumpiest of spirits.
Title: Fat Ham
Venue: Broadway’s American Airlines Theatre
Playwright: James Ijames
Director: Saheem Ali
Cast: Marcel Spears, Nikki Crawford, Chris Herbie Holland, Billy Eugene Jones, Adrianna Mitchell, Calvin Leon Smith, Benja Kay Thomas
Running time: 95 minutes (no intermission)
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