Interludes

THE HANGOVER REPORT – James Ijames’s boisterous Pulitzer Prize-winning FAT HAM feels at home on the Great White Way

• By drediman
• April 14, 2023
• No Comments

This past week also saw the opening of James Ijames’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Fat Ham on Broadway at the American Airlines Theatre (note that the production is not an offering of Roundabout Theatre Company, which owns the theater). The production arrives on the Great White Way after having enjoyed a highly successful Off-Broadway run downtown at the Public Theater. For those of you unfamiliar with the premise of the play, Fat Ham takes its cue from Shakespeare’s Hamlet, transplanting the Bard’s tragedy to the American South, more specifically a family barbecue.

I first saw the play two years ago during the dark days of the pandemic in an excellent filmed version of the work courtesy of Philadelphia’s Wilma Theatre, where Ijames is a co-artistic director. The play was then mounted separately by director Saheem Ali last year by the Public, where it doubled down on the play’s boisterousness and garnered further acclaim. Ali’s production now arrives on Broadway even broader (pun intended), easily feeling at home at a much larger venue. Upon third viewing, the play remains a riot, even if the play’s relatively slight structure has become a little more apparent, especially when compared with some of the season’s other heavy-hitting plays. Nevertheless, Ijames’s exploration of Black masculinity and refusal to accept the tragedy of the Black American experience are still tremendously inspiring, and the play’s conclusion – newly upscaled for the Main Stem transfer – is one of the most uplifting and celebratory things currently to be found on a Broadway stage.

Although I missed the intimacy afforded by the Public’s Anspacher Theater (where the audience surrounded the action on three sides), the amped up performances make sure audiences are welcomed with open arms. Particularly delicious are Benja Kay Thomas and Chris Herbie Holland in the Polonius and Horatio roles, respectively. But the heart of the play remains the character of Juicy (aka Hamlet) as played by Marcel Spears, whose bruised performance grounds the otherwise upbeat production. Given the accolades showered upon the play, Fat Ham is surely bound to be one of the top contenders for the best new play awards just around the corner.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

FAT HAM
Broadway, Play
American Airlines Theatre
1 hour, 40 minutes (without an intermission)
Through June 24