Like that relative who picks by way of the rooster components at a household picnic to seek out the leg or the breast or the thigh with simply the correct quantity of crisp, playwright James Ijames has no reluctance to rummage by way of the bones of Shakespeare’s Hamlet to cook dinner up the irresistible Fats Ham.
Audacious at factors, quietly amenable at others, the Pulitzer Prize successful comedy carries the burden of our expectations extra calmly than another prize recipients who’ve made their solution to Broadway just lately, together with Between Riverside and Loopy, Value of Residing and even A Unusual Loop, the stage work that Fats Ham shares its considerations over masculinity (largely of the poisonous selection ), queerness, and the seek for – or insistence upon – love and acceptance throughout the household and, very particularly, the Black religion neighborhood.
Impressed by, and borrowing its groundwork from, Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Fats Ham and its writer swipe plot factors, characters and, in a startling and wonderful interlude, a soliloquy, to inform the story of Juicy (Marcel Spears), a younger, Black, queer man described as “thicc” by his loving mother Tedra (Nikki Crawford), “smooth” by each his abusive, vengeance-seeking father’s ghost Pap and equally unlikeable uncle Rev (each performed by Billy Eugene Jones), and “opulent” by an admirer who shouldn’t be revealed for worry of a spoiler.
‘Fats Ham’ firm (Credit score: Joan Marcus)
Set at a yard barbecue someplace (probably) in North Carolina, Fats Ham follows its delicate, largely complacent, steadily melancholy and totally indecisive (sound acquainted but?) protagonist as he struggles to seek out his place on this planet, or at the very least inside his circle of relatives. The barbecue is being held to have a good time of the marriage of Juicy’s just lately widowed mom Tedra and nefarious uncle Rev, and follows so intently behind the loss of life of Juicy’s mostly-despised father {that a} funeral wreath nonetheless stands simply ft from the picnic desk.
Complicating issues: Dad’s ghost has simply appeared (from beneath a picnic blanket) to Juicy, with information that Uncle Rev was chargeable for his deadly jail shanking. Pap desires vengeance, and calls for that Juicy take motion.
There are sufficient Hamlet allusions happening to persuade us that Juicy simply may undergo with it. Cousin Opal (the Ophelia stand-in, performed by Adrianna Mitchell) is all for it, and greatest pal Tio (Chris Herbie Holland, holding up the Horatio finish of issues) wants little swaying since he too has seen the ghost. We suspect even mother Tedra can be all that unhappy to see the nasty Rev get his comeuppance, and household buddy Rabby (Benja Kay Thomas, in church girl mode) is generally there for the ribs. We get hints at what good-looking childhood buddy and new Marine (and Laertes fill-in) Larry (Calvin Leon Smith) has in thoughts, however we received’t know for certain till he has a second alone with Juicy.
Excellently carried out by all the solid, Fats Ham is cleverly transferred to Broadway by director Saheem Ali from the smaller Off Broadway Public Theater area (the play originated in a Covid-era filmed presentation on the Wilma Theater in Philadelphia). By turns candy and saucy (and really humorous), the play stays simply shut sufficient to Hamlet to maintain us off-balance. Though there can be blood (nicely, somewhat) and loss of life, together with a superb rendition of Radiohead’s “Creep” and recitations of at the very least a few of Hamlet‘s biggest hits – no To Be or Not To Be, although, as Juicy’s self-doubts are of a much less existential kind – Ijames’ play resolves on an exhilarating, life-affirming observe. Or, to be extra exact, notes, as in music, and dance, and sufficient good-time gender-bending disco sparkle to win over all however the grumpiest of spirits.
Title: Fats Ham
Venue: Broadway’s American Airways Theatre
Playwright: James Ijames
Director: Saheem Ali
Solid: Marcel Spears, Nikki Crawford, Chris Herbie Holland, Billy Eugene Jones, Adrianna Mitchell, Calvin Leon Smith, Benja Kay Thomas
Working time: 95 minutes (no intermission)
