“Fat Ham” by James Ijames will open on Broadway this spring.
Previews are set to begin on March 21 with an official opening night scheduled for April 12, at the American Airlines Theatre. The production will run for a 14-week limited engagement through Aug. 6.
“Fat Ham” received its world premiere at The Wilma Theater in Philadelphia, where it was commissioned and filmed. The play had its New York premiere earlier this year at The Public Theater, co-produced with the National Black Theatre. The transfer marks National Black Theatre’s first production on Broadway, and becomes the third play to be transferred by a Black theatre in Broadway’s history.
The new play, which won the 2022 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, will feature the original Off-Broadway cast including Nikki Crawford, Chris Herbie Holland, Billy Eugene Jones, Adrianna Mitchell, Calvin Leon Smith, Marcel Spears and Benja Kay Thomas. Crawford, Holland, Mitchell, Smith and Spears will all make their Broadway debuts.
Saheem Ali, The Public’s associate artistic director and resident director, will helm the Broadway mounting, which marks Ali’s Broadway directorial debut. Darrell Grand Moultrie will choreograph, also marking Moultrie’s Broadway debut.
The design team includes Maruti Evans (scenic design), Dominique Fawn Hill (costume design), Bradley King (lighting design), Mikaal Sulaiman (sound design), Darrell Grand Moultrie (choreographer), Earon Chew Nealey (hair and wig Design), Skylar Fox (illusions design). Kamra A. Jacobs will serve as production stage manager and general management will be provided by Baseline Theatrical. Casting is by Kate Murray. Evans and Hill make their Broadway debuts with the production.
In “Fat Ham,” playwright Ijames — another Broadway debut with the work — reinvents Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” to center around Juicy, a young Black man struggling with his queerness and identity. When the ghost of his father shows up during a family cookout and demands his death be avenged, Juicy goes on a journey in search of happiness and liberation.
“Fat Ham” is produced on Broadway by Rashad V. Chambers, No Guarantees and Public Theater Productions. Andy Jones and Dylan Pager will serve as executive producers. Roundabout Theater Company, which operates the American Airlines Theatre, is not a producer of the show.
