Juicy is a queer, Southern college kid, already grappling with some serious questions of identity, when the ghost of his father shows up in their backyard, demanding that Juicy avenge his murder. But here’s the rub! Revenge doesn’t come easy to Juicy, a sensitive and self-aware young Black man in search of his own happiness and liberation. From an uproarious family cookout emerges a compelling examination of love and loss, pain and joy. The deliciously funny, Pulitzer Prize-winning play from James Ijames and director Saheem Ali reinvents Shakespeare’s masterpiece.
There’s little faith here that an audience might be able to understand Tedra, Juicy, or the rest of the cookout attendees, so we aren’t allowed to glimpse too much of them. It brings out a bitter, resentful tang in Ijames’s script that doesn’t sit well with the feast — all the more so because it isn’t fully cooked. I’d be interested to see another version of Fat Ham that brings that bitterness out further, slices toward the confrontational bones underneath the comedy. Instead, we get that splashy finale complete with a confetti cannon — played as celebratory, though the insistence on joy comes off as condescending. Watching the characters dance away, freed from their tragic story line, I was theoretically happy for them but left with the gnawing sensation that I didn’t know them much at all.
The play is a compact 95 minutes, but it’s as dense and thoughtful as it is light on its feet and irreverent. Tio (Chris Herbie Holland), a modern-day echo of Horatio, begins the play by trying to figure out if the world of porn is for him, and later delivers an extremely passionate soliloquy-when-high about the sexual pleasures of getting down with gingerbread men.
Digital Rush
Price: $39
Where: On the Today Tix app.
When: Released on a first-come, first-served basis every performance day at 9 AM.
Limit: Two per customer
Information: Subject to availability.
2022 | Off-Broadway |
Public Theater Off-Broadway Premiere Production Off-Broadway |
2023 | Broadway |
Original Broadway Production Broadway |
Year | Ceremony | Category | Nominee |
---|---|---|---|
2023 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Play | James Ijames |
2023 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Sound Design of a Play | Mikaal Sulaiman |
2023 | Drama League Awards | Outstanding Production of a Play | Fat Ham |
2023 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | John Gassner Award for New American Play | James Ijames |
2023 | Tony Awards | Best Costume Design of a Play | Dominique Fawn Hill |
2023 | Tony Awards | Best Direction of a Play | Saheem Ali |
2023 | Tony Awards | Best Lighting Design of a Play | Bradley King |
2023 | Tony Awards | Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Play | Nikki Crawford |
2023 | Tony Awards | Best Play | Fat Ham |
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