Fat Ham NYC Reviews and Tickets
About the Show
Production Covid-19 Safety ProtocolsShow-Score Member Reviews (218)
See it if you like contemporary twists on Shakespeare. This one is based on Hamlet and is a lot of fun.
Don't see it if you prefer "traditional" Shakespeare. Read more
See it if you want to see an adaptation of Shakespeare that feels truly interesting and relevant; you're excited by seeing a queer-centered piece.
Don't see it if you are easily thrown by small plot holes or unanswered questions; you don't like plays that mention death or violence.
See it if You appreciate contemporary Black American comedy, fabulousness in general and relevant interpretations of Shakespeare
Don't see it if You would be uncomfortable with Black gay themes or you like your Shakespeare old and traditional Read more
See it if you enjoy riffs on Shakespeare.
Don't see it if you don't like plays that end with dancing and glitter
See it if This is one of the two best things I've seen this season! Catch it while you can!!! It's brilliant!
Don't see it if I guess there are people out there who don't appreciate black humor or southern culture, so . . .
See it if I am still on cloud 9 from this incredible production which is brilliantly written, directed, acted and presented. DO NOT MISS!!!!!
Don't see it if Just see it. Hopefully this is the future of live theater!!!!!
See it if You want a creative take on Shakespeare
Don't see it if You don’t want to feel joy
See it if You want to see theater doing what it was meant to do. You believe in choosing pleasure and joy in the face of tragedy.
Don't see it if You're seriously sensitive to smoke or intergenerational trauma. Otherwise just do yourself a favor and see it. Read more
Critic Reviews (19)
"For all that Ijames dismantles in Shakespeare’s original text, he builds it back up into something that’s more — more tragic but also more joyous, more comedic, more political, more contemporary. ... 'To be or not to be' becomes a different kind of existential query. It’s not a question of life or death, but of who we can decide to be in a world that tries to define that for us: Can you be soft? Can you be queer? Can you be brave? Can you be honest?"
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"5/5 Stars! The outlines of James Ijames's delicious riff on 'Hamlet' are Shakespearean, but the point and the punch lines—and most of the poetry—are the playwright's own...'Fat Ham' keeps you cackling so consistently that the play's sudden acts of cruelty land like punches in the gut...Director Saheem Ali makes sure every laugh lands and that the broad performances never slip into stereotype."
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"The author also lends his own distinct point of view for his contemporary update. This slice of life leans hard into comedy, not tragedy, as it ponders big things that matter: personal identity, sexuality, transparency, living out loud."
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"Ijames and Ali create a magnificently silly farce-climax, followed by a sublimely glittery reality-breaking denouement. And between these two sequences came my favorite moment. After the peak of the action, when the characters realize that the rules of dramaturgy do not need to apply to them, they relinquish their strenuously noisy performances and just talk."
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"On its own terms, the play is an unalloyed pleasure: clever in its allusions to and occasional modest borrowings from Shakespeare’s mighty drama, frank and funny in its depiction of a family in the throes of transition, and acted with infectious exuberance."
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"Once you get past the sitcommy outlines of the project, the uniqueness of Ijames’s voice and his critique of genre becomes more apparent and pleasurable. He translates the domestic and political conflict of 'Hamlet' to the modern South where he grew up. The resulting queer, Black, middle-class lens is inherently irreverent and a goof, but also liberating."
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"Unabashedly entertaining and one of a spate of enticing new plays that are destined to be seen on stages across the country, offering fresh hope to theaters and theatergoers who are willing the industry back to full health."
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"In Ijames's hands, Shakespeare's text about a brooding, fake-mad, mother-obsessed, father-avenging prince of Denmark becomes a play celebrating Blackness, specifically radical Black queer softness.'"
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