TeenTix Blog by Press Corps in Schools

Fat Ham is a radiant phoenix soaring through the ashes of Hamlet’s tragedy. With a lively set and explosive characters, this show is a sweet to the sweet.

We follow the story mainly from Juicy, a Queer Black man who struggles with the recent union of his mother, Tedra, and his uncle, Rev. The couple, who married shortly after the death of Juicy’s father, hosts a barbecue party to celebrate. While Juicy helps set up the backyard for the party, the ghost of his dead father visits him and orders him to kill Rev, revealing he was the one that killed him. From there, the story spirals into chaos including musical performances and questionable monologues, while introducing us to the reimagined versions of Hamlet’s characters. Giving a fresh adaptation that branches out from the original play, we see how a story of a woeful prince of Denmark becomes a tasteful tale for the modern age.

Fat Ham is a theatrical feast. It’s a pork-fectly captivating performance full of outstanding success, from the language to the dance party in the end, this production is a must-see. Don’t miss out on this flavorful ride!

Fat Ham, written by James Ijames is a Hamlet-inspired play that made its successful debut at the Public Theater in New York City on May 12, 2022. This production has been generating excitement for its strong exploration of identity through the idea of toxic masculinity, vulnerability and building community. Its recent show on May 9, 2024 in Seattle highlighted the importance of being yourself and accepting who you are. Unlike Hamlet, Fat Ham is mostly focused on finding yourself and not much on seeking revenge. The story revolves around Juicy, a young Queer African American man, who is confronted by the ghost of his dad during a barbecue in the backyard of his modern-day American house, with his contemporary Southern family.

Subverting expectations is the name of the game with this play. Fat Ham is a loose adaptation of Shakespeare’s titular play Hamlet. This play written by James Ijames is a wonderful example of subversion that deserves recognition. It truly feels like a modern take on the works of Shakespeare, who, bear in mind, actually wrote a large amount of comedies. The humor and tragedy are blended so finely that it will leave you in both kinds of tears.

Its intentional focus on Hamlet isn’t just superficial or simply the base in the blend of a story, but the core of which the whole story sits on, allowing the reflection of Shakespeare's work to be visible throughout this play. The values of this story flipped on its head as the story asks, “Why must it be this way?” creating comedy in the face of would-be tragedy. With the focus character of this play being Juicy, our Hamlet counterpart focuses on why one should be allowed to be soft combined with the hardships one would face as one strives for it. This perfectly compliments Larry, the Laertes counterpart which at first seems to coincide with Laertes much more than Juicy with Hamlet, with how he served in the military and even more so with him being an honor-bound yes-man. But if you look closer you see an inner softness that wants to escape the pressure put on him that is practically restraining him to that version of him that other people want him to be.

Fat Ham at the Seattle Rep is a wonderful performance that creates a conversation with the audience about self expression, identity, expectations, and above all else takes immense joy in having fun with the audience. From the set work to the actors’ physical performance, a sense of excitement and festivity is present through the entire play. Although it is very different from its source material of Shakespeare’s tragedy Hamlet, Fat Ham does keep a condensed form of the original’s structure, using it to orient the audience and smoothly establish the play’s characters, plot, and where it differs. The play opens with Juicy (the analog to prince Hamlet) and Tio (the analog to Horatio and Juicy’s cousin) decorating for the party celebrating the marriage of Juicy’s mother, Tedra to his uncle, Rev, which will be the setting for the rest of the play.

Throughout the performance, the cast and especially Juicy, will address or acknowledge the audience, the Shakespearean origins of the play, and the expectations the audience has from those origins. Early on, Juicy will quote lines from Hamlet to demonstrate how he is more studied and introspective than those around him and this evolves later into one of multiple fourth wall breaks, where Juicy stops the play and quotes one of Hamlet’s famous soliloquies in its entirety to the audience. This element of the play can be seen as clunky or gratuitous, but it’s a functional way to integrate Hamlet into its shortened structure and lighter self-referential tone.

Backyard barbeques aren’t your typical setting for tragedies—especially not a Shakespearean tragedy. And yet, the Pulitzer prize-winning interpretation of Hamlet, called Fat Ham, takes place in a suburban backyard. Playwright James Ijames reimagined Hamlet, a story of death, tragedy, and revenge, to be retold by a Southern African American family. Hamlet himself is represented by a queer Black man named Juicy, tackling the challenges of generational trauma and self-identity. The characters themselves struggle with modern problems in a modern-day setting, attributing to the play's biggest strength—its relatability. James Ijames took advantage of the universality of Shakespeare’s themes and effectively translated them into a Southern context. Much like Hamlet, Fat Ham begins with the celebration of Juicy’s mother marrying his Uncle, Rev. However, unlike Elsinore, their wedding cookout takes place in Juicy’s backyard, shortly after the death of Juicy’s father, Pap. Pap later returns in a ghostly form and demands that Juicy avenge him, as it was Rev who was responsible for Pap's murder. This event serves as a foundation for Ijames to introduce themes of mental health, violence, and generational trauma within Black communities. Fat Ham serves as a successful adaptation of Hamlet due to its representation of conflicts within Black communities and breaking those cycles.

While Fat Ham does showcase the darker side of African American trauma, it shows those patterns being broken and resolved. An example of this is with Pap. Ijames strategically paints him out to be an abusive father, to represent violence within Black communities in the play. This message is conveyed through aggressive, argumentative dialogue to engage the audience with captivating, evoking verbal conflicts. During Pap’s visit from beyond the grave, they argued, violent words being thrown at each other at bone-rattling volumes. As someone who has heard such conflicts many times before in my own family on similar topics, I found the disagreements to be very relatable. It feels raw, using commonly used phrases many teens hear these days coming from parents, which is something that many fights in entertainment tend to overlook. You can tell Ijames and other writers had done their research when skillfully writing what real quarrels sound like. The dialogue continues to be this play's strong suit to also convey themes of mental health to both characters and directly to the audience.

James Ijames serves a sizzling feast of social commentary with a glaze of comedy, all wrapped in the stage play, Fat Ham. In Fat Ham, we follow a Hamlet-like character, Juicy, and his struggles with his newfound family dynamic; after his father, Pap, was killed in prison, his Uncle Rev, married his mom, Tedra. At the beginning of the play, while Juicy leaves his best friend/cousin Tio in the yard, Pap's ghost appears. With flickering porch lights and a red sky, Pap, draped in white sheets, shuffles through the yard in search of Juicy as thunder cracks off stage. The same scene is repeated when Juicy is now left alone, mirroring the same sequence in the original Hamlet, yet instead of Juicy bravely seeking after his father’s ghost, he cowers in fear, freaking out as the spirit surges towards him. Pap then urges Juicy to seek revenge once he calms down, encouraging him to gut his uncle like a pig in a display of toxic masculine ideals of violence. Throughout the play, Juicy struggles with the idea of killing Rev, not wanting to follow his fathers footsteps.

Juicy, (portrayed by Taj E.M. Burroughs), is an angsty, brooding, thoughtful character; much like his Shakespearean counterpart, Hamlet. His story similarly follows Hamlet's, with the exception of the family dynamics. Though Juicy struggles with his fathers, Pap’s, (played by Reginald André Jackson), death, it’s for different reasons. Juicy isn’t super comfortable with grieving his father, seeing as they didn’t have the best relationship; he recounts a time when Pap destroyed his favorite doll because he viewed it as unmanly. His mom, Tedra, (Jasmine Lomax), also recounts how Pap would hit her, “in the tit!”, as she said. Another difference between our modern Hamlet and the original is that he doesn’t actually want to kill his uncle Rev, (also played by Jackson), because his father wants him to. He doesn’t like him, that much is the same, but Juicy dislikes him because he pressures Juicy to be more manly, even encouraging him to fight and be angry, much like Pap. Plus the fact that Juicy recognizes how fast Rev married his mom, and how harmful Rev’s behavior can be to her. Tedra still sees this as an improvement from Pap, though, because even if Rev is mean and toxic, he’s a step up from Pap, and Tedra is scared of being alone, as she states when talking to Juicy about his problems with his uncle.

Accepting a legacy is never as simple as it sounds, whether it be the weight of a crown or a sizzling hot grill. It’s considered an honor to carry what your forefathers have passed down—or at least it should be. Seattle Rep presents a modern adaptation of Shakespeare’s Hamlet called Fat Ham, written by James Ijames. It follows the story of Juicy, an aspiring HR manager, as he battles expectations creeping in from every corner and staying true to himself as a queer and Black man in the rural South. Having so much piled on his plate, Juicy’s various troubles and even that of those around him echo the many realities of swaying in contradiction. It’s hard to know where to start. Through its characters’ struggles, Fat Ham beautifully portrays the struggle of being authentic towards yourself in an environment that doesn’t nurture it.

The play opens by showing off preparations to celebrate Tedra’s (Juicy’s mom) remarriage to Juicy’s uncle, Rev. Juicy is then visited by an anguished spirit in need of revenge: his own father. With the pressure on and a blade thrust into his hands, Juicy’s subjected to countless reminders of his upbringing and is faced with an ultimatum he’s not sure he can carry out, as it goes against his core beliefs. Torn between continuing a toxic cycle and challenging expectations for the men in his family, Juicy sets himself down a path of trial and error.

Into the Woods is a very famous musical, following the story of four very famous fairy tales, Cinderella, Rapunzel, Jack and the Beanstalk and Little Red Riding Hood. This play takes place in a forest most of the time.

This musical is about a baker and a wife who have always wanted to have a child of their own, when unexpectedly the witch from next door comes to them and tells them if they really want to have a child they have to find four special items, which are, a cape as red as blood, a cow as white as milk, hair as yellow as corn and lastly a slipper as pure as gold. From there it’s the baker’s and wife’s mission to find those missing items before the time limit or else they will never get their child.

Into the Woods is a Musical about drama, love, and loss.

It's about a group of people: The baker, The baker's wife, Cinderella, Rapunzel, Jack and the beanstalk and more facing different challenges along the way.

Have you ever seen the play Into the Woods It is a very entertaining and unique play. It's a musical and fairytale play consisting a bit of romance , betrayal , suspense , action , and mystery. The play has dramatic plot twists and has a theme to it. It is hosted in the Fifth Avenue Theater in Seattle W.A. In my opinion I would say to go watch the play Into the Woods in the Fifth Avenue Theater and here are my reasons why.

The play Into the Woods was a beautiful play there were many characters like The Baker, Like the Baker's Wife, Jack, Cinderella, Rapunzel, Cinderellas Mean sisters, Etc. But Into the Woods is a play about It's a Musical with action drama Characters. It has thoughts in it there's many different movies in one play. and imagine if there's a Witch that could put a horrible curse on you or a Cow as white as milk or hair as yellow as corn or A cape as red as blood and A slipper as pure as gold and Into the Woods is about community and helping one and another and I would recommend to watch it yes it’s very expensive but you only live once and that's why I think you should watch Into the Woods.

Would you believe me when I say that the play Into the Woods was the best play I ever saw. The play was amazing, the avenue theater was so fancy and the actors were amazing and everything in the play felt so realistic and the actors really played their character well. The plot was so lovely it went to love to loss. The characters were really funny.

Into the Woods is a Musical about drama, love, and loss.

It's about a group of people: The baker, The baker's wife, Cinderella, Rapunzel, Jack and the beanstalk and more facing different challenges along the way.

I think that into the wood is a great movie because it shows a lot of emotions of the characters that is I'm so surprising like when the big girl wanted to take write this hurt she started screaming like acting that she was getting so sad about it because it was hers and her grandma did with her and the person the baker's wife cheer cheated on him was so sad the banker never noticed because he never thought that of her wife he thought that he was so incredible. And she cheated with the prince. The prince cheated the princess. The prince never noticed that the princess. I think if the princess noticed she would be so sad. I think if somebody got to be in that place I think that it would be so sad and so sad because it's not good at cheating on another person and I noticed that people are so good at acting because the lights were not on them they didn't move it was like they were freezing.

Have you ever been to a musical where you felt like you were in the story? Well that’s what I felt like when I went to the 5th Avenue theater, and watched Into the Woods. The theater itself was a whole another story. It was very beautiful and fantastic. Also how they tied in each and every character into the same story was VERY creative too. The musical was amazing, the singing was beautiful, the dancing was awesome, and the lighting was full of emotion. You really should watch Into the Woods because the music is outstanding!

Imagine if you went to a really, really fancy theater called the 5th avenue theater, and saw a live musical performed by outstanding teenagers. I left the theater, greatly impressed. The 5th avenue theater in Seattle is really fancy, and old. There were chandeliers too, the pattern designs were really beautiful. The musical was mind blowing! The set was big enough for them to move around a lot. The lights changed color depending on the character or how intense the situation was. The actors/actresses were outstanding and really talented for their age. Especially the solo singing, which went on for 5+ minutes straight, no breaks! Into the Woods is an amazing play and you should see it because it has dramatic plot-twists.

Have you ever wondered what the Fifth Avenue Theatre looks like? Don't worry, I’ll tell you all about it. At first glance from the outside, the sign is very big with bold neon letters spelling F-I-F-T-H A-V-E-N-U-E T-H-E-A-T-R-E. Once you walk into the building on the first floor, there's a big lobby with stairs going up to the second floor in the middle splitting once it's a good 6ft in the air. When you walk on the top seats and look up, the ceiling is glorious. I mean it's like a dragon hanging from the ceiling, of course you can see it from the bottom floor as well but I think you can see more detail from the top. So I think you should go see Into the Woods because the melody is super catchy and sticks in your mind like glue.

Have you ever gone to a theater and watched Into the Woods? It's a big theater that is really beautiful.

It was big and had a lot of red chairs and people. When we arrived it was cold and the buildings were really cool. When we all walked in the theater it looked really cool when we all sat down the lights went on then they started the show with a song. The props are so cool and the sparkles coming out the ground then the background was so cool the way the led lights were changing to different colors. Another thing that I liked was when they were changing clothes really fast. Also the giant stomps are really loud and funny the way they were screaming and the giant was speaking really loud.

I am reviewing Into the Woods which we saw as a school it is a musical by Stephen Sondheim is a mix of a bunch of classic fairytales mixing the morals plot and characters and intertwining their stories in the first act and then in the second act creating a completely new story with all of the characters. It also introduces new morals from the intertwined stories and uses the woods as a metaphor for change. My opinion is that Into the Woods is an amazing musical having seen the play many times before 5th avenues acting lived up to the musical's name. It has great actors and the set works really well with the transitioning between scenes and most importantly the morals of the story are amazing and still relevant despite this musical being written in 1986.

But the acting itself makes me say everyone should try to see the 5th avenue production of Into the Woods. Into the Woods is about Cinderella, a baker and his wife, Little Red Riding Hood, Jack and his mother, and a witch’s wish. Cinderella wishes to go to the ball, the baker and his wife wish for a child, Little Red Riding Hood wishes to visit her granny, Jack and his mother wish for money, and the witch wishes for her youth and beauty back. All of these wishes take them IInto the Woods and all their stories intertwine, mostly held together by the baker and his wife, and also a mysterious old man who keeps appearing in all of their stories. And then in the second act there is a giant in the land which is when this becomes its own story not based on the plot of the fairytales at all the second act follows they’re journey attempting to defeat the giant and losing beloved ones along the way and how they react to said losses.

The play Into the Woods at the 5th Avenue theater, is a bewitching world that brings fairy tales to reality. It is a tale that follows a great cast of characters who find themselves in the woods attempting to carry out their wishes. With beautiful costumes and lighting the musical creates a mesmerizing world that takes the viewers into the story. The musical numbers and coordination add to the spectacle and create an immersive experience. The play follows the theme of consequences and the importance of taking responsibility for one's actions, while the characters are well developed and brought to life by talented performers.

Into the Woods follows the tale of characters who find themselves in the woods trying to carry out their wishes. Nonetheless, they discover that their actions have great consequences. The tale follows a baker and his wife as they pursue items to break a curse that prevents them from having a child. Along the path, they run into famous characters from many different classic fairy tales such as Cinderella, Jack from Jack and the Beanstalk and Little Red.