By Michele Markarian
“Spamilton” – Created, Written and Directed by Gerard Alessandrini. Presented by Huntington Theatre Company, Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA, 527 Tremont Street, Boston, through April 7.
Where to start with this show? Well, in the Obamas’s bedroom, where Barack puts on the cast recording of “Hamilton” before he and Michelle go to sleep. Lo and behold, Lin-Manuel Miranda (Adrian Lopez) is onstage, in full “Hamilton” garb, and the first number is a spoof on him (“In New York you can be a real ham” sung to the tune of “Alexander Hamilton”). I don’t know where they found Lopez, but onstage he is the spitting image of Miranda, and captures his vocal inflections perfectly. It’s uncanny to watch. Daveed Diggs (Dominic Pecikonis) and Aaron Burr (Datus Puryear) provide their own admonishments, but lest you think you’re in for an entire evening of roasting Lin-Manuel, the show, under the excellent musical direction and accompaniment of Curtis Reynolds, spins into a loving roast of Broadway itself, past and present.
The current state of a Disney-ized Broadway is lamented with creative mash-ups, such as “The Lion King and I” and “Avenue Cher” (“Everyone’s a little bit tacky, like Cher”). Leading Ladies Ani Djirdirian sings, in the mash-up of “Hello Dolly” and “Willy Wonka”, “Come with me/and you’ll see/A show with no imagination”. What makes it all the funnier is that Alessandrini, also responsible for creating the long-running parody, “Forbidden Broadway”, is right. Lin-Manuel tries to make frequent contact with Stephen Sondheim, just for a dose of musical theater reality, and calls up numbers from “The Unsinkable Molly Brown”, “Gypsy”, “Sunday in the Park with George”, “Company”, “Hello Dolly”, “1776” and “Guys and Dolls”, to name a few. One of the funniest moments of many was the onstage arrival of King George II (Brandon Kinley), following the announcement, “A message from the Queen”. “Straight is back”, he sings to the tune of “You’ll Be Back”. It brought down the house. Equally funny is Djirdirian, playing all three Skylar sisters, with the help of two puppets – “Anjelica”, “Philippa Soo”, and a muted “Jasmine”.
Alessandrini has assembled a very talented, very energetic cast with strong vocal talent. Djirdirian is a seemingly inexhaustible force of nature, with an amazing range and physicality. She also does a very good Liza Minelli. Pecikonis, sometimes donning a large afro, is an excellent singer and dancer and in general, gives the impression that he is having a really, really, good time up there. Watching him, the audience does, too. Chuckie Benson, who plays Ben Franklin, George Washington and a number of other roles, has a remarkable singing voice. When the cast harmonizes, even in the midst of parody, it’s breathtakingly beautiful.
If you’re going to “Spamilton” thinking that you’re going to see a scene by scene spoof of the original Hamilton, that’s not what it’s about. “Hamilton” simply provides the framework for what is a very funny, very pointed and very loving parody of Broadway, although it helps if you’ve seen the show or are at least familiar with the score. For anyone who knows musical theater, it won’t get any better than this. For tickets and info, go to: www.huntingtontheatre.org
