The more successful a show is, the more it deserves to be spoofed.
That is the philosophy of Gerard Alessandrini, the creator and writer of Forbidden Broadway, which has been poking the commercial theater in the ribs for nearly 40 years. And with Hamilton, arguably the most successful musical in a generation, he decided it deserved an entire evening’s parody — which he dubbed Spamilton: An American Parody.
Spamilton opens at the Kravis Center’s Rinker Playhouse on Wednesday, where it plays through Sunday. More than a satirical take on the hip-hop history of our Founding Fathers, Spamilton combines the rap music of Hamilton with Alessandrini’s own puckish lyrics to focus on Lin-Manuel Miranda, the Broadway show’s creator, writer and original cast member.
Before Spamilton, Alessandrini had avoided writing skits or song parodies about Hamilton. “I thought when I saw ‘Hamilton,’ ‘I can’t just do one number for ‘Forbidden Broadway.’ This deserves a whole show.’
“I wanted it, really specifically, to be about Lin-Manuel and how he changed or affected Broadway,” Alessandrini says. “I wanted to compare the Broadway before ‘Hamilton’ with Broadway since ‘Hamilton.’ I think he uprooted everything.”
To make the comparison, Spamilton features impersonations of veteran Broadway personalities, a staple of Forbidden Broadway. “So I needed to compare it to old Broadway,” explains Alessandrini. “And some old Broadway stars, what are they going to do now? What’s Bernadette (Peters) going to do now? What’s Liza (Minnelli) going to do? … I definitely wanted to compare old Broadway with Lin-Manuel’s Broadway.”
More so than most editions of Forbidden Broadway, Spamilton really requires a knowledge of Hamilton on the audience’s part. “I think that’s true, but I think I’m on safe ground because it’s such a mass cultural staple,” says Alessandrini. “Many people have seen ‘Hamilton,’ but many, many more have seen parts of it or heard the album or seen it broadcast on the Disney Channel, so it has a very broad base. And I think that almost everybody understands what it is.”
Still, he is careful to bring Spamilton to venues where Hamilton has already played. “Yes, that’s the idea. But that’s pretty much everywhere,” he submits. “I know we’re doing a short production in Honolulu in the summer and ‘Hamilton’ hasn’t been there. But that’s the first one that we’re going to like that.”
Miranda was already a fan of Forbidden Broadway when Alessandrini let it be known that he was readying Spamilton. “And I invited him to see it, so it wasn’t like we were going behind his back. I think he came during previews and he seemed to enjoy it very much. On Instagram he put, ‘I laughed my brains out.’ I could tell he liked it a lot, and he came back with his family.”
Writing an entire show based on a single musical, instead of a series of sketches about various shows, proved easier than Alessandrini expected. Still, some numbers came rapidly to him while others were a struggle.
“In ‘(Hamilton),’ the Schuyler sisters come to New York and they sing, ‘Look around, look around.’ And I thought, well, this is fine, but I didn’t have three sisters, so we used puppets and they look around and talk about all the shows in New York. So that number, it’s the second number in the show, it came very quickly.”
On the other hand, “There’s sort of a rap contest among three of the actors in the middle of the show. And it was difficult for me to figure out how to rap. I’d been doing Sondheim and Cole Porter and stuff like that, so I thought ‘Oh, this is going to be daunting to figure out how to do this,’ but I got the hang of it enough.’
Unlike Forbidden Broadway — which will return to the Kravis for its nearly annual visit, Dec. 27-31 — Spamilton, echoing Hamilton, has lots of dance. Asked why theatergoers should come see the show, Alessandrini has a ready answer.
“It’s just packed with humor and good musical satire. In other words, you’ll hear great music and see great dancing — and I mean it — but it will also be funny. It’s a triple threat. You’re getting a lot for your money.”
SPAMILTON, Kravis Center Rinker Playhouse, 701 Okeechobee Blvd,, West Palm Beach. Wednesday, Dec. 1 through Sunday, Dec. 5. $49-$55. 561-832-7469.