Cast Set For the West Coast Premiere of FAT HAM, Opening at Geffen Playhouse in March

Geffen Playhouse has announced the full cast for its West Coast premiere of the Broadway production of five-time Tony Award nominee and 2022 Pulitzer Prize for Drama winner Fat Ham, written by James Ijames (Kill Move Paradise, The Most Spectacularly Lamentable Trial of Miz Martha Washington). The Geffen Playhouse West Coast premiere of Saheem Ali’s (Merry Wives, Goddess) Broadway production of Fat Ham will be directed by Sideeq Heard (The Hot Wing King, A Curious Thing), who also served as associate director for the Broadway production.

The cast includes Nikki Crawford (The Most Spectacularly Lamentable Trial of Miz Martha Washington, Stormy Weather) as Tedra; Chris Herbie Holland (White Noise, The Box) as Tio; Billy Eugene Jones (Purlie Victorious, A Soldier’s Play) as Rev/Pap; Adrianna Mitchell (Snowfall, What to Send Up When It Goes Down) as Opal; Marcel Spears (The Neighborhood, The Mayor) as Juicy; Benja Kay Thomas (Halfway Bitches Go Straight to Heaven, Bootycandy) as Rabby; and Matthew Elijah Webb (YELL: a “documentary” of my time here, A Raisin in the Sun) as Larry.

Previews for Fat Ham begin Wednesday, March 27, 2024, in the Gil Cates Theater at Geffen Playhouse. Opening night is Thursday, April 4, 2024. 

Meet Juicy, a young, queer Black man with a Shakespearean-sized dilemma. When the ghost of his dead father shows up at his family’s BBQ wedding reception demanding his murder be avenged, does the poetic and sensitive Juicy have it in him to do the deed, or will he “to thine own self be true?” See what the New York Times calls “a hilarious yet profound tragedy smothered in comedy,” in this Pulitzer Prize–winning take on Hamlet, direct from Broadway to L.A.

Fat Ham is produced in association with No Guarantees, Public Theater Productions & Rashad V. Chambers. Fat Ham first premiered in 2022 at The Public Theater as a co-production between National Black Theatre and The Public Theater. Fat Ham made its Broadway premiere on April 12, 2023.

FAT HAM

Written by James Ijames

Original Direction by Saheem Ali

Directed by Sideeq Heard

Produced in Association with No Guarantees, Public Theater Productions & Rashad V. Chambers

Previews: March 27, 2024 – April 3, 2024

Opening Night: April 4, 2024

Closing Night: April 28, 2024

CAST

Nikki Crawford as Tedra

Chris Herbie Holland as Tio

Billy Eugene Jones as Rev/Pap

Adrianna Mitchell as Opal

Marcel Spears as Juicy

Benja Kay Thomas as Rabby

Matthew Elijah Webb as Larry

PRODUCTION TEAM

Associate Producer Marcel Spears

Scenic Designer Maruti Evans

Costume Designer Dominique Fawn Hill

Lighting Designer Bradley King

Sound Designer Mikaal Sulaiman

Illusions Designer Skylar Fox

Wig, Hair & Makeup Designer Earon Chew Nealey

Fight Director Lisa Kopitsky

Broadway Choreography Darrell Grand Moultrie

Choreography Stager Abdur-Rahim Jackson

Production Stage Manager Alyssa Escalante

Assistant Stage Manager Lauren Buangan

Original Casting Director Kate Murray, CSA

Casting Director Phyllis Schuringa, CSA

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