“SPAMILTON” SHOOTS ITS WITTY ARROWS STRAIGHT AT ITS TARGETS: LIN-MANUEL MIRANDA AND ”HAMILTON”

Even if you’ve never scored tickets for the most hyped show currently

on Broadway, as a beggar lady tries to do frequently in the show by asking the playwright, you are sure to be charmed and highly amused by this spoof, skewer, satire, parody, pun, roast, ribbing and barb filled comic show “Spamilton An American Parody” currently shining brightly at West Hartford’s Playhouse on Park until Sunday, September 8, in association with the Bushnell. Credits go to Gerard Alessandrini who since 1982 has been poking fun at the current musical hits on Broadway to great and deserved acclaim.

This time around Alessandrini has set his sights and his sharp pens and

arrows on the largest star in the firmament “Hamilton” and its genius

of a creator Lin- Manuel Miranda and the results are bloody brilliant.

A revolution occurs back in 1776 and again in 2019 and the resulting

“roast” is prime succulent eating. With an outstanding cast that

energetically moves non-stop, fast and furiously, on stage, we meet

a lot of the original members of Hamilton’s world, like Jefferson,
Madison, Washington, King George and Burr mingling with modern icons like Sondheim, Peters, Streisand, Cher, Liza and the Obamas.

Alessandrini takes no prisoners as he gleefully mashes bits and pieces

of traditional favorites together like “Mary Poppins,” “Into the Woods,”

“Gypsy,” “Phantom of the Opera,” “Sweeney Todd,” “1776,” “West Side

Story” and so many more. If you are a true Broadway fan, you will delightin all the clever ways he manipulates the story line. With actors of suchnote as Chuckie Benson (Franklin, Washington etc.), Paloma D’Auria (allthe ladies), Brandon Kinley (King George III), Adrian Lopez (Lin-Manuel), Dominic Pecikonis (Daveed Diggs and others), Datus Puryear (Aaron Burr,Leslie Odom Jr) and Marissa Hecker (swing), the 80 minute show flies by. Curtis Reynolds on the piano keeps the rhythm chugging merrily along.

To give you a little taste of the humor, the famous writer is advised to

”Smile more. Rhyme less.” He is also told ”He’s a theater icon/He’s half

Hamilton/Half a can of cold Spam.“ The hit song from the show “I am not

giving up my shot” now becomes “ I am not going to let Broadway rot”

that is Manuel’s writing and working goal.

For tickets ($43.50-56), call Playhouse on Park, 244 Park Road, West

Hartford at 860-523-5900 ext.10 or online at playhouseonpark.org. 

Performances are Tuesday at 7:30 p.m., Wednesday at 2p.m. and 7:30 p.m.,Thursday at 7:30 p.m., Friday at 8 p.m., Saturday at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.

“Spamilton” is a fun excursion into history and the world of Broadway

that you won’t want to miss bragging about around the pool or the water

cooler.