How Broadway’s premier satirist knocked Hamilton down a peg

‘Spamilton’, the off-Broadway spoof of the blockbuster Broadway musical, has become a popular ticket for people who can’t get seats for ‘Hamilton’

'Spamilton's' Gerard Alessandrini said his spoof is paying homage to 'Hamilton', the blockbuster Broadway musical, by mocking it in a good way (Demitrius Freeman/New York Times)

If it raps like Hamilton, sings like Hamilton and dances like Hamilton, then it probably is Hamilton.

Except it’s not. It’s just cashing in on Hamilton.

Spamilton, the uproarious off-Broadway spoof of the blockbuster Broadway musical, has become an increasingly popular ticket for people who can’t afford or can’t get seats for Hamilton (top ticket price: $849 [£656]). Spamilton skirts right up to the line, mimicking music from Hamilton, satirising its characters and scenes, using a similar logo and channeling the hip-hop vibe that has invigorated the colossal Hamilton fanbase. But the top price for premium Spamilton tickets is $113.

And Spamilton has even begun performances in the backyard of Hamilton, moving from an upper West Side theatre to the 47th Street Theatre in New York, a block from where Hamilton is running.

If Hamilton executives have a problem with Spamilton, they aren’t saying: They declined to comment for this article. The spoof’s creator, Gerard Alessandrini, said his show is paying homage to Hamilton by mocking it – and doing so within the legal bounds for parodies.

“I chose to make it just about Hamilton, but not because we’re going to make more money,” said Alessandrini, who has had enormous success for decades with Forbidden Broadway, his series of theatre parodies. “But because it’s a better idea.”

'Spamilton' creator and director Alessandrini (left) and 'Hamilton' composer Lin-Manuel Miranda (right) pose at the parody of 'Hamilton' called 'Spamilton' at The Triad Theatre in New York (Bruce Glikas/FilmMagic)

Hamilton regularly grosses between $2.5m and $3m a week, while Spamilton makes a fraction of that, although Alessandrini and his colleagues declined to say exactly how much. The 47th Street Theatre seats 182.

“We’re on the coattails of Hamilton,” Alessandrini continues, at the theatre while the cast was rehearsing. “But in a good way, a loving way. The way a little child would be on the coattails of their parents. Or a puppy dog.”

The show’s new proximity to the home of Hamilton, the Richard Rodgers Theatre, means tourists and others could zip over and buy tickets if they failed to score them in the Hamilton ticket cancellation line.

“We think there’ll be more of a demand for it down here,” Alessandrini says. “I think it legitimises the show a little bit more.”

Certainly, the Hamilton name has already drawn many audience members to the satire.

Sharena Conte surprised her son, Cameron Conte, a Hamilton enthusiast, with Spamilton tickets for his 14th birthday. They travelled more than an hour from Long Beach, New York, to see it during its final weekend at the intimate 130-seat Triad Theatre on the upper West Side, where it opened in September.

“When I heard about the show, I was like, well, I can’t see Hamilton. But this sounds really awesome,” Cameron said.

Sharena Conte said, “He puts in for the Hamilton lottery anytime we have off.” So far, Cameron hasn’t been successful.

Make no mistake: Alessandrini, 63, skewers Broadway because he loves Broadway. He has been satirising shows with pinpoint precision since 1982, when Forbidden Broadway, the parody that left none of theatre’s most popular shows untouched, first opened. (Annie has been mocked repeatedly, even in Spamilton.)

'Spamilton' (above) has just moved from an upper West Side theatre to the 47th Street Theatre, a block from where 'Hamilton' is running

In 2009, Alessandrini briefly put Forbidden Broadway on ice because he felt that shows on Broadway weren’t good enough to parody. As Hamilton box-office grosses piled up, the equation changed. He felt duty-bound as Broadway’s premier satirist to knock it down a peg.

At the same time, the caricature has not so subtly attached itself to its originator, by using a similar tagline, “An American Parody” (but not exactly the same as “An American Musical”). The Spamilton logo is a star with its top point cut off. The Hamilton logo happens to be a star with its top point cut off. The difference is that the send-up illustrates a silhouette thumbing its nose at the top, while the “Hamilton” emblem shows one pointing an arm toward the sky.

Spamilton reimagines Lin-Manuel Miranda, the creator of Hamilton, and his quest to reshape Broadway with rap – a Broadway revolution of sorts.

“I just felt, ‘Oh, thank god,’ when it came on,” Alessandrini says. “A new way of doing a musical. For so many years, musicals were rehashes.”

He wrote all the raps himself, something usually out of Alessandrini’s comfort zone. But using Miranda’s template, he seamlessly added pointed barbs. To play on “My Shot,” one of the most popular songs from Hamilton, Alessandrini wrote “His Shot,” sung by Miranda’s character (played by Dan Rosales).

“I am not going to let Broadway rot!

I am not going to let Broadway rot!

Hey yo, I’m just like a beaver

A young overachiever

And I love being a hot big shot!”

Blink and you might miss a Broadway insider joke, such as a lampoon of Liza Minnelli singing “Down With Rap”. At the Triad, the sold-out crowd roared its approval as the show re-enacted Barbra Streisand’s announcing Hamilton winning the Tony Award for best musical in 2016.

“And now the nominees for best musical of the century: Hamilton, Hamilton, Yentl and Hamilton,' Streisand’s character, played by Gina Kreiezmar, deadpanned. Then came a rendition of “The Film When It Happens” – a send-up of celebrities lobbying to appear in a Hamilton film, set to the tune of “The Room Where It Happens” from Hamilton.

Actor Leslie Odom Jr performs on stage during 'Hamilton' Grammy performance at Richard Rodgers Theatre (WireImage)

“Lady Gaga in the film when it happens?” the ensemble sang. The audience applauded.

“Johnny Depp as Hamilton!” the song continued. The crowd hooted.

But then: “Russell Crowe as Aaron Burr?” On this one, there was protest. Many loudly yelled, “No!”

While the show also pokes fun at other musicals – there is a song titled “Book of No More Mormons” – the callbacks to Hamilton give the show its motor.

“You hear the chords; you hear the dat dat dat dat dat dat, duh and you just know that it’s exciting,” says Fred Seid, a New York City resident of more than 30 years, pausing to pantomime the opening of both shows. Seid, 61, had seen Hamilton before going to see the takeoff.

Miranda, whom Alessandrini called an acquaintance, saw the show and tweeted approval, calling it “brilliant.”

Wayne Brady, who played Aaron Burr in the Chicago cast of Hamilton, also spoke glowingly of Spamilton.

“What I love about Spamilton is that Spamilton succeeds as a parody on every level,” Brady says through a spokeswoman. “Some people think that if you sing a funny song and write some clever lyrics, then boom, it’s a success. Spamilton lyrics are bitingly clever.”

The teams behind Hamilton and Spamilton would not comment as to whether the parody was compensating its source material. Most parodies are protected under “fair use,” which allows for limited uses of unlicensed copyrighted material. In terms of trademark infringement, according to Domenic Romano, a New York City-based entertainment lawyer, Spamilton is probably on solid ground.

“If you compare them side by side, there are obviously similarities, but no one in commerce would confuse these two products,” Romano says. Hamilton would have a case against Spamilton if you could show, ‘You’re taking our audience away because people went to Spamilton thinking it was Hamilton.'

Alessandrini, who has already picked his next target (a sendup of Hollywood called Blah Blah Land), batted away suggestions that his show’s sole aim was to piggyback on an iconic show’s brand.

Hamilton is the biggest hit since I’ve been alive,” he said. “I had to spoof it.”

'Hamilton The Musical' is coming to London in November 2017, reopening the Victoria Palace Theatre

© New York Times