Center Theatre Group artistic director Michael Ritchie has only one thing to say about the fact that Spamilton, a popular Hamilton spoof, will launch its national tour at the Kirk Douglas Theatre in Culver City as part of the company’s 2017-18 season.
“It’s a really funny show and you don’t have to take out a second mortgage to see it,” Ritchie said on Tuesday, when Center Theatre Group announced the West Coast premiere of Spamilton. “That’s the best, and most, I can say about it.”
Spamilton was created by former actor and singer Gerard Alessandrini, who roared into popular consciousness in the 1980s with the Forbidden Broadway series of musical parody revues.
For Spamilton, Alessandrini aims his satirical skills at Lin-Manuel Miranda’s monster Broadway hit whose US tour is in San Francisco and set to arrive in Los Angeles in August. Spamilton had its world premiere in 2016 at the Triad Theatre in New York; with rave reviews, it was extended three times and is in its ninth month. In June the show will move Off-Broadway to 47th Street Theatre/The Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre.
In August, Miranda tweeted: “Spamilton is a Forbidden Broadway parody of our show. It is brilliant.”
Spamilton is scheduled to run at Kirk Douglas Theatre from November 5 through December 31.
