Q&A: âSpamiltonâ creator on loving Lin-Manuel Miranda and spoofing his musical at the same time
When Gerard Alessandrini sees a musical he likes â or loathes â he just canât stop himself from substituting a few of his own lyrics. The writer and director has done it professionally since 1982, the year of his first âForbidden Broadwayâ revue, parodying some of the best â and worst â tunes for generations of theater-goers.
When âHamiltonâ mania swept the country, Alessandrini, 63, decided that a spoof of a song or two wasnât enough this time. So, working quickly, he turned out âSpamilton,â a mash-up of âHamiltonâ parodies and new takes on some of his âForbidden Broadwayâ favorites. Actors playing âHamiltonâ creator
Plying what the soft-spoken, unassuming Alessandrini has called âmischievous inspiration,â âSpamilton: An American Parodyâ emulates âHamilton: An American Musicalâ through costumes, music, smart lyrics and vocal arrangements, multicultural casting, hand gestures and more. Even their logos are similar (except that Alessandriniâs Founding Father is thumbing his nose).
After starting on New Yorkâs Upper West Side more than a year ago, âSpamiltonâ has moved closer to its inspiration, landing just a block away from the Richard Rodgers Theatre, where âHamiltonâ is playing. A second incarnation ran in Chicago for seven months, and now comes the Los Angeles production, opening at the
You refer to âSpamiltonâ as a realization of your âwildest musical-comedy dreams.â How did it happen?
Here comes this show, âHamilton,â thatâs the biggest hit I have seen since Iâve been in New York, and Iâve been here more than 30 years. Itâs a serious drama about American history, and it had current-day political implications. It was also the big new serious show on Broadway and cast Broadway in a different light. There was a lot to spoof there.
âHamiltonâ also brought back the idea that musical theater can be fresh and tell you a story in a new way. It shined a new light on Broadway and made everything else look different. You donât have to be a jukebox musical. You donât have to be a revival.
How did you get from Alexander Hamilton as the central figure to Lin-Manuel Miranda as your central character?
I wanted to not tell the story of âHamilton,â because they tell it very well. I would tell a fantasy story about Lin-Manuel trying to invent something that would freshen up Broadway. I knew from the beginning that if I was going to spoof âHamilton,â I had to have a through-line. When youâre searching, youâre constantly going forward. So I thought, letâs have Lin-Manuel search for a better Broadway.
âForbidden Broadwayâ and âSpamiltonâ highlight your love of Broadway and worry for its future.
I donât always love Broadway. I love Broadway at its best. I donât like Broadway when itâs mediocre. Sometimes I see a show and I get very discouraged because I think who gave these people $10 million to put this show up onstage? But then there are the great shows that are inspirational, the ones that transcend their era.
That leads us to your parody of âMy Shot,â the âHamiltonâ anthem that has Alexander Hamilton singing, âI am not throwing away my shot!â
I struggled with that parody. Itâs the big home run at the beginning of âHamiltonâ â the âI amâ song. I wanted it to be a parody, but I wanted to use that rhythm, and it was hard to come up with something that was exact and funny. At one point, we were joking and came up with, âI am not throwing away my pot.â We did use it, but itâs not the thrust of the song. I went with âI am not gonna let Broadway rot.â Thatâs something I would believe in, and it fit.
The âI wantâ I gave Lin-Manual is actually myself superimposed on his psyche. I know Lin-Manuel, and Iâm sure he does love musicals, but I donât know him well enough to know his complete motivations for writing âHamilton.â Itâs sort of a fantasy of what he might be thinking.
It appears you did a lot of research that went beyond seeing âHamilton.â
Well, Mirandaâs book, âHamilton: The Revolutionâ helped a lot. His sidebars were fun to use and exaggerate. I had the CD and tons of hours of footage online. I also had to go online and listen to rap artists he was referencing. I taught myself to do some rap, though Iâm certainly not a rap expert.
I really felt Lin-Manuel was not just using rap but he was accessing all of musical theater. You could see he knew âMan of La Mancha,â âCamelotâ and other historic shows. I could hear that he had a good handle on classical music. âHamiltonâ was mostly famous for rap, but there are all sorts of musical forms in there. Tunes like âThe Room Where it Happensâ are as catchy as anything in a Jerry Herman show.
You graduated from the Boston Conservatory. When did you start doing show parodies?
I started at a young age. Iâve been doing them since grammar school, then in summer stock. I wanted to have fun and make people laugh. Then, around 1981, it came to me that it might be a good idea to do a revue of parodies. I had a folder full of them, which I called âForbidden Broadway.â We put that together, it hit and I was launched on a career as a parodist. Over the years, I must have parodied every Broadway standard at some time or other. I can look at something and see how to turn it inside out.
But nothing is going to be funny if they arenât in on the joke with you. What was really wonderful about parodying âHamiltonâ is that most people seem to know the score already. So when I change the lyrics, people laugh because they know what the real lyric is. Youâre harking back to the days when every household knew the songs from âMy Fair Ladyâ and âThe Sound of Music.â
You really moved fast, capitalizing on the peak popularity of âHamilton.â
The thing about writing any parody is that itâs time-sensitive. Itâs topical. âHamiltonâ was so hot; it had just won all the awards. So it was the time to do it and to do it fast. I didnât have years to do it. I started throwing in something from âGypsy,â then I began adding things from other shows. I just didnât have the time to thoroughly parody what took Miranda years to write.
How did Miranda react to the show?
He came twice to see it. He wrote two tweets â one was âI laughed my brains outâ â and I was really thrilled. He was so nice to the cast. He gave the actors all tickets to âHamilton.â Those kids couldnât afford to see it, and it helped them focus âSpamiltonâ more.
Youâre now thinking of a spoof of âLa La Landâ called âBlah Blah Landâ?
Yes, I started writing it, but I put my poison pen aside for a while to direct a revue of Maury Yestonâs music and lyrics called âAnything Can Happen in the Theater.â Now the heat of âLa La Landâ has worn off, but all these movie musicals will be coming out â âMary Poppins Returns,â âA Star Is Bornâ with Lady Gaga. âLa La Landâ is the jump-off point, and like âSpamilton,â âBlah Blah Landâ will be a mash-up of many movie musicals. And thereâs always a new âForbidden Broadwayâ pending.
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âSpamiltonâ
Where: Kirk Douglas Theatre, 9820 Washington Blvd., Culver City
When: Begins previews Nov. 5, opens Nov. 12, ends Jan. 7
Tickets: $30-$80 (subject to change)
Info: (213) 628-2772 or www.centertheatregroup.org
Find all of our latest stories at latimes.com/arts.
MORE THEATER NEWS AND REVIEWS:
âHamiltonâ in L.A. â behind the scenes of the national tour
A devasting revival of âGem of the Oceanâ
âBright Starâ national tour
Carrie Coon, at the top of her game
UPDATES:
10:10 p.m. Nov. 2: This article was updated to reflect an extension of the run to Jan. 7.
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