Concord Theatricals Acquires Licensing Rights for James Ijames' FAT HAM

Concord Theatricals has secured exclusive worldwide English-speaking stage licensing rights to James Ijames' 2022 Pulitzer Prize-winning and 2023 Tony Award-nominated Best Play Fat Ham for its Samuel French imprint. For more information, visit concordsho.ws/PerformFatHam

"I'm really thrilled to be joining the amazing roster at Concord," said Ijames. "Samuel French was my introduction to so many plays and their publications been a major part of my development, first as a performer and now as a playwright. Concord licenses some of my favorite contemporaries and legends. I'm truly honored!"

"Concord is elated to welcome James and his brilliant play Fat Ham into the Samuel French family of plays," said Amy Rose Marsh, Vice President of Acquisitions and Artistic Development at Concord Theatricals. "Fat Ham is an exceptional, richly human work that deserves its place alongside other masterful plays. We expect to see productions years into the future."

Critically acclaimed playwright James Ijames reinvents Shakespeare's masterpiece with his new drama, Fat Ham. Juicy is a queer, Southern college kid, already grappling with some serious questions of identity, when the ghost of his father shows up in their backyard, demanding that Juicy avenge his murder. It feels like a familiar story to Juicy, well-versed in Hamlet's woes. What's different is Juicy himself, a sensitive and self-aware young Black man trying to break the cycles of trauma and violence in service of his own liberation. From an uproarious family barbecue emerges a compelling examination of love and loss, pain and joy.

Fat Ham opened at Broadway's American Airlines Theatre on April 12 for a strictly limited 14-week engagement through June 25. Directed by Saheem Ali, the show premiered Off-Broadway at The Public Theater's Anspacher Theater on May 12, 2022. The play was commissioned by and received its world premiere as a filmed production at The Wilma Theater, Philadelphia. The Broadway transfer of Fat Ham represents National Black Theatre's first production on Broadway, and only the fifth play to be transferred by a Black theatre in Broadway's century-long history. Fat Ham received five 2023 Tony Award nominations last week, including for Best Play.

Concord Theatricals

is the world's most significant theatrical company, comprising the catalogs of R&H Theatricals, Samuel French, Tams-Witmark and The Andrew Lloyd Webber Collection, plus dozens of new signings each year. Our unparalleled roster includes the work of Irving Berlin, Agatha Christie, George & Ira Gershwin, Marvin Hamlisch, Lorraine Hansberry, Kander & Ebb, Ken Ludwig, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Dominique Morisseau, Cole Porter, Rodgers & Hammerstein, Thornton Wilder and August Wilson. We are the only firm providing truly comprehensive services to the creators and producers of plays and musicals, including theatrical licensing, music publishing, script publishing, cast recording and first-class production. @concordshows / www.concordtheatricals.com

James Ijames

is a Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, director and educator. James' plays have been produced by Flashpoint Theater Company, Orbiter 3, Theatre Horizon, Wilma Theatre, Theatre Exile, Azuka Theatre (Philadelphia, PA), The National Black Theatre, JACK, The Public Theater (NYC), Hudson Valley Shakespeare Theater, Steppenwolf Theatre, Definition Theatre, Timeline Theater (Chicago, IL) and Shotgun Players (Berkeley, CA) and have received development with PlayPenn New Play Conference, The Lark, Playwright's Horizon, Clubbed Thumb, Villanova Theater, Wilma Theater, Azuka Theatre and Victory Garden. James is the recipient of the 2011 F. Otto Haas Award for an Emerging Artist and two Barrymore Awards, for Outstanding Direction of a Play for The Brothers Size with Simpatico Theatre Company and Gem of the Ocean with Arden Theatre. James is a 2015 Pew Fellow for Playwriting, the 2015 winner of the Terrence McNally New Play Award for WHITE, the 2015 Kesselring Honorable Mention Prize winner for ...Miz Martha, a 2017 recipient of the Whiting Award, and a recipient of the 2019 Kesselring Prize for Kill Move Paradise, a 2020 Steinberg Prize and the 2022 Pulitzer Prize in Drama. James was a founding member of Orbiter 3, Philadelphia's first playwright producing collective. He received a B.A. in Drama from Morehouse College in Atlanta, GA and an M.F.A. in Acting from Temple University in Philadelphia, PA. James an Associate Professor of Theatre at Villanova University. @FatHamBway