Best Ensemble in Nashville 2026: Nashville Rep and Nashville Shakespeare Festival’s 'Fat Ham'
Even in the depths of winter, Nashville Rep and Nashville Shakes managed to deliver one of the season’s hottest performances. James Ijames’ Pulitzer Prize-winning play Fat Ham offered a tender (yet often hilarious) take on Shakespeare’s Hamlet, reimagining the Bard’s classic tale as a rowdy family barbecue in the modern American South. Director Mikael Burke (a Chicago-based artist who grew up in Nashville) skillfully balanced heavy themes with big laughs. But it was the spectacular ensemble — including Julian “joolz” Stroop, Tamiko Robinson Steele, Bakari J. King, Candace-Omnira, Michael A. McAllister-Spurgeon, Persephone Felder-Fentress and Gerold Oliver — that made this Fat Ham sizzle.
