Top 10 Holiday Hams
If laughter is the best medicine, then the following list may very well hold the antidote to the winter doldrums and whatever else ails you. Fear not, performers and fans: when we say hams, we’re not talking about piggish overactors who hog the spotlight and play perfectly good jokes into the cold, dead ground. Rather, it’s the fiercely talented comic sculptors whose big, bold choices and stage savvy have won our hearts. Not just any joke-teller can make the cut, however—our hams possess a prize-worthy blend of timing, star power and ability to roll with the onstage punches. And so we present a very special holiday treat: Dig in to this deliciously droll offering of Broadway’s best.
1. Harvey Fierstein of Hairspray
Hairspray’s matriarch, supermom Edna Turnblad, was born to be played to the back of the house, but it takes hardcore timing to keep this hilarious hausfrau from becoming just another hot mess. Luckily, no one walks the line better than the man who created the role, Tony winner Harvey Fierstein. A delicious combination of pulled faces, muumuu drag and just enough audience interaction, Fierstein wields his comedic heft the way soldiers do weapons, incapacitating audiences and occasionally his co-stars with an arsenal ranging from immaculately placed pregnant pauses to a glittering finale. And that froggish, gravelly voice belting '60s-style duets? Comedy nirvana. Get Tickets!
2. Christopher Sieber of Shrek
Give this man total props for playing the entire show on his knees. From the moment Christopher Sieber throws off Lord Farquaad’s courtly robes to reveal tiny, dangling legs and an oversized ego, it’s gag after gag, with the actor manipulating everything from a simple stroll downstage to an all-out kick line. Sieber’s no one-trick pony, however; he’s also king of the silence-breaking zinger, and places every musical theater cliché in the book into purposely over-the-top numbers and monologues. On a stage full of gaseous ogres, dancing fairytale characters and a talking donkey, it ain’t easy to pull the spotlight. Sieber does it with feet sort of firmly on the ground. Get Tickets!
3. Mark Rylance of Boeing-Boeing
Rylance is known as a living legend of Shakespearean theater, but who would have thought he could elevate Boeing’s fluffy sex farce to a high-camp religious experience? He takes a role that could easily be just another backwoods hick and layers on such nuance that suddenly Robert—with his simmering drawl, repressed sexual mania and palpable bewilderment—plays equally to low and highbrow audiences. As Boeing escalates, Rylance virtually ricochets about the stage, turning a woman’s purse into the comedic accessory of the season, weathering panic attacks and landing some seriously outlandish nookie. A Tony-winning performance for good reason. Get Tickets!
4. Rick Holmes of Spamalot
In three of Spamalot’s most outrageous parts—Sir Lancelot “he likes to dance a lot”, the aptly named French Taunter and the screechy Knight of Ni—plus Tim the Enchanter, Rick Holmes fully inhabits the borderline-insane comic world of Monty Python. When Holmes pops up to hurl lewd insults at King Arthur in the plummiest of French accents, his bit becomes the comic highlight of Act One. And when Lancelot embraces his true self after meeting Prince Herbert, Holmes’ wildly joyful striptease of a song-and-dance comes close to stealing Act Two. In a show filled with can-you-top-this moments, this stalwart star never misses a laugh. Get Tickets!
5. The Michaels of Billy Elliot
Billy Elliot may be “born to boogie,” but BFF Michael is born to work an audience, as rotating players David Bologna and Frank Dolce prove nightly. The actors take on cross-dressing and an upbeat message in the number “Expressing Yourself” with youthful exuberance and a seasoned vaudevillian flair. It takes serious presence to dominate a stage full of seven-foot-high dancing dresses and a disembodied, can-can-kicking pair of trousers during an all-out production number, and even more to do it when you’re only four feet tall. Harvey Fierstein, beware: Both of these boys have what it takes to fill your housedress in Hairspray’s 2029 revival. Get Tickets!
6. Andrea Burns of In the Heights
One part overbearing auntie, one part gossip queen, Burns’ portrayal of salon owner Daniela in In the Heights gets us every time. Enticing vocals in numbers like “No Me Diga” and “Carnaval Del Barrio” mean Burns is sometimes overlooked as a comic foil, but her hip-swinging ‘tude, spicy fashion sense, rapid-fire Spanglish outbursts and endless well of one-liners are pure comedy—when she delivers what could be a flaccid innuendo to Nina about the size of Benny’s “taxi,” we’re laughing, not cringing. Throw in an expertly delivered accent “Well, that’s a chitty piece of news!” and you realize you’re dealing with a full-fledged comedienne in her element. Get Tickets!
7. Hallie Foote of Dividing the Estate
After years of playing the mildest-mannered characters in plays written by her father, Horton Foote, Hallie Foote decided to break the mold as Mary Jo, the hilariously selfish and self-involved youngest of three squabbling siblings in Dividing the Estate. Mary Jo needs money now to support her useless, glad-handing husband and spoiled daughters, and she can’t be bothered to hide her greediness beneath a polite veneer. Foote adopts a sing-song drawl that makes Mary Jo’s petty outbursts all the more hilarious. Though the character doesn’t step onstage until more than a half hour has passed in Act One, she’s a comic dynamo well worth waiting for. Get Tickets!
8. The Cast of The 39 Steps
There’s no way we could single out just one part of this cohesive comedic organism; call this a team effort. Where else is a grown man pretending to be a rock on a bare stage side-splittingly funny? The show’s onstage quartet, currently featuring Sam Robards, Francesca Faridany, Jeffrey Kuhn and Arnie Burton in roughly 100 roles, practices stylized camp and mimicry as an art form—a raised eyebrow, furtive glance at the audience or purposely mumbled line is the difference between gut-busting and just busted. Pratfalls, lightning-fast quick changes, ridiculous accents and threadbare effects come together to create a riotous and deceptively difficult symphony. Get Tickets!
9. Raúl Esparza of Speed-the-Plow
Need a laugh with an edge? Enter the chain-smoking, expletive-spewing maniac that is Speed-the-Plow’s Charlie Fox. No, the Mamet satire is not your typical comedy, nor are its characters drawn with the same strokes as the others on this list, a fact that only makes Raúl Esparza’s relentlessly funny performance all the more engrossing. When his Fox calls a cherished friend a “whore” or mimes fornicating with a desk, even the stiffest audience members will find themselves embracing the political incorrectness of it all. Rude is in again! When he flips the switch a scene later and become a destroyed victim of self-interest, it is a testament to Esparza’s stage prowess. Get Tickets!
10. Alli Mauzey of Wicked
After her camptastic turn as crazed superfan Lenora the one with a “Screw Loose” in last season’s Cry-Baby, audiences knew Alli Mauzey had the panache to take on bigger roles. Now the actress shines in a part tailored for pint-sized funny ladies with big comic charisma: Wicked’s posturing diva, “good” witch Glinda. With her beauty queen physicality, well-placed giggles and appropriately bitchy one-liners, Mauzey’s interactions with Elphaba and company are a satisfying princess/Mean Girls hybrid wrapped in a sparkling ball gown. The actress’ melodious, yodel-inflected rendition of “Popular” is the icing on the cake, bringing down the house with admirable regularity. Get Tickets!
