{"id":887269,"date":"2026-06-23T13:37:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-23T13:37:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/887269\/"},"modified":"2026-06-23T13:37:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-23T13:37:13","slug":"spamilton-roasts-hamilton-in-a-funny-but-loving-way-at-stages","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/887269\/","title":{"rendered":"Spamilton Roasts Hamilton in a Funny But Loving Way at Stages"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Spamilton: An American Parody,<\/strong> tells the story of how Lin-Manuel Miranda decides to save Broadway theater by coming up with a new form of musical theater.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The spoof by Tony Award-winner Gerard Alessandrini (Forbidden Broadway), uses the characters of Hamilton to take apart any number of Broadway\u2019s treasured tropes and musical stylings. The production, now on stage at Stages at The Gordy, has been so successful its run has been extended through July 5.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Mariah Baillie (Mud Row at Stages) plays the Hamilton part of Angelina as well as other characters who pop in and out of the parody of well known musical theater productions. Asked to describe Angelina she says: \u201cComplex, caricature, high energy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIn the beginning I thought it was more so making fun of Hamilton before I sat down and read it and started to rehearse it.\u201d But as she talked with co-directors Valerie Rachelle and Stages Artistic Director Derek Charles Livingston, she says she realized, \u201cIt was more so like a love letter to him and Broadway.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe know [Broadway] is always going to be around. Because of these brilliant shows, especially Hamilton, it\u2019s so important because it opened up the doors for POC actors to come in and play all these white characters. It really broke down a lot of barriers.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Which doesn\u2019t mean it isn\u2019t funny, she says. \u201cI think that\u2019s the beauty of it.\u00a0 We kind of know where the heart is. The audience and even the actors can feel like we can make fun but it\u2019s all within love and nothing of malice.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Speaking of the source material, Baillie says: \u201cI think it connected because it was just so different. It happened 10 years ago. Things that were on Broadway were revivals or your box standard shows that we\u2019re always used to seeing like Chicago and Phantom, so when Hamilton came out it was such a 180. It really resonated not only with people who love musical thethought \u2018Oh, this ater, but it also brought younger audiences in.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Asked why she wanted to be in this show, Baillie says she had always wanted to be in Hamilton and when she lived in London she auditioned (unsuccessfully) for a part there. \u201cBut when I saw that Derick was putting on this production of Spamilton I thought \u00a0\u2018Whoa , that\u2019s as close as I may be getting,\u2019\u201d she says laughing. \u201cWhen I listened to the soundtrack I thought\u00a0 \u2018What did I get myself into?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As a sort of dessert, the two-act Spamilton is followed up by 21 Chump Street, a little known short (14 minutes) by Miranda, based on the real life story of a Florida teen who in order to impress a girl, secured some marijuana for her and ended up busted and with a felony conviction. Turns out the \u201cgirl\u201d was an undercover cop.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Baillie grew up in Houston and went to Houston City College for an associate\u2019s degree before going on to University of Houston-Downtown. It was while she was at HCC that she was first introduced to musical theater in Ain\u2019t Misbehavin\u2019. She took a long break from acting before getting into film and TV and then back to theater.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This is her first musical theater role in about 10 years, she says.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Asked \u00a0what she likes best about being in Spamilton, Baillie has a ready answer. \u201cThe challenge,. There\u2019s so many roles and\u00a0 trying to do every character justice. Conveying a story through song is really very hard to do. \u00a0Vocally challenging myself for this role is a really big task. It\u2019s been fun.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Her main character is Renee Elise [Goldsberry] and she is Angelica in Hamilton. \u201cI\u2019m Renee Elise. And then I\u2019m Bernadette Peters for a little bit and then I go into Eliza and then I go into Liza Minnelli, Barbra Streisand, and\u00a0 I\u2019m Elphaba for a little bit and a cat. I feel like I\u2019m forgetting somebody but those are the key ones off the top of my head.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI think when you come to the show you should expect to laugh and cheer and possibly cry.\u00a0 There\u2019s never a dull moment in the show. You\u2019re just going to leave smiling.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u2018Performances continue through July 3 at 7 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays and 2 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays at Stages at The Gordy, 800 Rosine. For more information, call 713-527-0123 or visit stageshouston.com. $25-$79.<\/p>\n<p>\n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Spamilton: An American Parody, tells the story of how Lin-Manuel Miranda decides to save Broadway theater by coming&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":887270,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5130],"tags":[12730,4345,35788,345990,239723,358,35789,3187],"class_list":["post-887269","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-homepage","tag-houston","tag-houston-theater","tag-spamilton","tag-stages","tag-texas","tag-ticket-prices","tag-tx"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116799697189356046","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/887269","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=887269"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/887269\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/887270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=887269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=887269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=887269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}