Interludes

THE HANGOVER REPORT – Douglas Lyons’s winning if overly familiar CHICKEN & BISCUITS is the theatrical equivalent of hearty comfort food

• By drediman
• October 11, 2021
• No Comments

Last night, Douglas Lyons’s Chicken & Biscuits – part of the parade of straight plays penned by Black playwrights scheduled to premiere on the Great White Way this season – opened at Circle in the Square. The new comedy centers around the funeral service of the pastor of a church in New Haven, Connecticut, and the family feud that ensues from the occasion, particularly between two strong-willed but philosophically divergent sisters (the daughters of the late pastor, who is also the beloved patriarch of the family) – one is emotionally clenched and conservative, the other uninhibitedly boisterous.

Mr. Lyons’s feel-good comedy is broad and good natured, and like the sitcoms of yore, it relies on a robust laugh track in order for it to work. Luckily, the play – despite its overly familiar formula – manages to consistently entertain the audience, who happily contribute their guffaws to the fabric of the experience. Although there’s no denying that the play is populated by stereotypes (e.g., the gay thespian, the sassy teenager, etc.), the characters are lovingly written to life, and you’ll feel immediately at home with them. Thankfully, what drama arises from the Mr. Lyons’s work stops just short of melodrama, and the play’s several threads are touchingly resolved for the most part. Not every show on the Main Stem need be high brow or break new ground. Indeed, I’d like to think that there’s room enough on Broadway for accessible mainstream comedies like the ultimately winning Chicken & Biscuits, which – true to its title – strikes me as the theatrical equivalent of hearty comfort food.

Circle in the Square – with its intimate and unique configuration – is an ideal venue for the piece, giving ample opportunity for director Zhailon Levingston to create an atmosphere that invites audience members to actively engage in the play as if they were attending a lively church service. The cast is a welcome combination of vivacious newcomers and New York stage veterans (e.g., Norm Lewis, Michael Urie), and they fully embrace the broad strokes from which their characters have been rendered. Nearly stealing the show, however, as mother and daughter are the actresses Ebony Marshall-Oliver and Aigner Mizzelle, whose performances light up the stage with infectious life-force.

RECOMMENDED

CHICKEN & BISCUITS
Broadway, Play
Circle in the Square
1 hour, 40 minutes (without an intermission)
Through January 2