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Regional Reviews: St. Louis Chicken & Biscuits
Douglas Lyons' two-hour play (with intermission) debuted in 2020 at the Queens Theatre in the Park and moved to the Circle in the Square on Broadway, where it closed after a two-month run, reportedly due to the financial impact of having to cancel a number of performances due to COVID-19. And now it gets a white tablecloth revival from The St. Louis Black Repertory at the Edison Theatre, under the resonant and authentic direction of company founder Ron Himes. Chicken & Biscuits is a sort of Black version of 1996's Sordid Lives: a gay character, Kenny, played by ultra-naturalistic Cameron Jamarr Davis, struggles to find family acceptance. It's mostly set at the funeral of Kenny's grandfather, and Kenny's "friend" is, in reality, his long-term lover Logan, played by the set-fire-to-the-curtains hilarious-till-it's-all-too-real talented Jacob Schmidt. The funeral ceremony is officiated by Kenny's father, Reginald Mabry (a sort of condensation of all the greatest Black preachers in history), a minister in a New Haven, Connecticut, church who is also the son-in-law of the decedent. He's played by the great A.C. Smith, and the preacher's wife Baneatta is the excellent Denise Thimes, who, of course, is the daughter of the decedent, with strong feelings about her son Kenny's boyfriend. The fine set is by Tim Jones, with very nice lighting by Ethan Steimel. Sordid Lives has a lot more Southern literary weirdness to it (the family in Chicken & Biscuits is originally from Raleigh, North Carolina). But perfectly timed direction and tightly focused acting lifts this play into a ten course meal, with a lot of modern-day references in the script. A.C. Smith is constantly chasing after the wandering sheep of his flock as the minister, with a manner and speech that rings out like a hundred-pipe organ in amazing harmonies. Ms. Thimes has an implacable poise that contrasts beautifully with Paulette Dawn, who plays Baneatta's brash and bawdy sister Beverly, Ms. Dawn being full of pizazz in a very straight-out comic performance. Under the power of their combined sway, the whole show maintains its own impossible moment. Kaylyn McKoy is incorrigibly funny as Beverly's Atlanta-born "influencer" daughter La'Trice (though I bet you anything that, one of these days, Ms. McKoy will also make for a perfect, super-classical Cecily Cardew). And Alex Jay is more human than human itself, transcending to an "all-embracing" condition as Simone, the sister of Kenny. The show has its own particular balance of humor and kindness and occasional menace. And if they all spoke with Irish accents I'd probably be gushing about the "angry young man" that lurks in nearly every one of them. But the actors' nobility of the self becomes a lantern of hope. This Chicken & Biscuits finds strange new moments (at least two) of interpersonal relationships twisting and intertwining and reaching unexpected new plateaus under director Himes. There's just a lot to know about people and their precise realities when they occasionally face-off, which is admirably revealed here. Excellent work too by Delisa Richardson, who makes a surprising addition to the cast, creating her own sort of alchemy. The very good costumes are by Andre Harrington. And congratulations to the actresses themselves for all their fabulous make-up, which I remind myself is a perfectly valid choice for this production. But what a silly name for a show that takes you to delightful new places. The occasionally huge scale of the comedy is oddly fresh, and the characterizations each race down their own vastly different avenues. Chicken & Biscuits runs through January 26, 2025, at the Edison Theater of Washington University in St. Louis, at 6445 Forsyth Blvd., St. Louis MO. For tickets and information, please visit www.theblackrep.org. Cast: Production Staff: * Denotes Member, Actors' Equity Association ** SDC, The Director is a Member of the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers, Inc., an independent national labor union. |
