Lessons can be blessings. Mistakes can be good. Finding a way to learn the lessons and take the ‘Beyoncé’ approach to making lemonade when life won’t stop raining fiery hot lemons down on your head is exactly what the Pulitzer Prize-Winning play The Hot Wing King, by Katori Hall is serving up in the Pearlstone Theatre of Baltimore Center Stage. It’s a limited engagement, playing through the end of the month of April but it’s a powerhouse piece that’s equal parts funny and heartfelt, and hot damn if both the wings and the tea in this show isn’t spicy as hell! Directed by Christopher D. Betts, this evocative and poignantly humorous play showcases family and relationship struggles, success and personal growth struggles, as well as a whole bunch of good laughs for the entire audience.
Telling the story of Cordell, a gay black man from St. Louis, recently divorced from his wife who has settled into his partner’s house with the sole ambition of becoming the Memphis, Tennessee ‘hot wing king’, the play’s eponymous namesake delivers healthy heap after heap of dynamic characters, dramatic tension, and a whole bunch of snap-sharp comedy that has the audience in stitches. Playwright Katori Hall finds a perfect balance in her script never letting the heavy, emotionally fraught moments hit too hard or too deep for too long, but never cheating the audience out of those emotional expressions either. It’s a roaring comedy with lessons and touching moments, serious conversations, and a whole bunch of hot wings. While the play runs on the longer side (over two and a half hours with the intermission) Hall’s script is fluid and the dramatic tension simmers throughout, not unlike the hot wing marinade that the characters are stewing during the first act. Much like a secret family recipe, there’s a bunch of ingredients— humor, heartache, happiness, et al— sprinkled liberally but carefully throughout the play and the audience is drinking in every moment of it. Hall’s play is a powerful, representational narrative of gay black men living their lives in Memphis; it brings the sweet, the heat, the heart, and the whole shebang.
The true ‘king’ of the show from the production staff is Dialect and Voice Coach Cynthia Santos Decure. There are quite a few highly stylized sections of text (particularly every time Cordell mentions the new secret wing recipe) that get the attention they deserve because of Decure’s efforts. You get hints of the Memphis vernacular, more so when the EJ character arrives, and subtle affectations to differentiate St. Louis from Memphis; Decure ensures that the productions dialect sounds as good as the script its wrapped around. Another unsung hero of the production is Intimacy and Fight Coordinator Kelsey Rainwater. While the fighting isn’t knock-down-drag-out-fisticuffs, you get those heated moments where the pressure cooker of human emotions erupts like a volcano and Rainwater is bringing a strong grounding of authenticity to those moments, as well as carefully staging and placing the intimate moments shared between Cordell and Dwayne.
Aesthetically the show is striking; Scenic Designer Emmie Finckel, Lighting Designer Adam Honoré, and Costume Designer Jahise LeBouef, come together to create visual feasts that are equally as enticing as the wings that are being discussed and created in the script. The two-story cross-sectional cutaway of Dwayne’s house is gorgeous— modern but not sterile, lived in but not cluttered. Teal accent counters and cabinets give you a sense of modern day, living comfortably but not elite, felicitously functional without affluent excess. Adam Honoré’s lighting is minimalistic and effective when it comes to transitioning from scenes inside the house to outside in the driveway (where Finckel has set a perfectly functional— a little too functional considering one of the lines in the script talks about how its old and falling apart— basketball hoop) and to the upstairs portion of the house verses scenes downstairs. You get the feeling at all times that you are right there in that living room and kitchen or out on the driveway with these characters because the set is so realistic and the lighting is done so subtly.
Costume Designer Jahise LeBouef is running away with the crown in the aesthetic department, though, if for nothing else than the fabulous, ferocious, and fiery looks featured on Isom. The character has screaming-queen-vibe-energy from jump street and LeBouef sets out couture to match! Those lime-mirror hole pants with little pink jacket and thunder platforms for the first act are wild. It’s the rhinestone mayhem that blows in like a glitter-hurricane in the second act on the Isom character that gives LeBouef the ‘MVP’ of the Aesthetic Creative Team. Between the fitted and styled ‘New Wing Order’ shirt, which has hints of sparkle-bling threaded throughout, and those glorious diamond denims, you’ll see Isom coming for a mile. LeBouef tries a subtler hand with the show’s remaining sartorial selection and it’s a perfect balance, much like the way Hall’s script balances itself between comedy and drama.
Director Christopher D. Betts keeps this hot and spicy show moving quickly. The show itself is long but there is a distinct difference between a show that runs long and a show that feels long. You never get the sense that the show’s pacing is dragging or lacking in momentum. It’s just carefully written out and each scene builds and flows into the next. Betts does an exceptional job of keeping the characters invested in their moments, their relationships, their high-stakes emotions, and you never feel like you’re loosing the energy or the overall flow despite the play’s length. The opening night audience in particular created challenges for both Betts and the performers as The Hot Wing King is not a play that lends itself to the obliteration of the fourth wall, and those performers kept impeccable faces when various ‘peanut gallery commentary’ (that could be heard through the entire house) would rip the audience into gasps or stitches of laughter; the performers were even able to make those forced-pauses, created by said peanut gallery, feel like natural contemplative moments between the characters who were on stage at the time.
The cast, comprised of six performers, have their own distinctive personalities while also fitting into the bigger unit of the “Framily” block (family of friends? Friend-chosen-family? I like it, either way!) Even TJ (Jude Tibeau) who is somewhat ‘outside’ of that configuration feels like he fits into the picture naturally. Bringing that rough, judgmental approach to the others before him, Tibeau plays the TJ character both close to the chest and with a hardened but edgy exterior. There is a truly touching scene between his character and EJ (Marcus Gladney Jr.) that really tugs at the heartstrings; the father-son dynamic between the two characters is tenuously written but both Tibeau and Gladney Jr. bring those tensions to the forefront of their exchanges.
As the younger, more effervescent youth among them, Marcus Gladney Jr. delivers a versatile energy that is both fiery and grounded, a remarkable combination for a character meant to be just 16. His sense of comic timing, dramatic delivery, and overall spatial awareness of both himself on stage and the other characters around him is on point with the other performers and he is a delight to watch, especially during his more comedic moments. When he stands up for himself in that confrontational throw-down of the verbal variety against TJ, it’s really striking. Gladney Jr. also has animated facial expressions that make some of his character’s more comedic moments extremely heightened, which adds to the overall humor and hilarity of the lighthearted moments of the production. There are multiple moments throughout the performance, particularly in the heated exchange with the Cordell character before the end of Act I, where you get to see Gladney Jr.’s full spectrum of emotional intensity and it’s truly a remarkable feat to behold.
Big Charles (Postell Pringle), though not seemingly any older than any of the other characters, except for the clearly indicated young EJ, acts almost as ‘elder wisdom’ at times throughout the performance. And at other times he’s the cranky older relative who just wants to watch the basketball. Pringle handles the shift between these two modes of his character’s operation with fluidity and ease. Pringle’s character almost seems to exist in the background at times, like a part of the scenery rather than an active character, but this is part of the beautiful balance of Katori Hall’s script. When Pringle’s Big Charles does get to talking, whether it’s quippy snaps at Isom or reverent advice and wisdom dispensed to both Cordell and Dwayne, you feel as if he’s been a part of their dynamic the whole time, whilst also appearing from the woodwork of the scenery. He holds his own comedically, particularly when up against the thunder-wave that is Isom, and that is no easy task.
Show-stealing, scenery-chewing, larger-than-life, chaos queen, the character of Isom is being brought to vivacious, sassy, insanely intense life by Israel Erron Ford and hands down he’s delivering one of the most epic performances in the production. The sass, the flare, the clap-backs, the zingers, the quips, the utter whirling dervish of flamboyance and fabulousness is like that glitter bomb that explodes when the home team wins whatever sportsball game they’re playing. And that’s all Ford bringing sassy, classy hot-tea-shade-throwing realness to the role. Ford is fierce, fabulous, and downright funny; there really isn’t any better way to phrase it. There’s a childlike petulance rolled into a serious ferocity that gets shaken all up with an eruption of glitter and self-expression that just screams confident queen. Every interaction, from the biting ones to the sincere ones, with each of the other characters is pure performance genius and it’s practically impossible to imagine the role of Isom being as enjoyable with any other player performing the part.
The heart and soul of the performance is being served up in equal parts by Bjorn Dupaty, as Cordell, and Calvin M. Thompson, as Dwayne. While Dupaty’s Cordell is the driving force between the larger story arc and overall narrative, Thompson’s Dwayne is both the foil and catalyst to everything that’s happening. Both performers have unique holds on their characters, giving energy and emotional realism every breath they take on stage. Watching Thompson and Dupaty come together, along with Ford and Pringle for that wild ‘sing-along-acapella’ moment, which sends the audience into rapturous applause, is just sheer bliss. Thompson carries the emotional gravity of the Dwayne character with practiced ease; Dupaty transforms all of Cordell’s struggles and challenges into emotional maelstroms that often roar out unchecked, directly into the fights that burble up between these two lovers. Both Dupaty and Thompson have exceptional command of their stage presence and awareness of their physicality. It’s a micro-joy watching Dupaty juggle the spice jars in the background of the kitchen-chaos scene. It’s bust-a-gut hilarious watching Thompson overreact with the hot wings at the top of Act II, flinging his body all over the stage while his facial expressions melt down the front of him. The chemistry— and ultimately the volatile explosions of emotions between Dupaty’s Cordell and Thompson’s Dwayne is theatrical magic and realism at its finest. They both present raw, exposed, emotional men— in a shameless, unabashed, and proud fashion, something that is rare, even in the theatre, particularly in black and queer theatre with as much wholesome acceptance as is displayed in their performances. While the piece reads as a true ensemble work, Dupaty and Thompson are leading the charge in this arena and making the production truly heartfelt and wondrous.
Crowns land on the heads that are ready to wear them. And Katori Hall’s The Hot Wing King is definitely wearing a crown of success this season at Baltimore Center Stage. Don’t miss your opportunity to enjoy the joyous rapture of ‘Framily’ that will have your tongue tingling and your heart lightened for one evening’s stage entertainment.
Running Time: 2 hours and 40 minutes with one intermission
The Hot Wing King plays through April 28th 2024 the Pearlstone Theatre of Baltimore Center Stage— 700 N. Calvert Street in the Mt. Vernon neighborhood of Baltimore, MD. For tickets call the box office at 410-332-0033 or purchase them online.
