Chicken and Biscuits

 

Chicken & Biscuits

    By Joseph Cervelli

"Chicken & "Biscuits" at Circle in the Square is a delightfully funny and warm hearted show that is reminiscent of those great sitcoms of the 70's, most especially "The Jeffersons" and "Good Times." Families may bicker to the point where you think they might do bodily harm to each other, but after they have calmed down they realize the importance they are to each other.

Written with a barbed wire comic touch by Douglas Lyons, the playwright throws in a red herring from the first scene. We are in a church for a funeral service. As the very stylish and cultured Baneatta Mabry (Cleo King)  is making sure everything is in order when she receives a phone call that is a mystery to us because it is from someone she most definitely does not wish to speak to. Her husband Reverend Reginald Mabry (Norm Lewis) has taken over the church from her late reverend father whose service he is presiding over. 

They have two grown children, Kenny (Devere Rogers) an actor who is gay and his attention desiring sister Simone (Alana Raquel Bowers.) It is evident they have never been and still are not close. To make matters worse neither she nor her mother are not that accepting of his lifestyle. And to make matters worse his partner Logan Leibowitz (Michael Urie) is white. Baneatta purposely mispronounces his name which is a running gag.  Logan being Jewish tries to fit into behaving accordingly in church whether it be white or black and ends up unintentionally causing some inappropriate behavior. 

The sassy and quite vocal younger sister of Banetta, Beverly Jenkins (Ebony Marshall-Oliver) who attends in a low cut, short dress with fringes that would be more appropriate if she was going to a cocktail party or a club. Her daughter La 'Trice Franklin (Aigner Mizzelle) is the epitome of a saucy fifteen year old who has no filter. 

Without getting into too much detail, sparks fly as do the hearty laughter throughout the most of the show. You know immediately the comments by the family as they stand beside the on stage casket will be causing some disruption. Simone thinks she is on stage more interested in the attention she is getting while Beverly feigns her loss with hyperbolic hysterics. 

The performances are laugh out loud pitch perfect. The always wonderful Norm Lewis starts off in a quiet way as the reverend until he goes on an unending eulogy that has family members thoroughly exasperated. And taking advantage of Lewis's mighty singing voice (this is his first non musical Broadway role) he has a show stopping scene. Both Marshall-Oliver and Mizzelle vie for top spot of unrestrained comedy. A better mother daughter duo would be hard pressed to create.

Rogers is excellent as Kenny and always reliable and the entertaining Urie provides the ineptness of behavior in such a setting.

King is the perfect contrast to her sister as is Raquel Bowers to her cousin La 'Trice.

There is one other character I will not mention, but you may be able to figure out who she is as she enters near the end of the show. 

Director Zhailon Levingston keeps the action moving at a very steady speed although one caveat is that the show could be trimmed by around 15 minutes or so.

Still it is just a show filled with non-stop laughter and good feelings. And is there a better time for this?

PHOTOS: EMILIO MADRID

Tickets are available at the Circle in the Square Theatre 235 West 45th Street.