The Jenkins family is coming together to celebrate the life of their father—hopefully without killing each other! Eldest daughter, Baneatta, wants everything to be perfect for her father’s funeral. “Favorite” daughter, Beverly, would rather honor her daddy dressed to show the entire congregation what she’s been “blessed with.” Teenage granddaughter, La’trice, can’t mind her own business if it was on a leash. Not far behind comes grandson Kenny and his very Jewish boyfriend Logan who is maybe, sort of, okay definitely afraid of Baneatta. But Baneatta’s hopes unravel when a family secret shows up at the funeral…
Lifting every last detail from Tyler Perry's recipe book, this family comedy is brimming with stock characters, creaky jokes, tired references and easy, feel-good sermonizing. Bickering relatives speechifying with exposition and put-downs? Family secrets guessable even by the most distant outsider? Characters that can be summed up in one-word signifiers? Check, check and check.
The performers, several of them new to Broadway, strive mightily to mine the broad humor for all its worth and generally succeed. The standouts are Mizzelle, a hoot as the precocious teen, and Urie, who gets laughs with every nervous twitch, although he's playing the sort of role from which he should have graduated by now. For more than a few, Chicken & Biscuits will live up to its name by being enjoyable theatrical comfort food. But you can't ignore the fact that it simply isn't very nutritious.
Videos