If Colonel Sanders has a secret recipe of eleven herbs and spices, so does Cordell as he diligently prepares his culinary offering, for the fifth year in a row, for Memphis’s annual festival. Come visit "The Hot Wing King” written by Katori Hall with tension and tenderness and directed with passion by Christopher D. Betts. The Hartford Stage with be ringing the dinner bell until Sunday, March 24. Get your bib and tucker ready as you sit down for a pile high portion of sizzling barbecued chicken wings dripping with exotic spices and savory sauce.
“The Hot Wing King” is a play stuffed with humanity and joy as it probes the family relationship of two black men, Cordell captured by Bjorn DuPaty and his new partner Dwayne, a successful hotel manager Calvin E. Thompson. Cordell who has moved to Memphis two months ago to live with Dwayne is frustrated he hasn’t found a job already but he is hopefully this week’s annual “Hot Wang Festival” will change all that when he wins the $5000 first prize, that will allow him to open his own restaurant. He has assembled his team of friends, the sports minded Big Charles (Postell Pringle) and the flamboyant Isom (Israel Erron Ford) to man the pots and stove and he has perfected his unique sauce, with a pinch of Ugandan pepper as his secret ingredient, to seal the deal.
In the past, he has used such items as parmesan cheese, a blueberry sauce, crumbled bourbon infused bacon and a smoky flavor charcoal for his masterwork but he is sure he has the correct blend assembled this time around. With his great team line in place what would go wrong? Enter Dwayne’s brother-in-law TJ (Alphonso Walker Jr) with his own set of needs, mainly to find his son EJ (Marcus Gladney, Jr.) who has been straying from the path since the tragic death of his mom two years prior. Dwayne feels responsible for EJ and conflicted on how to protect him and not alienate his new companion Cordell. And how does he do that as well as protect Cordell’s 387 chicken wings? The results are heartbreakingly sweet and funny and proof that love can’t resolve everything but it can surely try.
For tickets ($30 and up), call the Hartford Stage, 50 Church Street, Hartford at 860-527-5151 or online at HartfordStage.org. Performances are Tuesday to Thursday at 7:30 p.m., Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m., with matinees Saturday, Sunday and select Wednesdays at 2 p.m.
Come follow the boys as they battle their way to the top of the food chain, of friendship, of family and, of course, of love. There’ll be a "hot” time in the old town tonight.
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