It sounds hard to believe given the title, but The Hot Wing King is, at its core, not really a play about hot wings.
Sure, there’s plenty of chicken-centered content in Katori Hall’s flavorful, bitingly funny drama, set in her hot wing–loving hometown of Memphis on the eve of the annual Hot Wang Contest. “Lemon Pepper Wet. That Lemon Pepper Dry. Dem suicides: that Hot-hot and HOT! Blueberry Birds and even…some Parmesans,” says Cordell (Toussaint Jeanlouis), proudly presenting his creations for the appreciative Isom (Sheldon Best) to sample. “Slap the fuck out of me and call me Trump,” proclaims Isom. “Them folks down there ain’t gone know what to do with these righ’ here. Everybody gone fall OUT.”
Cordell enlists his whole circle of friends in quest for this year’s crown: his partner, Dwayne (Korey Jackson); his and Dwayne’s barber, Big Charles (Nicco Annan); Big Charles’ on-again, off-again flame, Isom; and Dwayne’s nephew, EJ (Cecil Blutcher, terrifically intense). He’s even given the quartet a name: The New Wing Order. “Cordell got y’all sounding like a unsung 90s Quiet Storm group,” cracks Isom. They sauté garlic and butter; grate cheese; marinate, fry, sauce, and plate the wings; and garnish it all with chopped parsley and generous crumbles of bacon. And when Cordell turns his back, one of them unintentionally sabotages his effort—jacking up the marinade with a contraband spice that’s the culinary equivalent of the Chekhovian gun. Talk about fowl play.
[Read Michael Sommers’ ★★★★☆ review here.]
But the wing-ding is really just a pretext—it could be a bakeoff, a birthday party, or any occasion—to bring together this group of men. (Also: four tight-knit gay black men—those are characters we rarely see holding up a play.) Cordell was married with children when he was on a business trip to Memphis and popped into Big Charles’ barbershop; that’s where he met Dwayne. “I was confused,” recalls Dwayne. “I’m like, ‘Is he flirting or is he just from St. Louis?’ I just ain’t know, y’all.” Later, Cordell describes the intense connection he felt on their first date: “I swear, his silence was the sweetest music I’d ever heard. Thass when I knew that there was someone on this earth strong enough to hold me. All of me. All the pieces.”
Meanwhile, Dwayne, who’s wracked with guilt over his sister’s death, feels obligated to protect her son, EJ, from his ne’er-do-well father, TJ (Eric B. Robinson Jr., soft-spoken sometimes to the point of inaudibility). “TJ be tryna to have me trap wit’ him, but that ain’t me,” EJ explains. “I ain’t about that life. I want better for myself, you know what I’m sayin. I wanna dine at gourmet chicken wang spots, you know what I’m sayin. I want….I want…choices.” He wants to live with his uncle Dwayne and Cordell.
When the men and their friends are in the kitchen, dishing about secret spices and debating drums versus flats (Cordell is firmly Team Flats: “Flats got mo’ meat over a larger surface area for a more even sear, resulting in a more evenly grillt wing and therefore a more elevated dining experience”), they communicate beautifully. When Isom is at the piano and they’re crooning Luther Vandross’ soulful jam “Never Too Much,” they’re in perfect harmony; they even have all the choreography down pat. (The meat tenderizer as microphone is a terrific touch.) But there’s no recipe, and there are no step-by-step instructions, for Dwayne and Cordell’s relationship. Like the rest of us, they’ll just have to wing it.
The Hot Wing King opened March 1, 2020, and runs through March 22 at the Pershing Square Signature Center. Tickets and information: signaturetheatre.org
