Photos: CHICKEN & BISCUITS Cast Gathers for First Rehearsals

Producers Pamela Ross, Hunter Arnold, E. Clayton Cornelious and Leah Michalos have just released first-look photos of the groundbreaking creative and producing team of the Broadway play CHICKEN & BISCUITS, a new comedy written by Douglas Lyons and directed by Zhailon Levingston.

Rehearsals have begun and the full company, including the cast, gathered at the rehearsal studio this week for a moving meet & greet session to launch the play's rehearsal period. Chicken & Biscuits will have its Broadway premiere this fall at Circle in the Square Theatre (235 West 50th Street), beginning previews Thursday, September 23, 2021. The play will celebrate its Opening Night on Sunday, October 10, 2021, for a limited engagement through Sunday, January 2, 2022. Tickets are on sale now at Telecharge.com/212-239-6200.

Directed by Zhailon Levingston (Associate Director, Tina: The Tina Turner Musical), who becomes the youngest black director in Broadway history when he makes his debut this fall at age 27, the Chicken & Biscuits creative team also includes Scenic Designer Lawrence E. Moten III (Assoc., What the Constitution Means to Me, Hadestown), Tony Award®-nominated Costume Designer Dede Ayite (Slave Play, American Son),Lighting Designer Adam Honoré (Assoc., Derren Brown: Secret), Sound Designer Twi McCallum (Assoc., Pride & Prejudice at Long Wharf Theatre) and Wig, Hair, and Makeup Design by Nikiya Mathis (For Colored Girls). The play marks eighteen Broadway debuts amongst the company, creative, and producing team. In addition to Levingston and nine cast members, Douglas Lyons and E. Clayton Cornelious - known to Broadway audiences for their onstage roles in several hit Broadway musicals - make their debuts as playwright and lead producer, respectively, alongside producing newcomers Pamela Ross and Leah Michalos. Designers Moten, Honoré, McCallum, and Mathis, and Casting Director Erica A. Hart, also make their Broadway debuts with the play. Production Stage Management is by lark hackshaw.

CHICKEN & BISCUITS features a dynamic ensemble cast, which on Broadway will include film & television actress Cleo King ("Mike & Molly," "Deadwood") in her Broadway debut as Baneatta Mabry, Tony Award nominee Norm Lewis (Porgy and Bess, Da 5 Bloods) as Reginald Mabry, Drama Desk Award winner Michael Urie (Torch Song, "Ugly Betty") as Logan, Broadway veteran NaTasha Yvette Williams (Waitress, Porgy and Bess) as Brianna Jenkins, and Devere Rogers (Up Here, "OK Boomer") in his Broadway debut as Kenny Mabry. Reprising their roles from the play's world premiere at Queens Theatre, and making their Broadway stage debuts, are Ebony Marshall-Oliver (Merry Wives of Windsor and Ain't No Mo' at Public Theater) as Beverly Jenkins, Aigner Mizzelle as La'trice Franklin, and Alana Raquel Bowers (What to Send Up When it Goes Down) as Simone Mabry. Joining the company as understudies are Dean Acree (Words, Razors and the Wounded), Jennifer Fouché (Chicago National Tour) as the Baneatta Mabry standby, Michael Genet (The Prom), Miles G Jackson (Endlings) and Camille Upshaw ("That Damn Michael Che").

This dynamic ensemble cast leads a raucous family comedy so full of laughter and love, it'll leave you begging for seconds. The Jenkins family is coming together to celebrate the life of their father-hopefully without killing each other! But any hopes for a peaceful reunion unravel when a family secret shows up at the funeral. CHICKEN & BISCUITS had its world premiere on February 28, 2020 at Queens Theatre, but the engagement was cut short less than two weeks later, when the theater industry suspended operations due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Check out photos of the cast in rehearsals below and click here for portraits of the creative team!