‘Hot Wing King’ celebrates love between Black men
washingtonblade.com‘The Hot Wing King’Through July 31Studio Theatre1501 14th St., N.W.$75-$100Studiotheatre.org Katori Hall’s Pulitzer Prize-winning dramedy “The Hot Wing King” now playing at Studio Theatre is inspired by her gay brother’s life experience.
Studio’s program explains, Hall had mentioned to friend and colleague director Steve H. Broadnax III that her brother and his partner, two Black men in midlife, were starting a life together in Memphis and it wasn’t an easy process.
Broadnax encouraged Hall to make them her next play. Fast-forward to Broadnax staging the 2020 New York premiere. COVID closes the show.
But now it’s in Washington with a new production and a different cast, again directed by Broadnax. Like “The Mountaintop,” Hall’s fictionalized last night of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s life, “The Hot Wing King” is also set in her hometown Memphis, Tenn., a city known for its history of racial strife and more happily for rhythm and blues, Elvis, BBQ and hot wings.
