For out-of-work chef Cordell Crutchfield, there’s much more at stake than trying to win first prize in the Memphis “Hot Wang Festival.”
“He’s at the biggest transitional space in his life,” said Rondrell McCormick, who’s portraying Cordell in Cygnet Theatre’s production of Katori Hall’s Pulitzer Prize-winning 2021 play “The Hot Wing King.” “Internally it’s a madhouse for him. Like some Wes Anderson hotel film is going on inside him.”
More on this from Tristan J Shuler, who plays Cordell’s partner, Dwayne: “Cordell has just left his wife of 20 years and his two kids to come and restart his life living with Dwayne,” Shuler said. “He’s never been in a same-sex relationship. Here we are filling this house with gayness and queerness and cooking, and love and dancing and twerking.”
The “we” is not only Cordell and Dwayne but their friends Big Charles (Xavier Daniels) and Isom (Kevane La’Marr Coleman) who all together make up the team they call the New Wing Order.
“What brought me to the script is my love for our director (Kian Kline-Chilton) for one,” said McCormick, who previously appeared at Cygnet in a production of Dominique Morisseau’s “Mud Row” three years ago. “Outside of that it’s the fact that we see these Black men onstage and it’s a reminder to the world that we’re not a monolith. We all live and breathe and have voice and perspective. The beauty is that when we all come together in these four walls, the symphony that’s being played is absolutely delicious and divine.”
Speaking of delicious, playing Cordell means McCormick must be cooking onstage, which he calls “not for the faint of heart and not for the over-confident. It’s damn hard. But when you’re surrounded by titans like I am it makes the work easier. We’re a team at the end of the day.”
Shuler agrees that “Rondrell has this really fascinating pressure on him. Me, I am the Hot Wing Queen. I just get to sprinkle some cheese into the sauce. But I don’t have to do any of the cooking. For better or worse, we’re all eating it.”
Dwayne may not be in the pressure cooker, but Shuler’s character is “juggling a lot of emotional balls,” he said. “Dwayne is dealing with his own grief (the loss of his sister, slain by police) and trauma and resentment that has nothing to do with Cordell at all.”
On top of that, the household is stirred by the arrival of that sister’s surviving son EJ (Jocorey Mitchell) and his father (Carter Piggee).
As far as Dwayne’s relationship with Cordell is concerned, it’s an “extremely complicated” one, said Shuler, who’s making his San Diego theatrical debut with this production. “This is a hard duality. I (Dwayne) love this man. I don’t know if this man loves me anywhere near as much as I love him.”
Portraying that complicated relationship requires hard work, but McCormick and Shuler are relying on a connection that was just about immediate.
“I only booked this show because Rondrell was such a great actor in audition,” Shuler recalled. “We had chemistry from the callback.”
McCormick sees it the same way.
“In life,” he said, “there are people that you come across, people you’re supposed to meet at any given time in your orbit. With Tristan, when I said ‘Hello’ it was like man, our souls have already known each other in past lifetimes. That’s how the work feels — really grounded in that way.
“Not only do I have an amazing scene partner in the play but I feel like I’ve met a friend I will have for years to come.”
‘The Hot Wing King’
When: Previews 7 p.m. Friday and 2 p.m. Saturday. Opens 7 p.m. Saturday and runs through May 2. 7 p.m. Wednesdays through Fridays; 2 and 7 p.m. Saturdays; 2 p.m. Sundays
Where: Cygnet Theatre, 4040 Twiggs St., Old Town State Historic Park, San Diego
Tickets: $34 and up
Phone: 619-337-1525
Online: cygnettheatre.com
