Nick Jonas and Priyanka Chopra Jonas have joined the producing team of Douglas Lyons’ Broadway comedy Chicken & Biscuits, currently in previews at Circle in the Square Theatre.
On Sunday, Nick Jonas visited the cast and creative team at the theater – a team that includes two from Jonas’ upcoming 2022 Jersey Boys Live! streaming project: producer E. Clayton Cornelious, and Chicken & Biscuits cast member Michael Urie, who also appears in the Jersey Boys project and co-starred with Jonas in the 2011 Broadway revival of How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying.
Chicken & Biscuits cast member Norm Lewis appeared with Jonas in the 2010 Les Misérables in Concert: The 25th Anniversary.
“Broadway has always had a special place in my heart,” Jonas said in a statement, “it helped launch my career. And after the last year and a half, Broadway is exactly what we need in this world. This play highlights the importance of love, laughter, and family. It’s got energy, it’s got style, and it’s got heart. The kind of vibe that is so unique to live theatre.”
Actress and entrepreneur Priyanka Chopra Jonas most recently starred in and produced the Academy Award nominated feature The White Tiger, and will next will be seen in the features The Matrix 4, Text For You and the Russo Brother’s Citadel series on Amazon. She is also a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, and her memoir Unfinished was published earlier this year.
In a statement, she said, “Broadway is back, but this time it’s a new Broadway. It’s time we see some more diversity on the stage, and this cast and production team is making history on that front. This is a monumental moment for the industry, and I’m overjoyed to be a part of it. This is also my first foray into Broadway, so to bring this show to audiences with my husband Nick, who has so much experience in the medium, and at a time when we need it most, is a very proud moment for me.”
A family comedy, Chicken & Biscuits was written by Black playwright Lyons, stars a largely Black cast and is directed by Zhailon Levingston, who at 27 becomes the youngest Black director in Broadway history. Previews of the play are currently underway. The play opens at Circle in the Square Sunday, October 10, and runs through Sunday January 2, 2022.
The production’s ensemble cast includes Cleo King (Mike & Molly, Deadwood) in her Broadway debut as Baneatta Mabry, the eldest daughter in a large family that’s gathering for the funeral and life celebration of a family elder. Playing her sister Beverly is Ebony Marshall-Oliver, who recently appeared in Shakespeare in the Park’s Merry Wives. Urie and Lewis are also in the cast. Devere Rogers and Aigner Mizzelle, NaTasha Yavette Williams, Devere Rodgers and Alana Raquel bowers are also included.
Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Nick Jonas, Hunter Arnold and E. Clayton Cornelious join a producing crew that also includes Pamela Ross and Hunter Arnold, Leah Michalos and Kayla Greenspan, Mapleseed Productions and Curt Cronin, John Joseph and John Paterakis, as well as Invisible Wall Productions/Blaine Hopkins.