Tyler Perry tour showcases new play ‘Madea’s Big Happy Family’ in 2010 

One of contemporary Hollywood’s most prolific leading men will be on tour through the early months of 2010 with his own traveling theatrical production.

Funnyman Tyler Perry will showcase his latest play structured around his well-known Madea character, “Madea’s Big Happy Family.” The U.S. theater tour launches January 4 at the Don Haskins Center in El Paso, TX, and concludes with a May 6-9 run at Fox Theatre in Detroit, MI.

While many markets on the U.S. tour will host the production for only one night, several have booked multiple-night engagements. Some of Perry’s extended runs include January 19-24 at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, CA; January 27-31 at the Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York, NY; March 2-6 at Chicago Theatre in Chicago, IL; March 12-14 at Nokia Theatre in Grand Prairie, TX; and April 15-18 at Fox Theatre in Atlanta, GA.

“Madea’s Big Happy Family” is Perry’s first theatrical tour in five years. His first major stage production, “I Know I’ve Been Changed,” launched more than a decade ago in 1998, and was followed yearly by new productions including this year’s “Laugh to Keep from Crying.”

“All I want to say is that if you have not seen ‘Madea’ live on stage you haven’t seen Madea at all,” Perry wrote in the announcement on his official Web site. “In the movies, I’m limited but on stage….FREEEEDDOMMMM!!!”

Though “Madea’s Big Happy Family” has been planned for a while, the production’s status was unclear following the December 8 death of the screenwriter-producer-actor’s mother, Willie Maxine Perry, 64. Perry had credited his mother with being “the wisdom of Madea” in a 2006 interview with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

“As you know, my mother was the apple of my eye, so [her death] has been difficult to say the least,” Perry commented in his tour announcement, adding, “All I’ll say is this, take care of your mothers…you only get one.”

‘Madea’s Big Happy Family’ itinerary:
(Dates are subject to change.)