Tyler Perry tours with ‘Madea’s Big Happy Family’ again this fall

Tyler Perry’s latest theatrical comedy “Madea’s Big Happy Family” hopes to bring big laughs to venues across America later this year. The Perry-penned play returns to the stage beginning September 15-17 in New Orleans, LA, and continues its late-year run through November 21 in Cleveland, OH.

Venues for much of the fall 2010 tour have yet to be announced. Though incomplete, the current itinerary features stops in more than 30 U.S. markets, many of which will be hosting multiple-night engagements.

Among the confirmed performances are extended runs on September 24-26 at the Verizon Center in Washington, DC; October 8-10 at 1st Mariner Arena in Baltimore, MD; October 15-17 at the Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York, NY; and November 10-11 at Verizon Arena in Little Rock, AR.

Initial ticket sales for the tour begin early this week in select cities, with an updated onsale list on Perry’s official Web site. Face values vary widely across the nation, though most markets have a $10 cushion between the low and high end of ticket values. The overall low for face values is around $50 with an overall high set around $95, according to current listings on Ticketmaster.com.

Perry also toured with the production of “Madea’s Big Happy Family” earlier this year, playing the title matriarch. The winter-to-spring trek was booked from a January 4 show at Don Haskins Center in El Paso, TX, through a May 6 performance at Fox Theatre in Detroit, MI.

“We performed 125 shows in 126 days. We saw almost 700,000 people on this tour,” Perry tallied in a May statement on his official Web site. “‘Madea’s Big Happy Family’ set all kinds of records!”

In February, TIME magazine critic Richard Zoglin reviewed a performance of Perry’s latest theatrical undertaking at the Theater at Madison Square garden. Zoglin credited Perry as possibly being “the most popular unsung playwright in America,” while calling the play “a bracing reminder that popular theater is still thriving in America — well under the radar and way off Broadway.”

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