OH HAPPY DAY! BRINGS A HAPPY DAY

Playwright and actor Jordan E. Cooper’s heart-breaking but joyously gospel-inflected New York premiere of Oh Happy Day! is an earned emotional treat. The show opens with a rousing gospel number “A Good Day to Be Happy†(original music by David Lawrence), delivered by the stunning voices of The Divines, femme otherworldly spirits garbed in shimmering gowns and elaborate headgear (Tiffany Mann, Sheléa Melody McDonald, Latrice Pace). These characters function as a gospel Greek chorus throughout the show, stepping in to sing many times, and to comment on and advise the main character Keyshawn (played by Cooper). They also provide humor and explication to the audience over the course of this uplifting production.

Latrice Pace, Sheléa Melody McDonald, and Tiffany Mann (The Divines)

The play, set in present-day Laurel, Mississippi, is a complex story. The plot incorporates numerous fantastic elements and obscure theological concepts that can be hard to follow, but the show is always gripping, thanks to Cooper’s friend and collaborator Stevie Walker-Webb’s sure direction. Soon after the singing stops, the recently murdered but seemingly still alive Keyshawn shows up as an unwelcome guest at his father’s birthday party.  Neither Keyshawn’s father Lewis (the excellent Brian D. Coats), his sister Niecy (Tamika Lawrence), nor his young nephew Kevin (performed with remarkable maturity by Donovan Louis Bazemore) realize that Keyshawn is dead when he appears. (It’s not even completely clear whether Keyshawn himself knows he is dead.)

Donovan Louis Bazemore and Tamika Lawrence

We learn fairly quickly why Lewis is so unhappy to see his son, and why his sister and nephew are so surprised by his presence: some years ago, Lewis, an active church-goer and church employee, kicked teen-aged Keyshawn out of the house for being gay. Most recently, however, Keyshawn, who makes his living as a sex worker, has posted a video of Lewis’s boss, Pastor Ray, refusing to pay Keyshawn following a sex act. The video led to Lewis being fired from his job as the church maintenance man. Lewis is now doubly furious with his son for hurting his reputation and costing him his livelihood.

Jordan E. Cooper and Tamika Lawrence

Keyshawn has returned to his childhood home, despite the many painful memories, because has been given a task by God. God appears to Keyshawn (and the audience) in several guises, repeatedly challenging him to do the impossible—build a boat to rescue his family from an impending flood. God tells Keyshawn that he will find relief from pain, anger, and confusion if he completes this task.

Latrice Pace, Sheléa Melody McDonald, Tiffany Mann, and Jordan E. Cooper (center)

Keyshawn despairs of completing this task, but God (in multiple manifestations) keeps hectoring him and the demands become undeniable. When the promised storm materializes (brought to life with sound design by Taylor J. Williams and lighting by Adam Honoré and Shannon Clarke) and Keyshawn begins ripping planks off the family home to start constructing the boat, tensions with his father Lewis escalate.

In a deeply moving scene of emotional vulnerability, Keyshawn and Lewis confront one another. They share their rage, their failures, and their love for one another in an exchange that culminates in the forgiveness both have longed for, despite their accumulated resentments. This resolution is metaphorically realized on the stage in another spectacular feat of lighting and set design (Luciana Stecconi).

Jordan E. Cooper

Cooper is a playwright—and an actor—to watch. His inventive and delightful Ain’t No Mo’, which grew out of a series of sketches he wrote while a student at The New School, garnered a Broadway production and two Tony nominations. That play grappled with the state of Black life in the United States today. Oh Happy Day! feels more personal—an effort to reconcile the role of the church and the Bible in supporting Black communities in their struggles against racism and oppression with its traditional rejection of Black queer folks and the resulting fissures in family relationships. Cooper effectively dramatizes this painful challenge in the flesh and blood of living and breathing characters—even those who are dead before the show begins.

photos by Joan Marcus

Oh Happy Day!
The Public Theater, 425 Lafayette Street
ends on November 2, 2025
for tickets, call 212.967.7555 or visit The Public