Oh Happy Day! – 12 October 2025

Jordan E. Cooper’s Oh Happy Day! is an achingly relevant play with gospel music that evokes ideology about divinity in a thrilling and fascinating way. The story explores the parallels and divergences of those who believe in God as devout religious followers versus those whose belief comes from the pain of marginalization and need to believe in something greater. Oh Happy Day! centers around one family—a father, Lewis ( Brian D. Coats), his two children, Keyshawn (Jordan E. Cooper) and Niecy (Tamika Lawrence), and his grandson, Kevin (Donovan Louis Bazemore). Lewis threw Keyshawn out of the house when he was a teenager because Keyshawn is gay. The story begins with three divine voices: Holy Divine (Tiffany Mann), Mighty Divine (Shelea Melody McDonald), and Glory Divine (Latrice Pace), explaining that Keyshawn is dead, but has a final request from God, who is preparing a storm on Earth. God (through the voices of other actors onstage) explains that Keyshawn must build a boat and get his relatives, whom he despises and has had limited contact with, onto the boat before the rain starts. Though no consequences are explicitly stated, the reward of a happy home of his own is promised upon completion. Keyshawn, clearly a God-fearing man, endeavors to undertake the task.

The style of this play with music has the flair of Cooper’s earlier piece, Ain’t No Mo’, combined with a fully fleshed out linear plot. There are moments that evoke Ain’t No Mo’, particularly in the way that Keyshawn, the character played by Cooper himself, pontificates about the pain of the life he has lived. These words flow from him rapidly, with punched emphasis, and calculated precision. He speaks differently than other characters—it takes Lewis great effort to speak his truth, and when he delivers, it comes with a different kind of calculation, an emotional toll for every word. Niecy, for her part, straddles the line of aggressor and protector. Her words seem the least calculated—she loves everyone and wants to protect everyone from everyone else and therefore doesn’t end up saying anything profound because she is unwilling to take a stance that might hurt anyone. Kevin is a child, who isn’t old enough to calculate, as shown by his questions that Niecy rushes to cover. As for the divine trio, they are angelic—on another plane, espousing a positivity that starkly contrasts the reality of living on Earth, somehow making divinity seem even harder for Keyshawn to attain and understand because of the contrast.

Oh Happy Day! is a flirtation that challenges us with minor repulsions in the details and then pulls us in for a closer look, asking us if we can really accept Keyshawn without judgment. His entrance is shrouded in shame—he cost his father his job, he was corrupting a member of the clergy, and he was creeping into a family’s backyard uninvited, swearing in front of a child. Ironically, the more details we acquire, the more the complexity of loving Keyshawn falls away and he becomes a single thing: a victim. The audience comes to embrace his both his fragility and his strength. His father has a violently angry reaction to Keyshawn’s story—yet for the first time he directs his anger toward the right target—the abusers, not the abused. The narrative shifts to be more about Lewis’s growth than Keyshawn; it turns out, Keyshawn is not the character whose heart and mind are meant to change in this story. Keyshawn is the vehicle that brings about his father’s change. And by being this vehicle, he redeems both of their souls. It’s stunningly beautiful.

I attended this performance on a press pass from The Public Theater Press Team.