Breath and Imagination, CPH 2/19/14

Breath and Imagination, CPH 2/19/14

Laura Kennelly for Cool Cleveland

Can three characters sketch one man’s musical world in only ninety minutes? Here, yes they can.

This is the “rags to riches” biography of golden-voiced African-American singer Roland Hayes, a child born in 1887 to Georgia tenant farmers. Playwright Daniel Beaty shows us how Hayes’ talent, persistence, and spirit brought him riches, fame, and welcome into concert halls and palaces where he mingled with wealthy people and became one himself.

The play, directed by May Adrales, opens, though, at a low point for Hayes, at a time when he realizes that his dream to set up an integrated music school (in Jim Crow Georgia in 1942!) is not to be. In his anguish, he begins to remember his past and those who helped him along the way. And, happily, his memories invoke some 25 songs from folk to opera, in English and other languages. The Jim Crow incident was only a bump in the road for this super-star who moved to Massachusetts and lived until 1977.

The three performers on stage combine into a mighty trio that turns this thin biographical snapshot into a quick-moving, entertaining show about a man who could as easily sing a moving spiritual as a classical aria. Elijah Rock (known in Cleveland as Eric Myricks) exhibits flexibility and power as Roland Hayes, showing how the earnest Hayes gradually sees that his rich “African” voice fascinates voice teachers and how he can use it to make his mark on the world. Daphne Gaines, as Hayes’ Angel Mo’ magically turns herself into his peppy yet saintly mother, her spirit, and back again.

Stunningly versatile, the amazing Tom Frey fills in all the other characters in this saga and accompanies at the piano at the same time. He’s a preacher, Roland’s father, two music instructors (he’s especially great as “Miss Robinson”), a Frenchman, and King George IV of England.

Bottom line? Breath and Imagination, designed to inspire young people, should also inspire the rest of us to keep dreaming (and working).

Breath and Imagination is at the Allen Theatre through March 9. For tickets see http://clevelandplayhouse.com.

[Set design above by Rachel Hauck. Photo by Laura Kennelly]