LISTENING BETWEEN THE LINES
Donny Hathaway was a musician of staggering emotional depth, a composer whose songs held both the ache and beauty of being alive. Born in 1945 and raised in St. Louis by his gospel-singing grandmother, Hathaway began performing in church as a child. His early exposure to sacred music, paired with a formal education in classical composition at Howard University, shaped a sound that was both technically intricate and spiritually honest. Hathaway’s music spoke to loneliness, injustice, joy, and hope, all within the same breath.
In the 1970s, Hathaway emerged as one of soul music’s most gifted voices. His recordings blended gospel, jazz, and orchestral arrangements in a way that defied commercial trends. He was as comfortable scoring string parts as he was improvising on the electric piano. Songs like “The Ghetto” and “A Song for You” revealed not only his vocal brilliance but his deep empathy for human struggle. His duets with Roberta Flack, particularly “Where Is the Love” and “The Closer I Get to You,” remain some of the most beloved in American music history.
Behind this brilliance, however, Hathaway was waging an invisible war. Diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia in his early thirties, he experienced auditory hallucinations and persistent delusions. His illness was misunderstood and poorly treated by a system that lacked the capacity to support Black artists dealing with mental health crises. Still, Hathaway continued to create, reaching for moments of clarity through music.
Twisted Melodies does not attempt to simplify Hathaway’s life or frame his suffering as tragic poetry. Instead, it gives him space to speak, to remember, to break, and to heal. Set in the final hours before his death in 1979, the play invites audiences into the mind of a man whose brilliance was inseparable from his pain. Through song and memory, the story unfolds not just as biography, but as testimony.
Today, Donny Hathaway’s influence remains unmistakable. Artists such as Alicia Keys, John Legend, and H E R carry forward his legacy of vulnerability and vocal honesty. His music continues to speak to new generations, especially those navigating the intersections of art, identity, and mental health.
This production is not just a look back. It is an invitation to listen more closely, to hold complexity with care, and to recognize the humanity inside every melody.
-Helaina Michele Coggs, Dramaturg
FROM THE PLAYWRIGHT
Twisted Melodies is a labor of love.
It’s much more than simply a solo jukebox musical. I chose Donny Hathaway as my muse for his amazing music and musicianship, yes, but also because of his struggle with paranoid schizophrenia.
We generally ignore, make excuses for, hide, or even make fun of those dealing with mental illness. I believe that Donny Hathaway’s music spoke to many more things than what may be on the surface. He left an incredible amount of himself and his struggles in the lyrics he wrote, the notes he played, and the tones he bent and swelled with as he sang.
Love and empathy are the main things that I want you, the audience, to leave with. I want you to leave here with either an introduction into the world of Donny’s genius, or, for those who know his work, to hear his music differently. I want you who are dealing with your own mental health struggles to know that you are not alone. Those of you with family and/or friends dealing with mental illness, you are not alone. I want you to leave with a new understanding of how different the world looks to others who are not like you or may not think like you. I want us all to see that we as humans are really much more alike than different.
Change starts with us, if we allow ourselves to change. Let’s begin our journey of change together.
– Kelvin Roston Jr, Playwright & Performer
