Tamika Lawrence and Jordan E. Cooper Photo by Joan Marcus

As with that audacious predecessor, Cooper is also the lead actor. But first, give it up for the Divines: Holy (Tiffany Mann), Mighty (Sheléa Melody McDonald), and Glory (Latrice Pace). They're the three angels–also strongly reminiscent of Crystal, Ronette, and Chiffon in Little Shop of Horrors, only done up in Qween Jean's fab heavenly frocks and headgear–who have come on to belt Donald Lawrence's infectious spirituals and unreel the plot. (They're also here to hector the audience with the "How y'all feelin'?" We said, how y'all feelin'?"s that instantly put me in a bad mood.)

That plot is Noah's Ark meets It's a Wonderful Life meets August Wilson meets I'm not sure what else. We're in Laurel, Mississippi, where young Keyshawn (Cooper) has just been murdered. A sinner on many fronts, he is nevertheless promised a divine afterlife if he can do the following: reassume human form, reunite with his estranged father Lewis (Brian D. Coats), sister Niecy (Tamika Lawrence), and nephew Kevin (Donovan Louis Bazemore), convince them that a flood is on the way, build a boat, and get them all in that boat before a drop of rain falls.

That won't be easy. The preteen Kevin barely knows Keyshawn, Niecy retains some affection for him but is wise to his careless and deceitful ways, and Lewis out-and-out hates him. A struggling ex-con, Lewis made his way up to deacon at the local church, until Keyshawn, a turner of tricks, circulated a video of Pastor Ray in a compromising position with him. The church fired Lewis for what his son did, and now he's a mopey, judgmental scold. It's his birthday, and while Niecy is preparing a celebration, he wants no part of it.

That's the tense environment Keyshawn is confronting, and his presence only ratchets up the tension. Luckily, he's granted divine assistance: the Divines, bopping to several more Lawrence tunes, and God himself, first in the form of Kevin. Bazemore is a fine young actor, and when he's God, he's a completely different presence. Later, God will be a Beyoncé-like Niecy, dispensing vocals and sarcasm from the roof, then a surprise third manifestation.

All very bracing, but the hereafter specifics are tripping me up. The theatre abounds in dead people interacting with mortals, of course: Liliom and On Borrowed Time and Blithe Spirit, and on and on. But the particulars are usually spelled out better. Keyshawn passed, but he's around and walking and talking, and can't explain to his family what happened? He can see the Divines, but the others can't? Why is God taking so many forms? Why is Kevin in a window, in green light, silently choking himself? And if a flood is about to hit Laurel after a long drought, wouldn't some satellite pick it up? Even if it's heavenly intervention?

Tiffany Mann, Latrice Pace, and Sheléa Melody McDonald Photo by Joan Marcus

And his Keyshawn, under Stevie Walker-Webb's sure direction, is a major piece of acting. Taught by his church and his loved ones to hate himself, he's in constant anguish, and Cooper makes us feel it. Speaking to God/Niecy: "When I was a kid, I prayed to you like praying was my own breath. I prayed every night and asked you to make me normal, asked you to make me straight... Every morning I still woke up trying to burn thoughts of another boy out of my brain... And it felt like everybody knew what I was thinking... The devil himself can sit front row in a church and everybody would be too busy whispering about the faggot in the corner. What sense that make?"

He writes funny lines, too, especially for the Divines, who are such sunny presences that eventually I forgave them for all that applause-baiting. But there's more drama than comedy here, particularly in a series of family confrontations that turn the heat up after intermission. A long, blistering volley between Keyshawn and Lewis blaming one another for the lack of love they felt is beautifully played; it does feel odd that it's happening while Keyshawn is chopping the house down to build that boat, and Lewis isn't stopping him. And the divides between life and death get harder to delineate, to the point where we're wondering who's alive and who isn't.

But we're engaged all the way, feeling Keyshawn's hurt, Niecy's frustration, Kevin's groping for family affection where little is being offered, and Lewis's wrestling with his tortured paternal conscience. It's an ace production, too, beginning with those Qween Jean creations, on equal footing with the fashion parade she just delivered for Saturday Church. Luciana Stecconi's scenic design, a simple A-frame house at first, offers a lovely last-minute surprise; the lighting, by Adam Honoré and Shannon Clarke, varies between the natural colors of a hot day in Mississippi and the rainbows of the afterlife. Taylor J. Williams' sound design needs work: Inaudible dialogue when the actors mumble, overmiking for the Divines, who offer a rousing Act One finale where I couldn't understand a damn word. One flaw among several in Oh Happy Day!, but in the end, we're pretty happy.