Soul music legend Donny Hathaway, who is name-checked among a list of famous suicides— a man who often refused to take the prescribed medication that was meant to help control the debilitating symptoms of his paranoid schizophrenia takes center stage in Washington, DC.’s Mosaic Theater’s scintillating musical drama Twisted Melodies.
Kelvin Roston, Jr., who wrote Twisted Melodies and grew up in St. Louis just like Donny Hathaway, joins me in the BalmShelter to discuss this breathtaking solo performance for which words are really insufficient to describe its emotional impact.