The Boy Who Kissed The Sky by David Haynes

In the poet and playwright’s rendering, we follow a young Black child billed simply as “The Boy,” navigating life in Seattle sometime in the late 1950s, early 1960s. It also happens that the playwright, Idris Goodwin, is the artistic director at Seattle Children’s Theatre, a post he started last year. Atlanta audiences are the first to soak in the sorta-kinda Jimi Hendrix Experience since the play ended its Seattle run in November.

So, it’s fitting that the Alliance partnered with Seattle Children’s Theatre to bring this work into the world. But you may have already guessed that from the musical’s title, a knowing wink at the well-known and oft-parodied line from “Purple Haze,” Hendrix’s mega-hit, which still slaps: “Excuse me while I kiss the sky.”įar before grunge was even a twinkle in the flannel shirt-wearing milkman’s eye, Jimi Hendrix, born Johnny Allen Hendrix in 1942, was set to become Seattle’s most significant musical luminary. The show runs through April 15 and is loosely based on the early days of one of the world’s greatest guitarists, Jimi Hendrix.

It’s into that precedent-laden but malleable medium that the Alliance Theatre’s world premiere co-production of The Boy Who Kissed the Sky has planted its psychedelic flag. From Amadeus to TINA, The Tina Turner Musical, the way that playwrights retell music icons’ stories onstage runs the gamut from extreme dramatic license to by-the-letter, star-endorsed biography.

The Boy Who Kissed The Sky by David Haynes