Theater review: One-woman show “Hi-Hat Hattie” touts the legacy of an African American pioneer in Hollywood

A young girl with a sweet, quivering voice sings the familiar opening of “Amazing Grace.” A memory, this youngster stands in the church where her father, a freed slave, is minister. Her voice grows steady and bolder as she grows older. This vocal transformation from girl to young woman to adult seamlessly performing the same hymn of humility makes for one of the finest moments in the one-woman show “Hi-Hat Hattie,” onstage at the Aurora Fox through Dec. 23.

Hattie McDaniel is vividly alive and well portrayed by Anna Maria High in the biographical show written by Larry Parr. The tale of the iconic actress known for her roles as a maid might sound like heavier fare than the typical holiday offerings. But director Melissa Lucero McCarl, musical director Jodel Charles and lead High find plenty of warm light in a show in which America’s and Hollywood’s history of racism cast shadows.

As Hattie, High bestows her ample gifts on the Denver-bred movie star who in 1940  became the first African American to win an Academy Award. (McDaniel went to East High School.) She received the best supporting actress award (at the time a plaque, not a statuette) for her indelible if troubling performance as Mammy in “Gone With the Wind.”

A memory play, “Hi-Hat Hattie” is fluid and entertaining. Hattie’s recollections of fame and misfortune, love and loss, compromise and self-awareness, are punctuated by rich versions of standards, among them “Danny Boy,” “St. Louis Blues,” and “Old Man River.” Wearing a pork-pie hat, music director Jodel Charles sits at a grand piano providing Hattie syncopated or stirring accompaniment to a soulful songbook. (The Aurora Fox upgraded its sound system recently, and it shows.)

High gives a winking, slinking performance of “Gimme a Pigfoot (And a Bottle of Beer),” a song that blues empress Bessie Smith made a hit. In fact, an online search will confirm that there was more gravel to McDaniel’s singing voice. Blessed with a finer instrument, High hits the high notes — and all the others — to winning effect. Still, you can be forgiven for wanting a bit more of Hattie’s grit.

The youngest of 13 children, Hattie admits she worked hard to get attention. A dramatic (wryly hammy) recitation of the poem “Convict Joe” garnered her a gold medal from the Women’s Christian Temperance Union when she was a teen.

As a vaudeville performer who fell on tough times, she appeared nightly as a women’s room attendant in a Milwaukee club before the proprietor saw the wisdom in putting her on stage instead.

McDaniel’s brother Sam and sister Etta arrived in Hollywood before she would. That hinted-at story presents a “what-if” scenario. What if, for instance, a playwright or screenwriter told that part of Hattie’s story — the one about a black minister’s family making their way to …

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