Charles Smith’s “Knock Me a Kiss” plays like a Tyler Perry movie set during the Harlem Renaissance.

Inspired by the ill-fated marriage between the daughter of activist W.E.B. Du Bois and the gay poet Countee Cullen, it awkwardly blends broad comedy with turgid melodrama.

As the play begins, Du Bois’ daughter Yolande (Erin Cherry) is already involved with jazz musician Jimmy Lunceford (Morocco Omari), who’s desperate to marry her. Though they’ve yet to consummate their relationship, it’s clearly a sexually charged one, as the rakish bandleader constantly implores her to “knock me a kiss.”

Yolande’s father (Andre DeShields) has other ideas for his daughter. He’s essentially arranged a union between her and his protégé, Cullen (Sean Philips). But it’s clear the poet is more interested in “ethereal pleasures,” at least when it comes to women.

Counseling Yolande from far different perspectives are her sexually free best friend Lenora (Gillian Glasco) and mentally addled mother, Nina (beautifully played by Marie Thomas).

Though overlong and plodding, the play is interesting, if only for being based, however sketchily, on reality. But its better moments, most of them concerning the volatile relationship between the charismatic musician and the woman he loves, are undercut by the one-note depiction of Du Bois as a priggish autocrat who lectures his daughter on “tolerating your marital duties.”

Despite that, and the unsubtle direction by Chuck Smith (no relation to the playwright), “Knock Me a Kiss” elicited strong reactions from the audience, many of whom made clear their sympathy for Yolande.