Both the original stage musical and the film adaptation are based on Van Peebles' 1967 French-language novel La fête à Harlem (1967).

The film stars Avon Long and Joe Keyes Jr. as Brother Dave and Trinity, a pair of demons who take human form to break up a house party thrown by Miss Maybell (Esther Rolle), an African American woman, in honor of her niece Earnestine (Rhetta Hughes), who is celebrating her 20th birthday in Harlem.

Trinity joins the party, already in progress, thrown by Miss Maybell in honor of her niece Earnestine's birthday.

Mr. Johnson tells Harold not to get involved with Earnestine, because her family is too "common," and he can't risk the big future he has ahead of him.

Melvin Van Peebles conceived the story of Don't Play Us Cheap after attending a New York City party thrown by an old black woman.

When he returned to his home in France, he thought of what would happen if these wonderful, kind, open people were invaded by imps bent on destroying their party.

[2] After this, Van Peebles intended to turn the stage musical into a film as a follow-up to his Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song (1971).

[8] Don't Play Us Cheap is part of a diptych with his concurrently running stage musical, Ain't Supposed to Die a Natural Death, which represents the darker side of African American life, with its characters recounting experiences of anguish in a combination of newly written songs and songs that previously appeared on Van Peebles' albums.

"Van Peebles — a man of nonconformist personality, as a writer, director, composer, and performer– produced works of quintessential American imagination and language.

He defied the patronizing approval given to James Baldwin, August Wilson, and Spike Lee and had the good fortune to surpass them all."

"[6] According to an essay written by Lisa B. Thompson for the Criterion Collection, Van Peebles' direction of the musical numbers, having solo performers song their songs while the other cast members perform as background singers, is part of the film's social commentary, presenting "the black middle class as an impediment" to individual African Americans finding love and joy.

[9] The film combines the idioms of American and European musicals, with Van Peebles drawing influence from the works of Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill.

[3][4][5][7] Rather than using the songs to traditionally move the plot forward, Van Peebles uses them to "form a portrait of the time and place", Harlem in the early 1970s on Saturday evening.

[3] The characters, within the context of the narrative, are singing along to records which they selected to hear at the party, and are depicted as discussing the songs that form the musical's score.