Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill

Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill
Written by	Lanie Robertson
Characters	Billie Holiday Jimmy Powers Pepi
Date premiered	April 16, 1986 (1986-04-16)
Place premiered	Alliance Theatre, Atlanta, Georgia
Original language	English

Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill is a play with music by Lanie Robertson, recounting some events in the life of Billie Holiday. The play originally premiered in 1986 at the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta, Georgia, and soon played Off-Broadway. The play opened on Broadway in 2014.

Production history

Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill premiered at the Alliance Theatre, Atlanta, Georgia, on April 16, 1986, with direction by Woodie King, Jr. and Reenie Upchurch as Billie Holiday.

The play was next produced Off-Broadway at the Vineyard Theatre on June 5, 1986, and then opened in a Vineyard Theatre production at the Westside Theatre on September 7, 1986. This production closed on May 17, 1987 after 281 performances. Directed by Andre Ernotte, Lonette McKee starred as Holiday. In February 1987 S. Epatha Merkerson took over the role of Billie Holiday. The play won the 1987 Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Off-Broadway Book (Robertson).

The Hollywood Playhouse (in California) produced Lady Day in October 1987, directed by Andre Ernotte, and with S. Epatha Merkerson reprising her role as Holiday. Ernotte said that he wanted to "deglamorize Billie: show the dark, sad side. So it's not so much a nightclub act as a theater play with music." He also noted that Merkerson brought another aspect to the role as an actress rather than as a singer. The play was presented at the Long Wharf Theatre, New Haven, Connecticut in November 2005, with Ernestine Jackson as Billie Holiday.

The play opened on Broadway at Circle in the Square on April 13, 2014. Directed by Lonny Price, the production starred Audra McDonald as Billie Holiday and featured Shelton Becton as pianist Jimmy Powers. The sets are by James Noone, costumes by Esosa, lighting by Robert Wierzel and sound by Steve Canyon Kennedy. The play was originally scheduled for a limited 10-week engagement, but was extended several times until it finally closed on October 5, 2014. Audra McDonald won her record-breaking sixth Tony Award for the production, and she became the only person to win in all four acting categories, this time winning for Best Actress in a Play. The play also won for Best Sound Design of a Play. The production was filmed at the Cafe Brasil in New Orleans and broadcast on HBO on March 12, 2016.

McDonald was expected to reprise her role in the West End at the Wyndham's Theatre, from June 15 through September 3, 2016. She was to take a 3-month break from her role on Broadway in Shuffle Along, or, the Making of the Musical Sensation of 1921 and All That Followed. However, in a change announced on May 10, 2016, Lady Day has been postponed because McDonald and her husband Will Swenson are expecting a baby. She said, in part: "Of course, I’m disappointed I have to postpone my West End debut in Lady Day, but I look forward to rescheduling as soon as possible.”

Plot

The play takes place in South Philadelphia in March 1959. Billie Holiday is performing in a run-down bar, during one of her last performances before her death in July 1959. She sings, accompanied by Jimmy Powers on the piano, and also tells stories about her life.

Songs

• "I Wonder Where Our Love Has Gone" (music by Buddy Johnson; lyrics by Buddy Johnson)
• "When a Woman Loves a Man" (music by Bernie Hanighen and Gordon Jenkins; lyrics by Johnny Mercer)
• "What a Little Moonlight Can Do" (music by Harry Woods; lyrics by Harry Woods)
• "Crazy He Calls Me" (music by Carl Sigman; lyrics by Bob Russell)
• "Gimme a Pigfoot (And a Bottle of Beer)", (music by Wesley Wilson; lyrics by Wesley Wilson)
• "Baby Doll"
• "God Bless the Child" (music by Billie Holiday and Arthur Herzog, Jr.; lyrics by Billie Holiday and Arthur Herzog, Jr.)
• "Foolin' Myself" (music by Jack Lawrence and Peter Tinturin; lyrics by Jack Lawrence and Peter Tinturin)
• "Somebody's on My Mind" (music by Billie Holiday and Arthur Herzog, Jr.; lyrics by Billie Holiday and Arthur Herzog, Jr.)
• "Easy Livin'" (music by Ralph Rainger and Leo Robin; lyrics by Ralph Rainger and Leo Robin)
• "Strange Fruit" (music by Abel Meeropol; lyrics by Abel Meeropol)
• Blues Break
• "T'ain't Nobody's Business If I Do" (music by Porter Grainger and Everett Robbins; lyrics by Porter Grainger and Everett Robbins)
• "Don't Explain" (music by Arthur Herzog, Jr. and Billie Holiday; lyrics by Arthur Herzog, Jr. and Billie Holiday)
• "What a Little Moonlight Can Do" (Reprise) (music by Harry Woods; lyrics by Harry Woods)
• "Deep Song" (music by George Cory and Douglass Cross; lyrics by George Cory, Douglass Cross)

Critical reception

In his review of the 2005 Long Wharf production for Variety, Frank Rizzo wrote: "...two-time Tony nominee Ernestine Jackson... presents the singer as a simultaneously strong and desperate figure who finds some solace in her songs, but more in her own personal “moonlight” of drugs, booze and memories. Jackson nicely suggests rather than mimics the famous Holiday deeply lived sound in a show filled with more than a dozen tunes accompanied by an accomplished trio. But this is far from a simple songbook, and the cumulative power comes in the unraveling of an addicted artist and her story at the end of her days."

Critics praised the performance of Audra McDonald in the 2014 Broadway production while not being as enthusiastic about the writing. In his review for The New York Times Charles Isherwood said, "it's worth putting up with the show's tackier (and duller) aspects for the pleasure of hearing Ms. McDonald breathe aching life into some of Holiday's greatest songs. She has tamped down the lush bloom of her voice to suggest the withered state of Holiday's instrument during the last years of her career, but the sound remains tangy, expressive and rich". Marilyn Stasio in Variety called the play's script "unrealistically stuffed with just about every known biographical detail about [Holiday's] unhappy life" but praised McDonald's performance, saying "she captures the plaintive sound, the eccentric phrasing and all the little vocal catches that identify Billie Holiday's unique style. But it's her extraordinary sensitivity as an actor that makes McDonald's interpretation memorable".

Recording

PS Classics recorded the cast album live during the May 27-31 performances, with the album scheduled for release on July 15, 2014.

Awards and nominations

Audra McDonald won the 2014 Drama Desk Award, Outstanding Actress in a Play.

The play received two 2014 Outer Critics Circle Awards nominations: Outstanding Revival Of A Musical (Broadway or Off-Broadway) and Outstanding Actress In A Musical (Audra McDonald). Audra McDonald won the award.

The play received two 2014 Tony Award nominations: Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Play and Best Sound Design of a Play (Steve Canyon Kennedy). (The Tony Awards Administration Committee had decided that Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill is eligible for the category of Best Revival of a Play, and that ruling made McDonald eligible for Best Actress in a Play.) Audra McDonald won for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Play and Steve Canyon Kennedy won for Best Sound Design of a Play.

External links

• Internet Off-Broadway Database, 1986
• Internet Broadway Database listing
• playbillvault.com