Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill recounts Billie Holiday's life story through the songs that made her famous. 1959, in a small, intimate bar in Philadelphia, Holiday puts on a show that unbeknownst to the audience, will leave them witnesses to one of the last performances of her lifetime. Through her poignant voice and moving songs, one of the greatest jazz singers of all-time shares her loves and her losses.
McDonald gets to show off her comedic skills, naughtily teasing her conductor and pianist (the excellent Shelton Becton) and wandering among the audience members who sit at tables incorporated into the set. At one point, her Holiday heads for the bottles of booze lined up in back of them and pours herself a strong one; at another, she nuzzles her pet pooch, Pepi (played by a sweetly poised rescue dog named Roxie)...Not surprisingly, though, Lady Day is at its most potent when the songs speak for her. McDonald delivers a beautifully phrased God Bless the Child, an enchanting Crazy He Calls Me, a chilling Strange Fruit.
But little of that matters once McDonald takes the stage. So immediately stunning is the accuracy of her replication of Holiday's timbre and inflections at that point of her life that many of Thursday night's audience responded with applause a mere eight bars into her opening performance of 'I Wonder Where Our Love Has Gone.' So galvanizing is McDonald's work that it wasn't until midway through the performance that I began to notice images being projected in back of her. Never mind them. You won't want to draw your attention away from Audra McDonald for a moment. As the saying goes, there's a lady on stage, and not only is she an entrancing singer, but she's one hell of an actor.
1986 | Off-Broadway |
Original Off-Broadway Production Off-Broadway |
1986 | Off-Broadway |
Off-Broadway |
2014 | Broadway |
Original Broadway Production Broadway |
2017 | West End |
West End Production West End |
Year | Ceremony | Category | Nominee |
---|---|---|---|
2014 | BroadwayWorld Awards | Best Leading Actress in a Play | Audra McDonald |
2014 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Actress in a Play | Audra McDonald |
2014 | Drama League Awards | Outstanding Revival of a Broadway or Off-Broadway Musical | Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill |
2014 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Actress in a Musical | Audra McDonald |
2014 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Revival of a Musical (Broadway or Off-Broadway) | Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill |
2014 | Tony Awards | Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Play | Audra McDonald |
2014 | Tony Awards | Best Sound Design of a Play | Steve Canyon Kennedy |
Videos