In the program director’s notes for Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill by Lyric Stage, the playwright recalls her boyfriend seeing Billie Holiday perform for some seven people in 1959 at a dive bar three months before she died. That left a haunting image for Lanie Robertson. In response, she wrote Lady Day as “an attempt to rid myself of that ghost.” The question is: Did she succeed?
Directed by Michael Childs, Lyric opened Lady Day last Friday in its studio space designed to look like the titular smoky, dark dive. Scott Guenther’s set made an immediate impression as Emerson’s with a small centered stage and the band already in place opposite the bar and a row of cabaret tables for some of the audience. The room was almost bathed in darkness that easily transported the audience to the nightspot, but also allowed for a certain bleakness.
Lady Day isn’t any kind of bio-musical or even a celebration. When the singer comes out onstage, she’s just already buzzed and abrasive. As the night goes on with song and story, Billie drinks more and more and any greatness she had, has been dissolved by bourbon. She flirts with the band and audience between sips; she belts out a song relative to her story of choice and she even introduces the audience to her dog, Pepi.
Despite Robertson’s statement to rid herself of any haunting image of that last performance, she almost glorifies it with Lady Day. Billie isn’t likeable here and hard to understand with a slurred voice. But then her glory comes with each song and that voice. While Billie relays stories of prejudice, misogyny, love, addiction and prison, she’s never a sympathetic character. Robertson’s focus wasn’t a love story to Billie, but a reminder that perhaps even in a downhill, there’s still majesty.
The magic of this was Nikka Morton’s performance.
Morton’s entrance in a white gown and fur stole was glorious and backed up by a powerful performance. Instead of taking on Billie Holiday straightforwardly, Morton’s performance felt like a deconstructed part she put back together again and the result was this damaged character with a big history and even bigger talent. While she looked glamorous, Morton eschewed any glamour in her portrayal as Billie progressively got liquored up. And yet, as both Holiday and herself, Morton won over the audience with each jazzy musical number. Her voice had hints of Holiday’s slight rasp and twang without giving into impression. She was sultry and dynamic onstage and amid the audience as she sauntered away from the stage. Morton had keen awareness of how to play a star, even if that star was fading.
While Morton was front and center, the band was as much part of the story led by Music Director Linny Nance who also played Billie’s music director Jimmie Powers at the piano. Backed by the trio of Buddy Mohmed on bass, Steven Brown on sax and Andre Swartz on drums, the quartet brought the songs to life with an ease that felt appropriate to the tiny, dark spot. While true to the music, Nance brought a slight sheen of melancholy that added layers to the numbers and the show.
Childs’ direction was smooth in its focus on Morton (and Brittani Youman who plays Billie in other performances). His movement of Morton throughout the stage felt organic and his collaboration with Morton brought the legend to life albeit the rougher side. Instead of a feel-good musical, Childs and his cast and crew gave us a slice of Billie’s life in Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill that was raw and bleak in those final days, but also a showcase of pure talent.
The show runs through Feb. 23.
–Rich Lopez