Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill by Lanie Robertson. Production supervised by Julianne Boyd; originally directed by Rob Ruggiero
Reviewed by J. Peter Bergman
"...longing, walking around on two legs."
Gail Nelson becomes Billie Holiday. That’s it in a nutshell. Gail Nelson becomes Billie Holiday. Nelson’s voice is sweeter, lighter, lovelier than Holiday’s voice. She is prettier than Billie. She is somehow more complete, but on the stage, in front of a microphone, wearing a gardenia in her hair and singing the old familiar Holiday songs, she simply transforms into the Lady who sings the blues.
But forget Lady Sings the Blues, the movie about Billie Holiday. Forget that character named Billie and listen to the real inside story from the real Billie as you find her at Barrington Stage Company this week. Here is the real low-down on the life of a heavy little girl from Baltimore who did some transforming all her own. Playwright Lanie Robertson has drawn a different sort of picture of the singer and her life and we get to know how difficult that life was for a misfit of a girl who wanted to be a combination of Louie Armstrong and Bessie Smith.
Nelson manages to bring both the joy of Holiday’s performances and the horror of getting through them into this two hour, one woman play. We experience the extraordinary high of a singer’s use of her voice and the equally perilous high that alcohol abuse can bring a person. From a woman in control of herself to a woman totally out of control, Holiday in her capable hands is a riveting, rotating star who is clearly on an unstoppable descent through a Hell all of her own making.
Danny Holgate plays her accompanist and friend Jimmy Powers. He not only plays piano but he plays his role in Holiday’s life and performance with a subtle humor that may surprise some people. How much is real between these two characters is speculative, but one thing is clear about Jimmy: he is her lifeline at this nightclub engagement in Philadelphia. Without Jimmy, she cannot be herself, do her songs, get through the night. Holgate is a reassuring presence in the role, one that is never in the limelight without being just outside its perimeter.
The third member of the troupe is bass player David Jackson. An able musician who reinforces the work of the other two musicians in this show, he gets a solo now and then and lets it rip.
As for production values, there’s a table and two chairs, a wall, a piano and a dress with long, fingerless opera gloves. Lights make the moods that uphold the images within the songs Holiday sings or support the emotions behind the stories she reveals. Jeff Davis is the designer of this lighting and he clearly understands the play, the songs and the woman who lives at the center of them. The show’s warmth is held within its lighting, while its truth is exposed there in the performance of its shimmering star. I think the shimmer is split equally between the designer’s work and the Nelson’s own particular sheen.
If you are a fan of Billie Holiday’s music, not all of it blues but much of it peppered with rhythm and up-tempo riffs, this is an evening that you will not ever forget. There are only five performances of this show, total, so waste no time in getting into Pittsfield and seeing what could be the final turn of Miss Billie Holiday, as played by Gail Nelson, at that sweet Philly club owned by Mr. Emerson himself. Like the lucky few who may have seen the historic singer in that engagement, you won’t forget the night.
◊12/06/2007◊
Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill plays through December 9. Tickets are $25-$35. Call the box office at 413-236-8888 for tickets .
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