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Last Updated: May 24th, 2006 - 09:47:39 |
When it comes to challenging roles for actors, portraying Billie Holiday—an enigma in the truest sense—must surely rank as one of the more daunting, yet rewarding opportunities.
Holiday was such a singular persona—an artist who redefined the job description of jazz vocalist and created a style that could never be copied. She lived a life that still fascinates us, with its unanswered questions and lingering shroud of tragedy that defined her face, voice and legacy. Her life story could be told a million different ways and a million times, and the tale would always be powerful and riveting.
Doing right by Billie Holiday means paying attention to the depth of her infuriatingly complex persona—the layers of a woman tormented by childhood demons, drugs, brutal racism of the day and her profound sadness.
During the two-set nightclub performance called “Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill,” at Arena Stage, playwright Lanie Robertson takes the audience on an entertaining but macabre death vigil as Billie Holiday sings some of her greatest hits and reminisces about her life during one of her final gigs.
After her drug arrest, Holiday was banished from the lucrative and high-profile New York City jazz clubs, so she sang in places like Emerson’s Bar & Grill, in Philadelphia.
The sight of Lynn Sterling as Lady Day is a bit startling at first. Dressed in a stunning white gown and long evening gloves, the beautiful Sterling doesn’t look like a woman hanging on to the last days of her life. But give her time.
As she glides into Holiday classics, particularly “What a Little Moonlight Can Do,” we’re reminded of Diana Ross. Sterling’s presence is elegant, her voice is sweet and her range is on the high end. During the first half of the play, it seems that Sterling is a lightweight, a poser who is just planning to entertain the audience with renditions of Holiday’s greatest hits.
Supported by long-time Holiday confidant Jimmy Powers on piano (William Foster McDaniel), with Eric Kennedy on drums and Thomas E. Short Jr. on bass, Sterling chats with audience members as if we are her old drinking buddies.
She refers to the “old Billie” (“the New Billie doesn’t wear a gardenia in her hair”), and shares her girlhood memories of scrubbing the steps of the whorehouse where she worked. When recalling her early education—learning about Jazz by listening to recordings by Louis Armstrong and Bessie Smith—she tells the audience that ultimately she “got so good that the folks paid attention to me, instead of the band.”
Sterling’s Holiday is a revelation, alternately funny, raw, and filled with rage and desperation as she wavers between the horrors and the joys of her past, and the present moment in front of the band.
Sterling slowly but surely makes you forget the glamour girl as Holiday begins to unravel. There’s a real edge in her voice and a lingering anger as she talks about how she wrote “God Bless the Child” for her mother, who she called “Duchess.” At one point, she stumbles offstage and the band fills in for her. When she returns, she’s clearly wasted—slurring her words and forgetting words to her songs.
As the play approaches the end of the final set, you can almost see the blood draining from Holiday’s face, and the aura of death surrounds her. Sterling makes it all come together in the second act, and it is clear that she found a way to channel Holiday. Her wonderful performance is not an impression of Billie Holiday but, rather, an expression of the heartache and humanity that legendary artists wear on their sleeves.
Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill runs through June 4 in the Kreeger Theater at Arena Stage, 1101 Sixth Street SW, Washington D.C. (202) 488-3300
© Copyright 2006 SeeingBlack.com
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