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Reviewed in the Modesto Bee, April 18, 2000:
Billie Holiday was stumbling through the dregs of a life filled with musical triumph and personal anguish when she played the small Philadelphia club that provides the backdrop for "Lady Day at the Emerson Bar and Grill." The biographical revue, a tour-de-force for singer-actress Michelle Allison, opened Friday at Stage 3.
The silken gloss of Holiday's voice had edged toward gravel by that time; the resiliency that sustained her through 44 years of living and more than 25 in the limelight had been shredded by heroin, liquor, a hard-knocks year in prison and a police- imposed ban that kept her from working in the small New York clubs that she loved.
She was just weeks from death, the ultimate price of her addictions.
Still, she could call on one source of sustenance and even joy: her music.
Even if it sometimes involved struggle, as happens in this 1986 show, Holiday could usually pull herself together behind a song. And even if the voice showed cracks and flats, the heart and instincts that made her the greatest of jazz singers could shine through her rage and bitterness.
Spanning that dramatic and musical range is a huge order for any performer. Allison, a veteran singer with little dramatic experience, covers it amazingly well.
A familiar face in valley and foothill musicals -- and a one-time nightclub performer, too -- she can rock walls when she lets go. Here, she tones down the volume while delivering a solid re-creation of the controlled passion that defined Holiday's expressiveness and style.
She glides through most of the show's 15 numbers and grates through the closing few, as Holiday sags under the weight of the evening's booze.
At the lighter end, the songs include the likes of "What a Little Moonlight Can Do" and "Them There Eyes."
On a more personal note, there are "God Bless the Child" and "Don't Explain."
And at the dark end, there is the song that transformed Holiday's career and, in the view of many, gave fierce and poignant voice to the struggle for human rights for African-Americans, "Strange Fruit."
Few singers will touch it; few deejays will play it. "Lady Day" gives it the context that makes it singable and listenable.
Barbara Segal-Mill directed, with obvious love for the subject, and craft in shaping Allison's performance.
Dennis Brown did the musical direction, supporting Allison and Holiday with sensitive accompaniment and using a couple of piano solos to reveal a virtuosic flair that has rarely, if ever, surfaced in his many stage appearances. He also contributes to the dramatic flow by injecting emotional support and skepticism that helps keep Holiday focused on entertaining.
Ron Madonia created a lovely cabaret setting that takes one major turn away from authenticity. It's clean and smoke-free. I doubt that Emerson's ever could have made that claim.
