Lady Day sings a tricky tune for Mosaic Theater Company

To listen to Billie Vacation is to find yourself in an emotional limbo. Greatest hits or deep cuts, it doesn’t matter, even a cursory listen will leave you feeling like you’re floating between the ecstasy of her unmistakable sound and the sheer devastation of the story she weaves.

That same tension extends, for better or worse, to Lanie Robertson‘s bio-drama, Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grilldirected by Reginald L. Douglas in a co-production of Mosaic Theater Company and Washington Performing Arts.

In Robertson’s play, the audience hears Holiday’s voice for the first time (performed and performed by Pink White) is not into singing, but into screaming. She refuses to go onstage, but eventually emerges after some coaxing from the audience and her band. She needs the money and has signed a contract, so she reluctantly returns to Emerson’s Bar and Grill in Philadelphia for another night of singing for her dinner. And for the next 90 minutes, Holiday belts out her contractually obligated greatest hits and drinks herself into one of the stupors that would eventually contribute to her untimely death at age 44 in 1959.

While Holiday’s struggle with addiction is well known, aided in part by films like 1972’s The Last Man, Lady sings the blues and 2021’s The United States vs. Billie HolidayRobertson’s playing is a clear ticking time bomb for disaster in real time. It’s clear from the opening moments that we’re headed somewhere bad—and fast—as the band plays on.

As Holiday unfolds before the audience, she piles on one story after another of triumph (which Robertson seemingly finds scarce) and trial (an avalanche of addiction, sexual abuse, incarceration, and, most consistently, racial discrimination). If Robertson’s point is that everyone in Holliday’s life has failed her, he makes that abundantly clear and hard to deny. It wasn’t just the lover who encouraged her to try heroin for the first time, or the mother who pushed her toward sex work and abuse. It wasn’t even just now the racists who humiliated her over and over again and pushed her to her limits. Forget the United Statesit was the World versus Billie Holiday.

But as if he were singing that old familiar song, Robertson cuts through the devastation with ecstasy, interspersing uptempo bops like “What a Little Moonlight Can Do” and familiar Holiday hits like “Strange Fruit” and “God Bless the Child” between the stories. The crowd’s mood lightens noticeably when the music starts, and therein lies some tension that Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill can’t quite get over it.

Even in death, Holiday still sings to her supper, which begs the question of whether modern audiences are still complicit in her downfall by remembering her in this way. Are we entitled to Holiday’s struggles and songs for our entertainment?

In stories of great adversity, audiences often seek solace in final heroic deeds or victories. But in the case of historical fiction based on a true story, editorial strings can only go so far. We know that Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill finds her in a valley of her life. We know Holiday would soon succumb to the wounds of her addiction. We know that not every story has a happy ending. But as we watch Holiday fall apart again and again, are we honoring a legend or perpetuating her exploitation?

As Holiday, White seems to struggle with the dignity of honor and the humiliation of the role as it was written. Particularly in the copious swearing Holiday uses in her between-song chatter, White seems almost self-conscious about revealing the singer’s rawer side. She grows into the role as the play progresses, but uses each song to convey her clear admiration for Holiday, expanding into space in several exquisite musical performances. These are moments of love, and they make the heartbreak worth it. She rightly resists any urge to do what some might recognize as a “Billie Holiday impersonation,” instead developing a character in her own right at the intersection of her own artistic strengths and Robertson’s text.

She is supported by a suitable trio of musicians: Willem Knowles (on the keys as music director, and playing Holiday’s apologetic accompanist Jimmy Forces), Greg Holloway (drums), and Mark Zoutman (bass). The trio provides dutiful backup for White and has a chance to shine on a few instrumental numbers as Holiday storms offstage. As Holiday drifts off into a drunken stupor, however, the band seems oblivious, even as she hunches over and clutches the microphone for stability. Are they, too, an extended metaphor for the onstage and offstage henchmen who let Holiday deteriorate while extracting her talent? Or are they simply caught up in the music?

The high ceiling and wide width of the Atlas Performing Arts Center’s Sprenger Theatre challenge set designers Nadir Bey‘s best attempts at creating a cozy basement bar. The intimate play sometimes feels overwhelmed by the space, as the bench seating wraps around the perimeter of the room and floats a level above the tables at the side of the stage. But lighting designer Jesse BelskyThe atmospheric blue and pink tones contribute enormously to the cosiness, especially in combination with the yellow hanging lamps that hang everywhere in the room. Ian VespermannThe sound design is well-balanced and rightly puts White’s vocals front and center. Costume Designer Medium Kulemeka has White in a cream-colored dress with floral embellishments that match the signature gardenia she has in her hair (the wig design is by Larry Peterson). And as a director, Douglas manages to bring these elements together in an ultimately strong, straightforward production of a difficult play.

Halfway Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and GrillHoliday confesses that she recently heard a radio host call her “Lady Yesterday.” The gasps from the audience and the undeniable joy White put into every song made it abundantly clear that such a crude comment was neither fair nor true. Despite the struggles she’s endured, Holiday’s musical legacy continues unbroken. Today, tomorrow, and always.

Lady Day sings a tricky tune for Mosaic Theater Company

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