Bessie D. Smith (Photo by Skye Fontaine)
Reviewed by F. Kathleen Foley
The Space Pirates Theatre Collective at The Zebra Room
Through March 6
RECOMMENDED
Bessie D. Smith (Photo by Skye LaFontaine)
Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill, Lanie Robertson’s play about the legendary jazz songstress Billie Holiday, has become a popular offering in theaters both large and small since its 1986 debut, with Audra McDonald winning a Tony for Best Actress during its 2014 Broadway run.
The Space Pirates Theatre Collective, a promising new company with the stated intention of paying all performers a “living wage,” has chosen Lady Day as the first production of its inaugural season. The company has another challenging mandate, namely, focusing its work on site specific productions.
And you can’t get more site-specific than the Zebra Room, an intimate cabaret venue in East Hollywood’s historic Charlie Chaplin Studios that doubles as Emerson’s Bar and Grill, the seedy South Philly bar where Holiday actually played just weeks before her death of cirrhosis at age 44.
Seen strung out on drugs and alcohol, Holiday has been reduced at this stage of her career to performing for small crowds in shabby clubs. (Sadly, there’s an online account of her performing to an audience of only seven, particularly poignant considering that she once sold out such venues as Carnegie Hall.) Of course, her obvious onstage impairment has diminished her following — and her stardom.
Directed by Skye LaFontaine, Lady Day stars the ironically named Bessie D. Smith as Holiday — ironic because Holiday frequently references her bluesy predecessor in the show. Deftly backed by Alonso Malik Pirio as Holiday’s accompanist/boyfriend, Jimmy Powers, Smith delivers a solid, and at times inspired, turn. While her stuttering emotionalism at times renders lines and lyrics incomprehensible, the issue may be technical rather than artistic, specifically, due to her misuse of an onstage microphone.
Despite those drawbacks, Smith smolders, in a performance that not only captures the essence of her tragic and doomed character but also ably personifies Holiday’s distinctive vocal style.
The anecdotes she relates from Holiday’s life range from the humorous to the harrowing. Most pointed are those that underscore the racism she encountered throughout her career. She recalls one famous incident that occurred while she was touring in the South with Arte Shaw and his orchestra. In distress and requiring a restroom, she is callously informed that there are no “colored bathrooms” for women in the club, at which point she urinates on the floor—her singular “protest,” hilariously recounted.
On a more somber note, Holiday tells of her arrests and imprisonments, humiliating episodes that barred her from significant bookings. Her loving references to her first husband, who introduced her to heroin, tellingly demonstrate the soft heart and bad judgement that proved her undoing, while a brief and shockingly matter-of-fact reference to her childhood rape peels back yet another corner of her lifelong struggle.
In between drunken ramblings, Holiday sings beloved standards such as ‘God Bless the Child,’ ‘Aint Nobody’s Business,’ and of course the deathless ‘Strange Fruit,’ a savage number about the lynchings common during Holiday’s lifetime. Overcome with emotion after the song, Smith as Holiday rushes offstage, and a lengthy intermission ensues.
Therein lies one of the show’s main problems. Although Lady Day has occasionally been performed with an intermission, it is more commonly presented as a brisk one-act. Given that this show went up almost 40 minutes late, its extended intermission prolonged an already attenuated evening.
Of course, this was opening night, so grace needs to be extended to this novice company. Aside from a few missteps, Space Pirates’ freshman effort bodes well for future productions.
The Zebra Room at the Charlie Chaplin Studios, 5176 Santa Monica Bl., Ste. 102, E. Hollywood. Thurs.-Fri., 7 pm; Sat-Sun, 2 and 7 pm, thru March 6. https://spacepiratestheatrecollective.org/tickets/Running time: two hours and 40 minutes with an intermission
