Review: River & Rail Theatre Company – ‘Lady Day At Emerson’s Bar and Grill

It’s 1959 and the legendary jazz singer Billie Holiday is performing at a small, seedy bar in South Philadelphia called Emerson’s Bar and Grill. That is the basis for Lanie Robertson’s Lady Day At Emerson’s Bar & Grill, a play with music that opened last weekend at River & Rail Theatre Company. The play is structured around more than a dozen songs from Holiday’s repertoire, but effectively takes the audience on a autobiographical journey through the singer’s life, loves, and memories that has stops in alcoholism, heroin addiction, and her own experience of being black in 1950s America. 

Of course, Holiday’s voice was a unique instrument, its lithe timbre burnished by sadness, alcohol, heroin, and smoky clubs. Making a complete success in the role of Holiday is Shinnerrie Jackson, currently a member of the University of Tennessee Theatre faculty and a company member of the Clarence Brown Theatre. CBT theatre-goers will recognize her from a variety of major roles including Aunt Hannah in Knoxville, Wiletta Mayer in Trouble in Mind, and Siobhan in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. With this portrayal, we see an amazing multi-faceted performer in Jackson, one that can not only peel away the fraying layers of a torn and tortured personality, but also confidently and skillfully approach and do beautiful justice to the musical side of that personality. As evidence of Jackson’s ability, the actress pulls no punches with Holiday’s sad story, but miraculously manages to tactfully soften what is an undeniable descent into her coming demise.

Directed by Drew Drake and designed by Christopher Pickart, Lady Day At Emerson’s Bar & Grill spends little time on the actual setting, with just enough  suggestion of a seedy bar in a city Holiday grew to hate. It was in Philadelphia that she had experienced legal trouble for drug possession that led to prison and losing her necessary New York City cabaret card. Robertson’s bar setting includes pianist Jimmy Powers (the impressive Shawn Turner) and Emerson himself (Donte Tolson) tending bar. In the band were David Bivens on guitar and David Slack alternating with David Kline on bass.

The song list includes a range of Holiday’s tunes, some familiar, some delightfully new to this listener: “God Bless the Child,” What a Little Moonlight Can do,” and, of course, “Strange Fruit.” When not in song, her monologue is an ebb and flow history lesson of her life, including the discrimination that touring black artists faced, her failed relationships with manipulative and abusive men, and the almost unbelievable racism she faced while singing for bandleader Artie Shaw.

Maintaining Holiday’s story and music as Jackson and Turner have done for an unrelenting 90 minutes was no small task. Those familiar with Billie Holiday’s performance legacy should race to River & Rail for a ticket. Those unfamiliar with Lady Day, if any, should definitely give this beautiful and intimate work a try.