‘Lady Day’ at the Creative Cauldron

Mark Meadows and Iyona Blake in “Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill.” [Keith Waters/Kx Photography]

By David Seigel

“Don’t threaten me with love, baby. Let’s just go walking in the rain,” is a quote attributed to the late, and lost-too-soon singer Billie Holiday (1915-1959). Creative Cauldron’s production of “Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill” picks up from this quote to be one extraordinary, bewitching, helter-skelter walk in a chilled nighttime pouring rain. Little love in sight.

“Lady Day” led me to care about Billie Holiday as a person; not just as an astonishing singer. This Cauldron production shines a spotlight, though a harsh one, on Holiday as a human being, a Black Life that mattered, and an abused woman who lived before these #MeToo times.

And this production smashes through what has been a knock on the musical for a long time; that the book is too dark, the storyline too jagged, that viewers don’t want to go down such a rabbit hole of despair without a happy ending.

Starring Helen Hayes Award-recipient Iyona Blake, “Lady Day” gives the audience way more than a musical with fine singing; it offers an intimate glimpse into a life full of self-destruction from opiates and alcohol. With pure, affecting direction by Matt Conner, “Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill” is one tough, searing, unapologetic musical.

Written by Lanie Robertson, “Lady Day” is an account of the last days of Billie Holiday as she attempts to give one more go at performing in a small South Philly jazz club just before complications from a life full of misery and pain do her in. Blake inhales the Holiday persona, turning herself into Holiday as a living, breathing being. Over the course of an intermission-free 90 minutes, I watched Blake in an arc from a big-voiced, bright-eyed, full of fine humor chanteuse shrink before me, her voice becoming smaller, her memory fading.

With a selection of 16 songs and plenty of intimate storytelling, Blake does so much more than hauntingly sing Holiday’s signature songs, whether cute upbeat jazzy numbers like “Baby Doll” or “What a Little Moonlight Can Do” to those with a ragged, tired edge of despair, such as the anthems “Strange Fruit” and “God Bless the Child.”

Beyond Blake’s singing. she gives a truly stellar performance. She acts and speaks with authority, providing one of the most authentic, intimately wrought portrayals of someone hooked on the need for a fix to wipe out all the bad shit that had been done to her since she entered the world. With her voice inflected, her physical mannerism so well-suited to her Holiday portrayal, Blake is simply haunting whether singing or telling stories.

This production appears at the right time. With the current opiate crises striking rich and poor households alike, leading to a declining life expectancy among whites, Robertson’s book is no longer a story about “other” folk.

Yes, “Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill” should be seen for its truth-telling and its music. Yes, it is a show that is emotionally heavy and built around the fragility of human life. Yes, it could be a dive too deep for those coming for more than the singing and fine music.

For me, the production was exquisite in its raw revealing of the effects prejudice, bad men, and disastrous relationships can have.

So, let me end with these thoughts. Blake sings as if she were at a Sunday church service, singing her woes to the congregation. She wants some kind of salvation. Conner’s astute direction does not mince words or soften the message for the audience.

Together Blake and Conner bring these two quotes from Holiday to bold life; “I sing what I feel” and “I sing what grabs me.” Together they bring the inner workings of Holiday into fuller light.
“Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill” is an extraordinary production for the music and singing. But, there is so much more to it.

Where and when: “Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill” runs through March 4 at the Creative Cauldron, 410 S. Maple Ave., Falls Church. Shows are Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2 and 7 p.m. Purchase tickets online or at the door.

There’s a special performance on Feb. 25, 2 p.m., to benefit the Tinner Hill Heritage Foundation. Tickets are $50 and include a post-reception with the cast after the show.


This article is based on a review by David Siegel in DC Metro Theater Arts.