Opening August 19 and running through September 3, fresh from a Tony Award-winning revival on Broadway, Dorset Theatre Festival presents award-winning playwright Lanie Robertson's vivid look into the life and times of jazz great Billie Holiday, Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill.
The time is 1959. The place is a seedy bar in South Philadelphia. The audience is about to witness one of Billie's last performances, given four months before her death. More than a dozen musical numbers ? including her signature tunes, "What a Little Moonlight Can Do", "God Bless the Child", "Strange Fruit" and others ? are interlaced with salty, often humorous, reminiscences, revealing a riveting portrait of the lady and her music. Dorset Theatre Festival's production will be helmed by Artistic Director Dina Janis, who commented, "Billie Holiday is one of my heroes. Her life was in many ways - a truly tragic American story. She paid a heavy price for the kind of racism which was endemic then, but she never stopped fighting. Her struggles did not define her though- her music did. She was a stunning singer who's phrasing and style transformed the jazz world, musicians adored her- and she was also one of jazz's most important composers. This play allows us a penetrating look into her life as we listen to the profound legacy of her artistry- her music itself."
Marinda Anderson and Kenney Green
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