You walk into Belvoir and the theatre has been transformed. I know that happens every time but somehow, this is different. We are in Emerson’s Bar and Grill, a cabaret dive in South Philadelphia.

There are 9 tables for the patrons onstage. Then rising up a stage not unlike the piano top, all shiny with light edges reminiscent of the ivory keys. Beaded drapes of the period and filtered lights. Hanging throughout the theatre and into the house are lampshades. This bar has perhaps seen better days. There is what appears to be a bricked light window, reminding that this feels very much like a basement scene, alongside the Double Bass of Victor Rounds and the drum kit of Calvin Welch. Out front the 1950s radio mic on stand and a stool. On the keys the master Kym Purling, who banters with our Lady as Jimmy Powers. Lady Day, (who we know is  ‘really’ Billie Holiday), moves comfortably around the patrons sharing her tales not unlike the performers banter but the intimacy creeps beyond in the layered reveals of Billie’s heroes and hurters.

As Billie recalls we are ‘all my friends’ and yet we are, and we are not. So many times, she was playing for white folks in venues where the ‘coloured’ were never welcome. I knew enough of Billie Holiday’s life and times – or so I thought to ready myself for a rough ride. Yet, here inside her warm and at times cold embrace, it is so much to have become a witness to the shameful treatment of she who is legend. A singer without peer, whose songs she says are jazz, but for many of us Lady sings the Blues is more of the truth.

She reveals her life and times in a world of both memory and reflection and of course song. Her mum The Duchess, Bessie Smith, an idol. Then the partners, husbands, the white patrons ‘greys’ she calls them, and the snooty “matre-desse!” Well, she shows her! What a life. These revisits are very near the end. Billie died at only 44 years of age. A woman abused and abusing her body. 

Zahra Newman has an extraordinary talent and brings the power of the quintessential voice and power vocals of Billie Holiday – or Lady Day, sings…and every song we know, sounds with a new truth now we hear Billie sing it.

There is a content warning. There are  adult themes, coarse language, smoking of herbal cigarettes, references to sex, assault, racism, racial slurs and depiction of drug and alcohol use.

This evocative, Tony award winning play by Lanie Robertson,  is a  co-production between Belvoir Street Theatre, the Melbourne Theatre Company and the State Theatre Company  of South Australia.  LADY DAY is playing  upstairs at Belvoir Street until the 15th October 2023.

Running time 1 hour and 30 minutes without  interval.

CAST

Zahra Newman Billie Holiday

Elenoa Rokobaro Alternate Performer | Billie Holiday

Kym Purling Jimmy Powers

Victor Rounds Double Bass

Calvin Welch Drums

For select performances of the season, Elenoa Rokobaro will be playing the role of Billie Holiday.

CREATIVES

Writer Lanie Robertson

Musical Arranger Danny Holgate

Director Mitchell Butel

Associate Director Zahra Newman

Set and Costume Designer Ailsa Paterson

Lighting Designer Govin Ruben

Musical Director and Additional Arrangements Kym Purling

Sound Designer Andrew Howard

Voice and Dialogue Coach Geraldine Cook-Dafner

Stage Manager Bridget Samuel

Assistant Stage Manager Sean Proude

Production photography Matt Byrne