TIL 7 July 2017
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low spots. Thus, between such songs as<br />
What A Little Moonlight Can Do, God<br />
Bless the Child, T’aint Nobody’s<br />
Business If I Do, When A Woman Loves<br />
a Man, Gimme a Pigfoot and a Bottle of<br />
Beer (her tribute to Bessie Smith) and<br />
the chilling Strange Fruit, Holiday<br />
intersperses autobiographical tit-bits<br />
such as her uneasy relationship with her<br />
mother, her tortured affairs with<br />
unsuitable men, (she was raped at the<br />
age of 10) and a racist incident, both<br />
embarrassing and humorous, that<br />
occurred while touring the South with<br />
bandleader Artie Shaw.<br />
If, however, contemporary accounts of<br />
Billie Holiday’s club appearances are<br />
accurate, confessionals were never part<br />
of her act. On the contrary: she focused<br />
exclusively on her singing and avoided<br />
eye-contact with the customers.<br />
But who cares? Robertson has found a<br />
way of applique-ing the essence of a life<br />
onto the music and it gives McDonald –<br />
assisted by her musical director and<br />
pianist Shelton Becton, drummer Frankie<br />
Tontoh and bassist Neville Malcolm – a<br />
stunning opportunity to show why she has<br />
won six Tony Awards (including one for<br />
Lady Day...).<br />
A trained opera singer with a lush upper<br />
register and creamy middle-range,<br />
McDonald here sacrifices her natural vocal<br />
pyrotechnics in favour of Holiday’s fragile,<br />
even raspy, consonant-shy delivery. Her<br />
acting is as good as her singing and she<br />
brilliantly conveys Holiday’s distinctive<br />
sound without recourse to bland<br />
impersonation. Nor does it matter that four<br />
months before her death her croaky voice<br />
wouldn’t have sounded even a quarter as<br />
good as it does here.<br />
The show is moodily directed by<br />
Lonny Price who gives dramatic shape<br />
to an act in virtual free-fall; while<br />
Christopher Oram’s cabaret-room set<br />
adds verisimilitude by having members<br />
of the audience sitting at tables in both<br />
the front stalls and on-stage. Just don’t<br />
let the contemporary clothes distract<br />
you.<br />
CLIVE HIRSCHHORN<br />
Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill – a stunning opportunity to show why Audra<br />
McDonald has won six Tony Awards.<br />
11<br />
t h i s i s l o n d o n m a g a z i n e • t h i s i s l o n d o n o n l i n e
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