Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill, Belvoir Street Theatre, State Theatre company of South Australia and Melbourne theatre company, Belvoir Street Theatre, 14 Sept-15 Oct (subsequently Melbourne Theatre company 19 Oct-2 Dec

 

Belvoir's production of this show introduces Zahra Newman as Billie Holiday with care - coming onstage in full light, the lights descend when she sings the first notes of "What a Little Moonlight Can Do", and she sings in silhouette. Vocally, the resemblance is uncanny, so when the lights come up, she IS Billie Holiday. And for the next hour and a half, she remains the living embodiment of Billie Holiday in one of her final performances, in a Philidelphia club 

The show features her singing 14 classic songs with a three-piece band and talking to the audience between songs, inevitably talking about her career, blighted by a traumatic upbringing, racist incidents while touring, and a fall into drug addiction and alcoholism. It's a gripping performance, something that could easily become awkward or banal like any other biomusical, but in Newman's hands it's thrilling, lively, emotionally intense and a powerful production. 

The role is a tour-de-force, but a highly challenging one. First, recapture one of the great voices of the 20th century. Then have the acting chops to tell her story, with only the occasional interruption or redirection from Kym Pulling's bandleader, in a style that suggests the emotional turmoil yet comes across with crystal-clear clarity. Newman is a thrilling presence on the high-wire, handling Lainie Robertson's challenging script with skill and power - seemingly loose and chaotic, but at the same time clear as a bell and insightful and making every emotion register. 

Kym Pulling's band is tight and sounds great throughout, and the combination of Alisa Peterson's beautiful set and Govin Ruben's lighting gives the event a great sense of period style - immersing us in the sense of time-traveling back to the late 50s in an intimate club environment (even down the lampshades hovering over the auditorium). It's a beautiful production that deserves to be widely seen.