Lady Day – Location, Tickets, Reviews
Starring Tony and Grammy Award-winner Dee Dee Bridgewater, Lady Day takes residence at Little Shubert Theatre in New York City.
Featuring 28 Billie Holiday standards, this musical recalls the Jazz singer’s last stop in her Europe Tour in London, 1954. The legendary star is consumed by alcohol and drugs, her life in a downward spiral.
The first act begins as Billie rehearses one last time before the concert. Nervous for the performance, Billie is caught up in memories of her difficult early life, when she struggled with despair and poverty. In the second act, she comes to the stage drunk but pulls herself together and gives the audience an improvisational and soulful show.
This musical is basically a concert by the talented Bridgewater and a lively group of musicians interspersed with scenes depicting stories from Holiday’s life. Unfortunately, the narrative is plain and the portrait of Holiday is flat. As TheaterMania noted “As far as concerts go, this show is top notch. It’s the “bio” part of this bio-musical where the show becomes muddled.” The New York Times was more harsh, “[W]hen Ms. Bridgewater stopped singing to deliver morsels of biographical information, awkwardly disguised as backstage chatter or onstage patter, I tended to wish she’d keep quiet, or, better yet, keep singing.” On one thing everyone agrees, the singing is excellent.
Recommended if . . .
- You’re a fan of Billie Holiday,
- You’re a fan of Dee Dee Bridgewater, and
- You’re looking for a beautiful concert of Holiday’s classics and not an affecting depiction of her life story.
LOCATION
Little Shubert Theatre
422 West 42nd Street
New York City
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RUNNING TIME
2 hours 15 minutes, one intermission
TICKETS
$47.00-$137.00 (Click here for tickets)
DATES
Open run
NEWS & REVIEWS
Reviews
New York Times
Good Evening, Heartache, Sit Down
TheaterMania
Dee Dee Bridgewater shines in this Billie Holiday bio-musical that doesn’t seem to know what it wants to be.
TimeOut New York
Dee Dee Bridgewater has meaty jazz chops and adeptly delivers more than two dozen brief selections from Holiday’s songbook; but she can’t save the rest of Stahl’s play from its morass of melodrama, exposition and lazy misinformation.
New York Post
Bridgewater carries clunky Billie Holiday biomusical
Huffinton Post
It may feel thematically sparse, but it is a moving tribute to Holiday’s magic and allure.
Theater Pizzazz
[There are] problems with Stephen Stahl’s script (he also directs), which tend to trivialize the production, making it feel too orchestrated.
News
JazzTimes
Dee Dee and Billie (Bridgewater and Holiday): Two Of A Kind
CAST & CREW
(partial list)
Written and directed by Stephen Stahl
Featuring Dee Dee Bridgewater, David Ayers, Rafael Poueriet, James Cammack, Jerome Jennings, Neil Johnson, Bill Jolly