Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill Reviews

Washington Post- Recommended

"...The production from Mosaic Theater’s artistic director, Reginald L. Douglas, achieves the intimacy if not the seediness of a divey nightclub, with particular help from Jesse Belsky’s lighting, which envelopes Billie in a moonlit glow or isolates her in a harsh spotlight. Seating is close enough to marvel at the handiwork of Mark Saltman (on bass) and Greg Holloway (on percussion), while music director William Knowles (playing the role of Billie’s latest pianist) periodically nudges her from reverie back into song."

DC Theater Arts- Highly Recommended

"...Roz White, who has performed in the Broadway national tours of TINA: The Tina Turner Musical and Dreamgirls, is making her first return to the Mosaic Theater Company since the pandemic, and it is especially worth experiencing in the stylish, immersive café-style jazz club setting. But it’s most worth it for White, who as others such as Audra McDonald have done on Broadway, is making this Holiday her own in a big, powerful way."

Washington City Paper- Recommended

"...As Holiday unravels before the audience’s eyes, she piles on story after story of triumph (seemingly scant in Robertson’s telling) and tribulation (an avalanche of addiction, sexual abuse, incarceration, and, most consistently, racial discrimination). If Robertson’s point is that everyone in Holliday’s life failed her, he makes it abundantly clear and difficult to disagree. It wasn’t only the lover who encouraged her to try heroin for the first time, or just the mother who pushed her toward sex work and abuse. It wasn’t even just the racists who humiliated her time after time who pushed her to the brink. Forget the United States, it was the World vs. Billie Holiday."

MD Theatre Guide- Highly Recommended

"...A strong opening production for their 10th Anniversary Season, Mosaic Theater Company’s “Lady Day at Emerson Bar and Grill” is essential viewing for any Billie Holiday fan. While the book by Lanie Robertson takes its time to rev up, you can bask in the music until the plot finds its footing. If you know her songs but not her story, prepare for a somber evening as Billie reveals a life marred by the legacy of slavery and racism, sexual abuse, addiction, and abusive relationships."

BroadwayWorld- Highly Recommended

"...The celebrated and now-iconic jazz vocalist and legend Billie Holiday is portrayed as a tormented “just holding on” survivor in playwright ’s play Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill. The audience is transported back to the feel of this classic bar and grill to the year 1959 where a tired-out “Lady Day” (Billie Holiday) looks back at her life and sings fifteen of her classic songs with three superb jazz accompanists backing her up. The nightclub ambience of Emerson’s Bar and Grill envelops the theater’s patrons as soon as they enter Mosaic Theater Company’s top-notch cabaret setting (scenic designer Nadir Bey’s atmospheric work includes a neon-lit sign, and a stage filled with warmth)."