[Dixielandjazz] "Yesterdays: An Evening with Billie Holiday" reviewed

[Robert Ringwald]

"Yesterdays: An Evening with Billie Holiday" reviewed

Rubin Shines in 'Holiday' Musical-Drama
by Kevin C. Johnson
St. Louis Post-Dispatch, February 27, 2010

A small jazz trio in the late '50s takes to the stage in a New York club, plays a
little tune, then wonder where their tardy leading lady is. Clearly, they're sick
of her shenanigans, and voice their concerns among each other.
Stumbling in shortly afterward in a flowing white gown, looking at the band with
a "what are you looking at me like that for?" expression, is Billie Holiday. She
has a cocktail in hand as she kicks off a 1959 performance that would be her last.
Her goal: to remain on stage all night because she knows the minute she steps off
stage, the narcotics officers in the crowd will arrest her.
That's the set-up behind "Yesterdays: An Evening with Billie Holiday," the new musical
drama presented by the St. Louis Black Rep at the Grandel Theatre (not to be confused
with the more established "Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill" production). The
production opened with previews Wednesday, followed by the grand opening Friday.
Directed by Woodie King Jr. and written by Reenie Upchurch, "Yesterdays: An Evening
with Billie Holiday" stars jazz singer Vanessa Rubin as the iconic, influential,
yet substance-addled Holiday.
Rubin performs several of Holiday's best-known standards, opening with "Good Morning
Heartache," which she finishes with telling the audience the only time she feels
loved is when she's singing. "I hope I'm not fooling myself," she says.
This naturally leads into "Foolin' Myself" as "Yesterdays" mixes music such as "God
Bless the Child," "My Man," and "Strange Fruit" with revealing and reflective dialogue
Rubin's Holiday has with the audience, when she's not fussing with her band members.
She gets progressively tipsy throughout the set, but not so inebriated she can't
talk about the awful way she learned of her father's death, performing at venues
with racist policies, getting introduced to sex after getting tricked into a prostitution
house at the age of 10, and how heroin makes her feel so good.
At one point, her pianist Levi Barcourt tries to play music over her conversation,
only to have her ask what's his hurry.
She flirts with an audience member in the front row, leading into "Them There Eyes,"
says she wrote "God Bless the Child" for her mother, and says she sang "Good Morning
Heartache" for hours after her father's death and never stopped singing it.
At one point she storms off the stage after refusing to do a particular number, only
to return more tipsy and with a curious red stain on one of her white gloves.
Rubin turns in a winning performance as Holiday, without at any point looking or
sounding like Holiday (if she were taller, she could visually and vocally pull off
late singer Phyllis Hyman quite uncannily). Rubin, an accomplished jazz vocalist
in her own right, is still doing Rubin here, but while telling Holiday's story. It's
a tricky mix, one fans will either appreciate, or not. We chose to appreciate it.
In addition to Barcourt, Rubin is accompanied by bassist David Jackson and drummer
Bernard Davis. Their lines are pancake-flat, but Davis steps from behind the drum
kit at one point to deliver the song that sent Holiday off the stage, and it's a
revelation.


--Bob Ringwald K6YBV
rsr at ringwald.com
Fulton Street Jazz Band
916/806-9551

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