[Dixielandjazz] "The Billie Holiday Story" reviewed

[Robert Ringwald]

The Billie Holiday Story at Charing Cross Theatre, WC2
by Clive Davis
London Times, April 5, 2013
It is somewhat alarming to think that we are only two years away from celebrating
Billie Holiday's centenary. Can that really be true? A thoroughly modern singer,
she still reaches audiences who are more familiar with the messy personal stories
of Amy Winehouse or Janis Joplin.
More than 50 years after her death, Holiday's music finds its way into the record
collections of people who do not own any other jazz discs. You could argue that troubadour
Madeleine Peyroux (whose new album has just been released) has built an entire career
out of aping her careworn delivery. And Holiday's ghost will return to the off-Broadway
stage later this year when the superb singer and actress Dee Dee Bridgewater takes
the lead role in Stephen Stahl's musical, Lady Day. Could Nina Kristofferson's one-woman
show become a transatlantic rival? Probably not. Ben Woolf's atmospherically lit
production looks seductive enough -- you can easily imagine you have wandered into
a club somewhere on 52nd Street. But the script itself, which draws in part on the
cadences of Holiday's streetwise biography Lady Sings the Blues, is woefully short
of dramatic energy. Moreover, Kristofferson lacks Bridgewater's commanding, charismatic
stage presence. What you get instead is essentially a decent but overlong concert,
Kristofferson backed by a sure-footed quintet led by pianist and musical director
Allan Rogers. Her voice is richer and fuller than Holiday's, yet she still captures
the subtleties of the phrasing on songs such as A Fine Romance or All of Me (in Holiday's
hands even a breezy lyric could cast shadows).
The language is grittier than in the memoir, and we aren't spared the reality of
the heroin-user's needle. But the narrative tends to fall between two stools: anyone
new to the chronicle of addiction and abuse will probably be confused by the off-hand
references to the likes of impresario and critic John Hammond. And those in the know
will find it like going over very old ground.
-30-



-Bob Ringwald
www.ringwald.com
Amateur (ham) Radio Operator K6YBV
916/ 806-9551

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