Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill

Posted on by Thor

Wow. this production blew the white socks right off my feet. Desiree Montes stars as the venerable lady day at Theater West End (115 West 1st. Street Sanford Florida.

From the moment I entered the lobby I felt like I was in an intimate smoke filled night club.

I had seen this production once before but Desiree’s performance was the most visceral and vulnerable depictions of the singer I have witnessed. She was hesitant to start the performance but when she sang, she melted into the music. The piano player tried to keep he on the play list but she could not be boxed in. Her life was too large to follow a single line of thought.

Since this was a dress rehearsal, the audience was small but Lady Day often left the stage to mingle with the audience. Some joking interactions drew out audience members who shouted back and laughed with gusto. This was pure theater magic. During one song, a small dog could be heard howling off stage like he wanted to also sing. Later Lady Day brought he pup out to cuddle and share with the audience.

She talked of loss and the challenge of performing as a star in a racist country. When she began singing Strange Fruit, it clearly resonated with the horrors of her own life. What she most wanted from life was a home and a family she could call her own, but the life of a singer never allowed that dream to come to life.

Desiree is Lady Day. Performances are September 13 – 29, 2024. You do not want to miss this show.

Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill

Posted on by Thor


Pam and I went to see Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill in the Mandell Theater in the Orlando Shakes, (812 E Rollins Street, Orlando, FL 32803). We sat in the back row house right which was good for me since it meant no one was seated behind me who might be distracted by the glow of my iPad screen as I drew. I sketched as the audience filled in and it was a packed audience. Pam and I wore masks while the rest of the audience were mostly mask less.

In this powerful musical production, Billie Holiday sings her most famous songs and reminisces about the great triumphs and losses of her life. The time is 1959. The place is a seedy bar in Philadelphia. The audience is about to witness one of Billie’s last performances. With the help of her piano man, Jimmy Powers, she lets music tell her story, sharing soulful, heart-wrenching, and bawdy songs from her memorable canon including: “Strange Fruit,” “God Bless the Child,” “When a Woman Loves a Man,” and “T’Ain’t Nobody’s Business If I Do.”

The set felt like a smoke filled lounge. They actually used a smock machine to get a smokey effect to the lights. Some of the audience were in small tables surrounding the stage. They got the full lounge effect. The pianist was the first to arrive on stage, then the drummer and cello player took their spots.

When Lady Day arrived she was stumbling a bit and clearly had been drinking. She was in high spirits to start and regaled the audience with details of her life from the start. She talked more than she sang, but that was the point. Members of the audience murmured their support and surprise as she spoke. The lounge became like a sort of spiritual revival. Details of Lady Day’s life slipped out in her drunken stupor. When she sang however the earth stood still.

In one number the lighting was spot on to what I painted in the poster. Working on location I didn’t try and catch that momentary moment of lighting, I kept changing the lighting in the sketch until something worked right.

Lady Day continues to play at the Shakes through March 5, 2023. I highly recommend it. Masks are suggested but not required.

 

Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill: Poster Evolution

Posted on by Thor

This was my favorite painted version of the poster for the Orlando Shakespeare Center. Lady Day stood in a strong spotlight that broke her into an abstraction of lights and darks. Pinks and blues work together like bold puzzle pieces. The bottle on the table stands as erect and proud as the singer herself.

For the final poster however I needed to move in closer to the singer. Tymisha Harris was likely to be cast in the roll but that had not been established yet. I danced a line between making the singer look like Lady Day and Tymisha. I did like the chance to rework the microphone adding it metallic sheen.

Performances continue through March 5, 2023. I will be sketching a performance next week and I can’t wait.

Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill: Poster Evolution First Pass

Posted on by Thor

The first pass of the Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill poster featured the ban high up on a stage and Lady Day down on the floor at the audience level. The title treatment seemed to work right off the bat so I kept it in each variation of the poster design. I was playing with the idea of a very smoky lounge and how that might affect the lighting and even ghostly wisps of smoke rising from the floor.

My favorite detail is of the cello player and yet his cello is hidden behind the piano. The piano player himself is off screen. Even the hands of the drummer are not visible. Clearly I needed to make the musicians more visible and make the act of playing the instruments more clearly visible.

I liked the warm lighting, but wanted to incorporate more cool blues and purples into the painting. As a first pass I was mostly pleased that the title was working.