This was a difficult play to put on – with students taking on multiple roles. Sarah McPeek in particular was quite strong, as was Daniel Fleischer.
Theatre
A Christmas Carol
Another fine production from Northern Stage. Even though we were on the far side – it didn’t matter – all the seats are good in that theater. This was an enjoyable rendition of the play with creepy ghosts and an appropriate Scrooge.
Leading Ladies
A welcome and enjoyable comedy from the Hanover High School “Students on Stage” group. This is a student-run group that selects, casts, and directs a play every year. This particular play involved mistaken identities that was capably handled by a strong cast. Sarah McPeek at Meg was particularly good – she was the “straight man” but she provided a solid anchor for the play throughout. The two male leads Jakub Bobrowicz and Matt Stebenne were very funny. Jakub had a great British accent, less so for Matt, but he made up for it with his physical comedy as a cross-dressing mute. Ross Patten as Duncan was also very funny, particularly his asides referring to the excesses of actors.
All in all a first rate production – very impressive.
Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill
This was a “bio” performance that channeled Billie Holiday. It was set up like a nightclub in a theater with tables and waiters for drinks. The cast was really just one person, Audra McDonald as Billie, backed up with piano, bass and drums. Audra really captured Billie’s voice and style, and she went through the great classics. Along with the songs were stories from Billie’s life, as if she was telling the nightclub audience.
The playbill had this from the writer, Lanie Robertson:
In 1959, a boyfriend of mine saw the great Billie Holiday in a little dive in North Philadelphia about three months before she died. He said she stumbled in obviously “quite high,” carrying her little Chihuahua Pepi, whom she introduced to her audience. A water glass was kept well filled with booze atop the piano for her. She and a piano player performed ten or 12 of her songs for an audience of seven patrons. Then, he said, she staggered out.
That image of the world’s greatest jazz singer being so undervalued at the end of her life and career was an image that always haunted me.
Writing Lady Day at Emersons’s Bar & Grill was an attempt to rid myself of that ghost.
And this