Mosaic kicks off 10th anniversary with ‘Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill’
‘Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill’Sept. 5-Oct. 6Mosaic Theater Company1333 H St., N.E. $50–$80mosaictheater.org Throughout a big career, jazz icon Billie Holiday experienced tremendous highs and lows.
Unapologetically herself and openly bisexual, she made her mark with songs like the very popular “Lover Man (Oh, Where Can You Be?)” and successfully stepped into social activism with her performances and recording of “Strange Fruit,” a searing protest anthem inspired by the photograph of a lynching.
On the downside, she was dogged by addiction and fell prey to users of various stripes (more often than not male), but fans and music experts agree that it’s these less-than-sanguine life experiences that helped to shape the emotional content of her inimitable take on the blues.
Currently Mosaic Theater Company is kicking off its 10th anniversary season with Lanie Robertson’s “Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill,” a play with music set in a seedy Philadelphia night spot where Holiday gave one of her last performances just months before dying from heart disease at just 44 in 1959.
