ANDY DRACHENBERG: What about Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill drew you to this production and this character?
AUDRA MCDONALD: I wanted to be part of Lady Day because of the accuracy of Lanie Robertson’s description of Billie Holiday. The portrayal may not be easy to take in because of what she’s going through at the moment that this play takes place, but it’s based in a lot of the real truths about Billie Holiday. When I first started studying her I read the play and thought, Billie Holiday didn’t talk like that! Then I started to listen to all of the recordings and realized that she did speak “like that” and she did have a mouth like a sailor and she loved to tell stories. The more research I’ve done about her, the more I’ve found how true Lanie Robertson was in his portrayal of her in this beautiful play-especially in the relationship she had with her musicians: how much they take care of her, admire her and support her.
AD: What is it to encompass Billie Holiday, who is such an iconic character and person in history?
AM: In some ways, to portray such an iconic person in history is difficult and, in some ways, it’s also kind of easy. There is so much documented history of Billie: all of her incredible song recordings, wonderful footage of interviews with her and videos of her rehearsals. That’s fascinating and that makes it easier because there’s a lot of material to work with. What’s difficult is that Billie was such a singular person that she’s very challenging to imitate. What I’m finding is that I have to embrace her essence as opposed to trying to absolutely impersonate her and have a rock solid imitation. What is more important is the soul of who she was.
AD: In your research and character study, what else did you discover about her?
AM: I’ve spoken to people who are still alive from her day that knew her intimately, so I’ve gotten a lot of wonderful stories from them. As horrible as a lot of her life was and as rough as her beginning was, she never portrayed herself as a victim. She was a survivor. She was never one to pity herself. There’s incredible strength from that and I derive strength from that. She was also a pioneer as one of the first famous people bucking the trend as far as race relations were concerned. She would work with a performer if they were a great performer, it didn’t matter if they were white or black. She also broke down many barriers-she was the first black person to sing with Artie Shaw’s band. She was just a pioneer. Billie was a young girl, brought up in the rough streets of Baltimore in the early 30’s with a mom who was barely 16 years older than she was, with no money, endangered by prostitution and rape and all of these other things that happened to her. For her to have ascended to the heights that she did is no small miracle.
AD: Billie Holiday is considered inspirational to a lot of people. What about her is inspirational to you?
AM: Billie Holiday was such a singular artist in the way that she interpreted music. First of all she could never sing a song in the same way twice, and she couldn’t sing a song unless there was some emotional connection. If she didn’t feel a song or if it wasn’t in her, then she wouldn’t sing it. She’s an artist that absolutely connected on an emotional level with her material and that’s something that’s incredibly inspirational. I’ve even found that just working on her music and singing as Billie Holiday has influenced my own music as well. While singing I realize I have more time than I think or I can make the time as long as it’s emotionally connected to something. I’ve been able to slow down in a lyric so I can think about what the lyric is encompassing. That’s what a lot of artists- and singers especially- have been inspired by with her.
AD: Do you have a favorite song or songs that you love to sing from the show?
AM: My favorite song from the show is “What a Little Moonlight Can Do.” There is wonderful footage of her singing that song and you can see she’s having a fantastic time. There’s one particular video where her pianist is playing his butt off and she’s just completely enjoying it! My second favorite song is “Don’t Explain” because she wrote the song about her own relationship which is just heartbreaking to me.
AD: What do you hope audiences’ reactions will be after seeing Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill?
AM: I think they’re going to walk out learning a lot more about Billie Holiday than they thought they would. Maybe a lot of stuff they didn’t necessarily know or didn’t know in detail. Billie’s journey goes from the 1930’s all the way to the 1950’s and, as far as what was going on with race relations during that time, it’s remarkable to look back at everything that was going on. In the play she touches on a lot of that too. So I think there’s an historical journey as well as an emotional and personal journey. In addition to that there’s all of the wonderful music.