Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill

Revisit the Night of Billie Holiday’s Final Concert in Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill

Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill, a play with music by Lanie Robertson, takes place in South Philadelphia in March 1959. Billie Holiday is performing in a run-down bar, during one of her last performances four months before her death in July 1959. She sings, accompanied by Jimmy Powers on the piano, and also tells stories about her life.

Musical numbers, performed by Anya Nebel and a live combo, include:

• “I Wonder Where Our Love Has Gone” (music by Buddy Johnson; lyrics by Buddy Johnson)
• “When a Woman Loves a Man” (music by Bernie Hanighen and Gordon Jenkins; lyrics by Johnny Mercer)
• “Crazy He Calls Me” (music by Carl Sigman; lyrics by Bob Russell)
• “Gimme a Pigfoot (And a Bottle of Beer)”, (music by Wesley Wilson; lyrics by Wesley Wilson)
• “God Bless the Child” (music by Billie Holiday and Arthur Herzog, Jr.; lyrics by Billie Holiday and Arthur Herzog, Jr.)
• Strange Fruit” (music by Abel Meeropol; lyrics by Abel Meeropol)
• T’ain’t Nobody’s Business If I Do” (music by Porter Grainger and Everett Robbins; lyrics by Porter Grainger and Everett Robbins)
• “What a Little Moonlight Can Do” (Reprise) (music by Harry Woods; lyrics by Harry Woods)
• “Deep Song” (music by George Cory and Douglass Cross; lyrics by George Cory, Douglass Cross)

Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill
Play by Lanie Robertson
Directed by Tom Flatt