Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill (TV Movie 2016)

Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar u0026 Grill: Directed by Lonny Price. With Audra McDonald, Shelton Becton, George Farmer, Clayton Craddock. It’s 1959 in a seedy bar in Philadelphia, and Billie Holiday is giving one of her last performances interlaced with salty, often humorous, reminiscences to project a riveting portrait of the lady and her music 4 months before her death.

“I fell in love with Billie Holiday in 1985 while researching her life for a project in 3rd Grade. Up to that point, I thought Billie Holidayu0026#39;s life was what I saw every year when they used to run u0026quot;Lady Sings The Bluesu0026quot; every year on TV. I donu0026#39;t even know that I had seen any real pictures of her (remember this was the Pre-Internet and the Card Catalog era). When you wanted to learn about somebody back then, you had to do RESEARCH in the library, so you didnu0026#39;t waste time…I found everything I could on her and my 8 year old brain absorbed her image from the pics and the sound of her voice from the records the library had in storage…From that day to this (some 35 years later) Lady remains for me the MOTHER of all improvising singers to come after her. I have never seen ANY documentary, any movie (especially that horribly inaccurate LSB), or any impersonation (save Marla Gibbsu0026#39; turn at Crazy He Calls me which is the ONLY other time I literally heard Lady come back to life through a singer) that did what this production has done! Kudos to the writers, producers, staff and especially to Audra and Mr. Becton who somehow transport the viewer into the lap of the late Great Billie Holiday. It isnu0026#39;t an impersonation show…itu0026#39;s borderline seance. It is PERFECT. And done with a great deal of respect and reverence for its subject even in the face of being unapologetically honest from every possible perspective of anyone involved in the story. If you (like me) were never blessed to see Lady onstage live…and I have searched unsuccessfully for live video footage of Lady in a club setting all my life…this is IT.”