Lady Day Stuns at Emerson's Bar & Grill

Biopics can be a tricky thing. 

Photo by Dan Norman

I always feel for actors who have to portray famous figures, especially those alive during the last 100 years or so since the film industry exploded and we have real-life video footage to refer back to. Fans can be very jealous guards of their heroes' memories, and few things are tougher than fudging the portrayal of a beloved person (read: Zoe Saldana's epic flop as Nina Simone). Thankfully Thomasina Petrus, currently starring as Billie Holiday in Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill on stage at the Jungle Theater, will never have to worry about this. She gives a raw, stunning performance with a pitch-perfect voice that will leave you with chills from the moment she struts on stage.

The show feels much more like an intimate live album session than a play, which sets it apart from other biographical art I've seen and is a format I really enjoyed. Rather than flipping through the "greatest hits" vignettes of someone's life, Lady Day allows us to learn of Billie's life through her own eyes and especially voice; short monologues describing key memories are interspersed between performances of her songs with a live band to accompany. The show is divided as a real performance would be between an intermission, and just as we are allowed a window into Billie's mind through her narration, we are allowed a window into her physical reality through a sheer curtain to a backroom stocked with her most notorious vices.

Due to this structure, Lady Day is essentially a one-woman show, and it could never work without a Grade A++ performer. Audra McDonald famously played this role (and swept nearly every imaginable award for doing it) in 2014, meaning anyone else coming up has huge shoes to fill. Enter: Thomasina Petrus. Long a local #tctheater legend, Petrus lands a powerhouse impression of Billie Holiday's voice that is spot-on; seriously, close your eyes and you'll struggle to remember you're in a theater in 2018, rather than a 1954 night club.

I don't have enough superlatives to lavish Petrus with, but let me just leave you with this: her performance is dazzling, moving, and wholly satisfying. Go see her. Fill every seat, for every performance. She is worthy of all and any attention, and you will not be disappointed with her efforts. 

Petrus is supported by a crack team of musicians, beginning with Thomas A. West as her band leader Jimmy Powers. West has a charming demeanor that quietly but expertly guides the band before and after she performs, and he's a perfect choice for this role. Ron Evaniuk provides a strong musical foundation on his acoustic bass. Dale Alexander did an excellent job filling in last minute for Kevin Washington on the trap set, seamlessly meshing into the band. The sound design overall (by Sean Healey) is perfect; intimate yet impressive, distinctive yet blended, and nothing gets lost or overpowering in the Jungle's cozy space.

The set is static and warm, showing the shabby chic interior of Philadelphia's Emerson's Bar & Grill. Set designer Joel Sass paid detailed attention to every inch, down to the well-worn patina on the walls, flaking ceiling tiles, dim lighting and strategically placed chips and dents on every wall and stick of furniture. The appearance feels effortless, allowing us to focus fully on the glittering diamante costumes (designed by Trevor Bowen) that shine with the same brilliance as Billie's voice. There are very few props as provided by John Novak, but they are strategic; we don't need much to instantly understand where Billie is at, both mentally and physically. The soft lighting design by Michael Wangen adds a last sheen to the performance, perfectly poising us as audience members in a dark club waiting for our star to appear.

I want to return briefly to the importance of honest portrayals in biopics, because I think it can be undervalued. The reason Zoe Saldana's portrayal of Nina Simone in Nina was such an epic fail wasn't simply based on the acting itself or physical idiosyncrasies between her character and the real thing; it was also in the perspective with which it was written. Nina, like many biopics, glorified in the darker, sadder parts of Nina's life while ignoring the overall whole. This was done under the pretense of being "honest" or "true" - but how could that be the case if it never even mentioned the good Nina Simone did, her prodigious talents, or the ways she moved the cultural conversation?

The success of Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill is that it avoids the trap of trauma porn. It's still honest - make no mistake, this is a Billie who still indulges her vices - but it does a beautiful job of explaining why they existed in the first place. Billie Holiday was a black woman living in America during the throes of Jim Crow; she certainly faced more than her share of horrific realities, and she dealt with them in the most successful way she knew how to. Petrus infuses honesty into every second of her performance, never cheapening or sensationalizing the real events of Lady Day's life, and it makes us feel like valuable friends, not cheap gossipers, to participate in her true confessions.

It's been a while since I had the pleasure of visiting the Jungle Theater, and what a time to come back. Director Marion McClinton has given us a lyrical, taut, glorious homage to the music of yesteryear that keeps its feet squarely grounded in believability. It's honest but respectful, featuring a very special performance from Thomasina Petrus that will move any fan. Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill is a truly special show, and I sure hope it has a run as fabulous as Billie Holiday herself. Check it out at the Jungle Theater before it closes on June 24; for more information or to buy tickets, click on this link.

A Prescient Enemy of the People

It's amazing how some themes endure. 

Photo by Dan Norman

Something about the human condition seems to render us unable to answer one simple question - why don't we ever learn? A lust for power, flawed focus on short-term gains rather than long-term consequences, the allure of quick money - these themes tend to rise up over and over again under various guises.

Photo by Dan Norman

An Enemy of the People, originally penned by Henrik Ibsen but given a strikingly modern bend in a new adaptation by Brad Birch, takes a fresh approach to tackling such questions in the Guthrie's latest play. The play is concerned with a remote Norwegian town that has recently suffered an economic downturn. As the mayor, Peter Stockmann promises economic relief in the form of a shiny new resort, which explodes with success, drawing in many tourists and creating plenty of new jobs and income for citizens who desperately need it. Everything seems fine, until Tom Stockmann, the director of the resort who is also the mayor's brother, learns that the resort's water has been poisoned due to shortcuts taken during the its construction. Tom tries everything to report the issue and preserve public health, but is met at every turn with new obstacles that block his path - from Peter burying the knowledge to the resort's board commissioning false studies to discredit Tom's science to the newspaper refusing to run stories about the poisoned water.

Photo by Dan Norman

As Tom explores every possible opportunity to present the news, he conflicts with everyone - his wife Kate and daughter Petra; his wife's brother Morten; the newspaper editor Aslaksen; even his theoretical and ideological comrades, resident writer Billing and journalist Hovstad, are unable to stand with Tom by the end. Several pointed political monologues question Tom's motivation and flip the script; it's noble for him to want to save this one resort and one town, but what about his larger culpability for crimes committed by the first world country he lives in? Is he as concerned about the death by wars propagated by his tax dollars and global environmental poisonings from his consumer consumption? The resort is a pet project, but is it worth such a sacrifice from Tom? An Enemy of the People poses many interesting and important questions in our increasingly globalized world, and it's amazing how contemporary it all felt.

Photo by Dan Norman

Like many (accurate) stereotypes of Scandinavian art, An Enemy of the People is a quiet, dark piece, with the most meaningful moments created in the pregnant pauses created as the characters claw their way to some sort of truth. The cast deftly upholds this somber tone, beginning with Billy Carter as Tom Stockmann. Carter brings energy to his performance but without heat, and his tone grows appropriately colder as the plot thickens. Sarah Agnew gracefully foils Carter as Tom's wife Kate, with an elegantly cool demeanor that instantly recalled Robin Wright's delicious Clare Underwood. Christian Bardin was striking as Tom's daughter Petra, leaving a messy performance that had the most hope and life of all the characters on stage. Ricardo Chavira is sneaky as the mayor Peter Stockmann, and makes his villain more complex than at first meets the eye. Mo Perry is steadfast as Hovstad, providing a moral compass that puts her boss Aslaksen (played with gravitas by J.C. Cutler) to shame. And Zachary Fine brings a Lannister - Game of Thrones evil vibe to his role as Morten, leaving Zarif Kabier to provide the occasional positive relief as the writer Billing.

Photo by Dan Norman

The scenic design by Merle Hensel is sleek and spare, but always interesting. The stage is constructed on a roundabout; as each scene plays, an opaque black scrim drops to segment the stage, allowing the crew to put a totally new set in place that turns into view as the scene transitions and the stage rotates. It's hard to describe but a really efficient, austere but clean effect, and I found myself consistently engaged in enjoying the spare but polished aesthetic. Costumes (by Brenda Abbandandolo) are similarly sparse but plush, with obvious quality that gleamed even near the back of the house. The lighting design by Jane Cox and music and sound design by Brochen Chord seamlessly integrate with the set in motion and keep the audience fully engaged. I really enjoyed how thoughtfully this quiet vision was composed, and the efficiency with which it led the play - the whole thing is over in barely an hour and a half, and it keeps the long pauses and silent monologues from feeling too dreary.

Photo by Dan Norman

I really was surprised by how modern An Enemy of the People felt, and how resonant some of the pointed monologues were. Regardless of your political views, I think right now that most of us are really examining the role of the government and the people, the interplay between responsibility and contemporary practical realities, and the limits of power and conscience. What is the appropriate cost for doing the right thing? Should you lose your family, your career, your life? Are people better off left in blissful ignorance or awakened to painful truths? Who gets to decide what you deserve to know? Is there anything we can do to rein in the outsized influence multinational corporations have over our everyday decisions and needs?

Photo by Dan Norman

All of these questions, and more, are raised in An Enemy of the People, and you will leave without any easy answers. This old script still has as lot to tell us, and this beautifully adapted version will have something to say to audiences of any stripe. I know that I'll be chewing on some of these ideas for some time; if you want to engage with art containing a little more gravitas than we've seen of late, this is a good choice for you. An Enemy of the People runs at the Guthrie Theater through June 3; for more information or to buy tickets, click on this link.

This Bitter Earth is Honestly Bittersweet

It begins and ends with a bang. 

Photo by Allen Weeks

A broken bottle, a crumpled body, a shattered heart.

Photo by Allen Weeks

These events are the bookends of This Bitter Earth, a terrific new play by local playwright Harrison David Rivers that is currently showing at the Penumbra Theatre. A clear, modern, emotional, piece, This Bitter Earth tells the story of interracial queer love amidst all of the turmoil of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement. It's a nuanced, painfully beautiful exploration of what it means to love outside the box these days, another gem in a string of lovely plays about interracial relationships gracing stages lately, and I couldn't love it more.

Photo by Allen Weeks

This Bitter Earth is hard to summarize because, as one character says in a eulogy at the end, there's *just so much.* The play jumps around between different vignettes at various points in time in the relationship between Jesse Howard and Neil Finley-Darden. Jesse is a black writer who is finishing his thesis in New York City and later becomes a writing teacher in Minnesota; Neil is a wealthy white man from New York City who becomes heavily involved in activism through BLM as his relationship with Jesse evolves. The two men have different life goals and priorities, and their relationship is never easy; but their ardent, consistent love for one another sustains them despite the fearsome obstacles to their love. Faced with everything from disapproving stares to verbal assaults to the final attack that takes Neil's life, Jesse and Neil find a way to celebrate life's most important things - beauty, love, equality, peace - and their example is a testament to us all.

Photo by Allen Weeks

There are only two actors to carry this show, and they are perfectly cast. Kevin Fanshaw plays Neil with a nuance that gives the character the full emotional breadth he deserves, and I was so impressed with his performance. It can be hard to talk about the personal experience of being a white ally in a way that respectfully does not eclipse or erase the experiences of people of color in the movement. Fanshaw's many monologues and asides on this subject beautifully capture this difficulty without cheapening his message, and I think they really nailed this issue. Jon-Michael Reese is simultaneously complex and layered as Jesse. His role equally explores diversity in racial advocacy - not all black people agree with or are involved in BLM, and they certainly don't need to be admonished on the experience of living as people of color under American racism. Reese's deft navigation of this conversation, which is subtle and hard and vital, completes a complex picture of this relationship. Above all, Fanshaw and Reese share a tenacious chemistry that is the cornerstone of all long-lived interracial relationships: if you can't have each other's backs even at home, how can you ever survive outside your private walls? Both of these actors are fairly new-to-me and I was floored by their impactful performances. There's a lot for anyone to learn here, and I thoroughly appreciate their refined acting.

Photo by Allen Weeks

The set designed by Maruti Evans is clean, modern and comfortable. It's a spot-on background for the difficult conversations taking place on stage, and is one of my favorite I've seen at the Penumbra. The costumes by Sarah Bahr are simple, believable, and changed with lightning speed as we quickly pass through different times and locations. The lighting is warm and elegant, and I loved the way lighting designer Marcus Dillard, projections designer Kathy Maxwell and sound designer Kevin Springer worked together to create instant ambiance no matter where the action is taking place. The projections were actually one of my favorite elements; often they can feel lazy to me, as a way to uncreatively replace sets, but these projections really enhance the significance of what the characters are saying (particularly a beautiful set of quotes by various black luminaries) and instantly set the location, saving time to focus on the plot itself. Overall, I think director Talvin Wilks really nailed the vision for this play; it's cohesive, modern and impactful without feeling overwrought.

Photo by Allen Weeks

I wrote more extensively of my experience in an interracial relationship in my review of Wedding Band (also at the Penumbra) last fall, and I don't want to repeat those thoughts here. There are extremely important differences and challenges faced by same-sex couples in interracial relationships, and I appreciated how fully This Bitter Earth explored them. My favorite element of this show, however, was its firm footing in modern life. The Loving vs. Virginia decision is only 50 years old this year, and the threats to interracial (and especially interracial same-sex couples) are very, very real even (or perhaps especially) in #liberal states like Minnesota. These threats have always been visible and challenging to those of us living through them, but I have to say that something even darker seems to have publicly raised its head amidst the political tumult of the last few years. If we want to create safer, more inclusive communities, it is vital that we address these threats and prejudices head on. This Bitter Earth beautifully encapsulates the hard conversations and experiences all interracial couples are having these days. It is heartbreakingly painful to watch but it is also searingly honest, and I really appreciate Harrison David Rivers' unflinching approach and willingness to invite everyone in to help them truly understand how much this problem matters.

Photo by Allen Weeks

As I've mentioned before, this has been an absolutely dynamite year so far in the #tctheater community. It's hard to feel like I'm raving about everything I see, but honestly there have been so many truly excellent shows gracing our stages! I'm happy to say that This Bitter Earth is yet another gem in this collection. The fact that it's written by a local playwright, features bright young stars, and tackles increasingly pressing social concerns with a deft hand is just icing on the cake. The Penumbra is having a dynamite season, and I encourage you to head to Kent Street to check out their work. Artistic Director Sarah Bellamy is so thoughtfully programming around hard conversations we all need to be having and experiences that are often left ignored, and I'm sure you'll find something to love in her choices. I encourage you to visit This Bitter Earth before it closes on May 20; click here for more information or to buy tickets. Please also reference their excellent study guide to the show and issues surrounding it by checking out their well-researched feature - click here.

Photo by Allen Weeks

And seriously, the Penumbra is killing it! Here are my thoughts on the shows I've seen from them so far the past couple years - all have been truly excellent.

• The Wiz (in conjunction with the Children's Theatre Company)
• Wedding Band
• Girl Shakes Loose
• Jitney