Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill
New Canon Theatre Co., newcanontheatre.com
Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill was part of the New Canon Theatre Co.’s busy and remarkable 2024 season. With local actress Malinda DeRouen as Billie Holiday and local pianist John Wineglass as musician Jimmy Powers, it moved the audience to tears. The play, written by Lanie Robertson, depicts some tragic events in the life of Holiday. It premiered in 1986 at the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta and soon played off-Broadway. The play opened on Broadway in 2014 and in London’s West End in 2017, and then came to in Carmel in 2024 with a unique set at Sunset Center, immersing the audience in the seedy bar Emerson’s Bar & Grill in Philadelphia in 1959.
