Lady at Emersons Capital City Theatre Madison Wi Review
Drummer Joey B. Banks, known as simply "Joey B." amid Madison musicians, has been playing and educational activity professionally for decades. He'south a promoter, a founder and music managing director of Black Star Drum Line, and music directs the Clyde Stubblefield All Stars at the High Noon Saloon.
But until recently, musical theater was a globe Banks had never explored. When the newly formed Capital letter Urban center Theatre approached him to play in the orchestra pit for "Violet" in 2015, Banks took the opportunity in part because information technology was a unique challenge.
"It was a musical experience I'd never had," said Banks, who opens a new show with Capital Metropolis on Fri. "I'g a good sight reader. I never go a chance to utilise that skill in that surroundings.
"The music wasn't all that challenging, but the dynamics of being in musical theater are much different. You're playing live, only it's a much different alive feel."
Those dynamic levels volition be an even greater challenge for Banks' electric current projection, prepare to be staged in a space where drums could overwhelm the room without half trying. Capital City's production of "Lady 24-hour interval at Emerson'south Bar and Grill," a bio-drama with music about jazz singer Billie Holiday, opens Friday and runs through April 8.
A modest company with big ambitions, Capital City staged "Violet" in the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Music Hall and "Gypsy" concluding June in the Wisconsin Union Theater's one,165-seat Shannon Hall. ("Violet" star Leigh Ann Larkin recently returned to Madison as Sally Bowles in the national bout of "Cabaret.")
This fourth dimension, though, artistic managing director Andrew Abrams wants to create a nightclub feel in Overture Center'southward Wisconsin Studio. Tucked up on the third floor, information technology seats about 100 people.
"The staging is going to be cardinal," Banks said. "They're going to take that Wisconsin Studio at Overture and plow it into a Philadelphia 1959 pub and grill.
"There'south going to be a greenbacks bar. Information technology's going to be fix cabaret style."
"Lady Twenty-four hour period" is a 1986 drama by Lanie Robertson that experienced a resurgence in popularity later Broadway diva Audra McDonald won her sixth Tony Award in 2014 for playing Billie Vacation. Nearby, Milwaukee Repertory Theatre opened this flavour with the play.
Tracey Conyer Lee starred in "Lady Twenty-four hour period at Emerson's Bar and Grille" at Wellfleet Harbor Actor'south Theatre in Wellfleet, Mass. in 2015. She'll reprise the office with Majuscule City Theatre through April 8.
"It was absurd to run across all the exposure that the play got," Banks said. "In 'Violet,' in that location were a lot of race related, ceremonious rights related concepts. It's but what was going on at that fourth dimension.
"This is very similar. She talks in her dialogue about how she was treated. She was abused equally a kid ... you could first to meet why she's a heroin addict and an alcoholic.
"She's suppressing a lot of bad things. Racism was role of that, sexism was office of that."
Tracey Conyer Lee, Upper-case letter City'southward Vacation, has played the role before in West Palm Beach and Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater in Massachusetts, both in 2015.
Sandy MacDonald, writing for the Boston Globe, wrote in her review of the latter show that "this 90-minute digest of Lady Day's travails places her on a comeback trail that'south clearly headed straight downhill. Her life story unfolds in a series of seemingly random reminiscences, untainted by self-compassion.
"Hers is a tale of unrelenting trauma, yet she expresses no regrets: 'You lot tin can simply get to where yous at by the mode of what you been.'"
Banks believes the story every bit much every bit the music will be a draw for people.
"Information technology is dark," she said. "It'due south an interesting dynamic. She's drunk and then she sings this beautiful song. She's talking to the crowd and slurring her words, spilling out her entire life."
"Lady Day" follows some other product that celebrated a jazz keen: Charlie Parker's "Yardbird" at Madison Opera. Told decades later, theatrical stories like these become part of the musicians' legacy.
"This is a evidence nigh the end of days for her, the last days," Banks said. "I think people will leave a lot more than knowledgeable of her, with much deeper respect. Some people might feel sorry for her."
For Banks, telling a story like this is "much more exact ... there'south no room for improvisation."
"I think the word's gonna leave well-nigh this," Banks said. "The jazz community is going to come out and back up it."
Source: https://captimes.com/entertainment/arts_and_theatre/theatre/drummer-joey-b-takes-on-a-new-challenge-with-lady-day-at-emersons-bar-and/article_21d3fe1b-ee0a-5bf5-be44-59c67e418234.html
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