Lady Day at Emerson�s Bar & Grill

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Friday, December 4th, 2015
2:00 PM

A talented, award-winning Cowichan Valley vocalist is taking on the role of a lifetime — playing Billie Holiday, the most influential jazz vocalist ever.

Glaucia Desrochers stars next month in Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill, an acclaimed one-woman musical about the life of the legendary singer that was a smash hit on Broadway.

The play is billed as “an evening filled with personal tales of difficult choices, bad breaks, worse men and some of the most glorious songs ever written,” including God Bless the Child, What a Little Moonlight Can Do, Strange Fruit and T’aint Nobody’s Biz-ness.

When the show’s co-producer, Pat Selman, first heard Desrochers sing, “I knew I’d found the perfect star for Lady Day,” which she’d dreamed of producing for 20 years.

Desrochers, who started singing at age eight in an orphanage in Brazil, came to the Island as an adopted child, studied piano, sang in several choirs, appeared in locally produced musicals, was named Duncan’s Idol in 2007 and last year won the Community Voice award at the Cowichan Valley Aboriginal Film Festival.

Lady Day is set in a seedy bar in south Philadelphia in 1959, a few months before Billie Holiday died. Billie’s on stage, under a spotlight, her trio in the shadows at the back of the stage. At the beginning of her show, she’s just a little inebriated, and she’s kibitzing with Emerson, the owner and bartender, with her pianist, Jimmy, and with the audience. Before the evening is through, she’s high on booze and heroin and, between 14 heart-rending songs, she’s spilled her entire gut-wrenching life story to the audience.

The play’s director, Michelle Tremblay, said “it gives a glimpse into the iconic persona of Billie Holiday, not only as a singer but as a character in real life.”

Written by Lanie Robertson, the musical is co-produced by Pat Selman and the Chemainus Valley Cultural Society, with Karel Roessingh as pianist Jimmy Powers, along with bassist Nick Mintenko and drummer Ron Joiner.

$20 includes desserts, coffee and tea

Advance tickets are available at Chemainus Foods, Chemainus Gardens, Crofton Hotel, Baan-Do’s, Duncan, and Cardino Shoes, Duncan.

For information and a listing of the other performance dates and venues, visit http://www.cvcas.com/ladyday/