It’s 1959. In a small, run-down bar in Philadelphia, Billie Holliday gives one of her final performances, a few months before her death at age 44. As the jazz songs and standards flow, so do the reminiscences. Zahra Newman stars in Lanie Robertson’s musical play, directed by Mitchell Butel. When the production opened at State Theatre Company South Australia, Limelight gave it five stars and praised Newman’s “magnificent” performance. Catch the show as it tours to Belvoir and Melbourne Theatre Company

Limelight Editor’s Choice

Zahra Newman stars as the great Billie Holiday in an extraordinary showcase of acting and vocal mastery. Featuring several of Holiday’s most beloved songs amid a personal, spoken-word tour of her life, Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill is an iconic and intimate snapshot of one of the world’s most revered jazz voices.

March, 1959, around midnight. The one and only Billie Holiday – known widely as Lady Day – is on stage in a small, run-down bar in South Philadelphia. Struggling with addiction and ill health, the audience is about to witness one of her final shows, singing a selection of her most loved hits. Accompanied by a jazz trio, Holiday shares a collection of revealing anecdotes about her life.

Be in the room with Lady Day as the Fairfax Studio transforms into a cabaret venue, with Newman (Miss Julie) embodying the jazz great and singing many of her most iconic songs – among them ‘God Bless the Child’, ‘What a Little Moonlight Can Do’, ‘Somebody’s on My Mind’ and ‘Strange Fruit’. Directed by Mitchell Butel, it promises to take audiences back in time to an electrifying night in the life of an extraordinary woman.