With "Bonita & Billie," singer/actor Bonita Brisker does a bang-up job of re-enacting the life and times of Billie Holiday, one of the great American jazz singers (1915-1959).
The show, which runs through Saturday at Reynolda House Museum of American Art, emerges as one of best shows I've seen at the 2011 National Black Theatre Festival because it accomplishes so much so well. For that, Brisker, who wrote the show, deserves much of the credit, though the trio that backs her contributes greatly to the success of "Bonita & Billie" as well.
If all a patron really wants is good jazz singing, Brisker provides that in abundance, swinging her way through such numbers as "All of Me," "T'ain't Nobody's Business" and "What a Little Moonlight." Her phrasing is not the stuff of crass imitation but what one astute observer at Thursday's show called emulation. In other words, Brisker has imbued herself with Holiday's spirit to the point where she has come to own it.
The show, which takes place in a nightclub-like setting, also sets out to reacquaint us with the personal life of a lady who experienced her share of racism and had a slew of troubles with everything from drugs to men. Brisker, playing the part of a witty conversationalist, pulls this part of the show off well because she interacts so naturally with real and imagined audience members. (The imagined ones include everyone from the FBI to two late-arriving guests who prompt her to sing "T'ain't Nobody's Business.")
Brisker can be quite the comedian. On Thursday, she cracked one joke after another and even caressed the bald heads of two gentlemen in the audience. I don't think I've ever seen that before.
At the end of the show, which was directed by Denise Dowse, we don't really sympathize with Holiday because Brisker doesn't ask us to.
Her revelations, which are stated directly and succinctly, prompt us to simply listen, reflect and appreciate a woman who contributed so much to America's music.
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