Previews: LADY DAY AT EMERSON BAR AND GRILL at Stageworks Theatre

This June 6 - 29, Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill takes the Stageworks Theatre spotlight, starring Desiree Montes in a role that’s more than performance — it’s personal.

“I actually grew up listening to jazz and blues, so Billy was a very prominent musical figure in my life from the time I was very young,” Montes says. That early connection set the stage for a career shaped by storytelling and soul.

Set in 1959 during one of Holiday’s final performances, Lady Day demands not only vocal mastery but emotional truth — both of which Montes delivers with nuance. “Billy was always one of those people, ironically enough, that came fairly naturally to me to mimic her singing style,” she says. But stepping into Holiday’s speaking voice, especially during her final chapter, is a different challenge. “Trying to get back into the grit each time I do a portrayal of her in terms of the speaking voice is always the trickiest for me.”

This is Montes’ sixth time inhabiting Holiday since 2014 — and each return brings new emotional layers. “The last time I did this, which was last year, I had lost my stepfather... So I was very personally connected to him and did not realize that losing him and then doing the show again would affect me in the way that it did.” Moments in the script, particularly those touching on Holiday’s relationship with her father, hit harder now.

Montes also draws strength from the activist spirit embedded in Holiday’s legacy. “I am using my art as activism very much in the same way that she did... Whether she realized she was a catalyst for the civil rights movement before there really was one.” For audiences, the show becomes more than a concert — it’s a call to listen, to learn, and to reckon with what history often leaves out.

For Montes, the most rewarding part is hearing people say, “All they had to do was close their eyes and they felt and heard Billy in the room. This is something that is just so incredibly rewarding to know that I have been afforded the opportunity time and time again to be able to take people back to a place where they have fond memories or even are rediscovering places of pain, but are able to heal a bit. I think that telling her story and having people be moved by the words on the page is what is most fulfilling to me, and I really hope Billy is proud.”  With sincerity at the core of her performance, she offers not just a tribute, but a resurrection.

And if Montes had the chance to ask Billie Holiday just one question? “Did I get it right? And maybe this would be a run-on question, but I would also want to know if she could feel the impact that she has had on people, from the time she was alive, well beyond the time she passed away, if she could still feel and see how important she was and how important she is still to people who know of her.”

Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill opens this June at Stageworks Theatre. For tickets and more information, visit stageworkstheatre.org.