Playwright: Jackie Taylor
At: Black Ensemble Theatre, 4520 N. Beacon
Contact: ( 773 ) 469-7551; $40
Runs through: January 17
Jackie Taylor sticks to her formula with Don't Shed a Tear ( The Story of Billie Holiday ) —and why not? Taylor invariably brings the house down with her tried-and-true recipe for crafting musical autobiographies of Black artists.
By pasting scenes of basic background information around song selections performed by actors impersonating the artist at hand, Taylor has kept the Black Ensemble Theatre running like a well-oiled machine for more than 30 years. If the books to the musicals Taylor cranks out by the dozens are about as insightful as junior high school term paper outlines, the music is invariably rousing and marvelously true to its sources.
In Don't Shed a Tear, we get Vikki Omega Stokes as the jazz vocalist whose life was as turbulent as her music was distinctive. This is not the family-friendly fare Taylor usually stages. Holiday's story is one of violence, tragedy and hyper-sexualization.
Writer/producer/director Taylor doesn't water down the brutality of Holiday's story or her language. For example, at the top of the show Stokes' Holiday warns, 'If you don't want to hear about motherfuckers and hos and bitches, you better leave now.'
At 10, she talks about how she likes her men rough. 'If he hits me, I know he's paying attention,' she explains. At 14, Holiday was working alongside her mother as a prostitute. And her entire adult life was shaped by the heroin addiction that finally killed her in 1959, when she was only 44.
But we get the briefest outline of events, and meet only shadows of the people who shaped Billy's life. Chief among those people is Billy's mother Sadie, who had her child at 13 and lived with her in a whorehouse during Billie's childhood. Toi Overton has presence and charisma to burn as Sadie; it's a shame she's given so little to work with.
Even more woefully underwritten are the men in Holiday's life: Lovers, abusers and collaborators, they're all too sketchy to leave more than the shallowest of impressions on the story. A single, fleeting kiss with a woman is all we see of Holiday's bisexuality.
What makes Don't Shed a Tear worthwhile is Stokes' uncanny vocal resemblance to Holiday. The high, unforgettable voice—part growl, part flute and suffused with a despair as powerful as oceans—is all unleashed in Stokes' powerful interpretations of classics including Good Morning Heartache, Ain't Nobody's Business and the searing Strange Fruit. Backed by musical director Jimmy Tillman's sterling ensemble, the sound of the show is extraordinary.
Such music deserves a better book. After three decades in business, it's time for Taylor to upgrade the formula and add some depth to these stories.