Theater Spotlight of the Week: M. Denise Lee

by Shawn Parikh

New interview with actress playing Billie Holiday in one-woman show, Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill.

M. Denise Lee is known around the metroplex for her beautiful singing voice that she uses on stage and at piano bars. This week, she is starring as Billie Holiday in the one-woman show Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill at Contemporary Theatre of Dallas. There is a pay-what-you-can preview on January 24 and the show officially opens January 25. Purchase tickets online or by calling 214-828-0094.

The normal audio podcast is available for listening, however, at sparse moments, it becomes inaudible. Therefore, the interview has been transcribed below by yours truly:

How are you doing today?

Great! I am doing great! How are you?

I am doing wonderful. I wanted to start off by talking about how you came to Dallas and decided to start your musical theatre career here.

I have been here since I was 11. I went to school here and fell in love with theatre in high school. I have been doing musical theatre off and on for about 20 years, but I kinda got stuck there. I have been in the business for a long time and it's almost what you have to do.

Is there a reason it was always musical theatre or have you branched out?

Oh no. I do straight plays too but I love singing. I've always enjoyed singing.

Do you see that Dallas has a lot of roles to offer you as far as musical theatre goes?

I have been very fortunate in getting some really good roles here. They all happen to come along at the right time and work perfectly. Now I do split about 50/50, clubs in private, a lot of industrial work, and commercial and broadcast work. So I try to do it all.

And your main passion is musical theatre? I don't want to put words in your mouth. You know I enjoy cabaret performance. I love musical theatre, but I really enjoy cabaret performance. So this show gives me the best of both worlds.

So moving on to the show, how did you get the role? Did you have to audition?

No, again I was very, very fortunate. Sue Loncar approached me and said, "We'd love you to work at our theatre. Choose the show you want to do and we will do it." I had the opportunity of doing the show 9 years ago at WaterTower Theatre. I was laughing about how I was afraid of it. Someone offered it to me and I was directed by my dear friend and wonderful director, Terry Martin. What's really funny is that Tom Sime reviewed that performance for The Dallas Morning News when he was a critic for The Morning News. I reminded him of that because I remember in the review, he told me at the time, "Ms. Lee is a little too young for the role." I started to get upset and then thought, "Ok, no. I'll take that." We laugh about it now, but I wanted another opportunity to do it.

What attracts you to the role so much?

Just the challenge for an actor. Because Billie Holiday has such a unique sound. My task is to trying to find a way to capture her essence without embarrasing myself and trying to imitate her. It's about trying to bring her to the stage the only way I can.

So how do you prepare for a role like this? Do you watch a lot of clips of her?

There aren't a lot, but I listened to tons and tons of recordings over and over again and a lot of reading on her life. Phyllis and I talked a lot, the director Phyllis Cicero, since she's done a lot of research. So the two of us sat down and looked at pictures of her "up" moments and low moments of her life. Mainly, you can get so much from her music.

It is a one-woman show, so how do you handle being the only person on stage and having that burden?

It's a lot of work! We had a great process that helped me learn the lines since there are so many monologues. We'd take one monologue at a time, and I'd run it on the stage. It would be more difficult being in my living room studying lines than to be on the stage. We'd do just the lines then go back and do blocking, and then run it. We did different sections at a time. The day where I have to go through the monologues just to keep them fresh in my mind, I sort them out by stories: I'm gonna tell this story, then I'm gonna tell this story, then I'm gonna sing this song, then tell this story.

So what do you ultimately as an actress want the audience to walk away with through your performance?

I hope they have a better insight on Billie Holiday. We always associate her with drugs which she was a heroin addict for almost 15 years. But when I see a lot of the history, I think of what she had to go through. I was telling somebody the other day, "I have only had this script 6 months and I am ready to slit my wrists." But she lived this for 44 years. She was raped when she was 10 and she was sent to a reform school after being raped. As a child she was abused. As an adult she was abused. She dealt with sexism, she dealt with racism, but she continued to sing. She would continue to sing. And I think of how many people would just crumble, I look at the young singers now, and they would just crumble under the pressure. And she continued to sing, and she continued to draw crowds no matter what she had been through. People still came to see her because it was such a power, such a commitment and passion for what she did.

I know this is a great role to play, but is there a favorite role you have played or a certain one you are dying to play?

One of my favorite roles I have played was Elizabeth in a play called The Old Settler, and I just fell in love with it. That was the first straight play I had done in about 10 years. Nervous about that, but excited at the same time. Dying to play Rose in Fences. That and Shug Avery in The Color Purple. Right now, those are the two on my list.

Great, one day! Is there anything else you would like to add about the show or yourself?

You know, I would like tell you. I have been telling folks at the piano bar I sing at called The Hideaway, that since so many people are used to hearing me sing, I always tell them this isn't Denise Lee singing Billie Holiday. This is Denise Lee performing as Billie Holiday. So the voice texture is going to be so different for people who have never seen me on stage at the theatre, and only come see me at the club. This will be very different. I don't think that's going to be an issue. Well, I hope not! If I am doing my job well enough, maybe they will forget it's me for an hour.

Well, it sounds great. Break a leg and have a great day!

Thank you. I appreciate it!