Becoming Billie

Stepping into the role of Billie Holiday is a bit like attempting to portray Jesus: Get it wrong, and you’re committing blasphemy; get it right, and you’re fomenting an evangelical fervor in faithful followers. And anyone whose admiration for Lady Day borders on the religious can do no better than listening to local actress/jazz singer Paulette Dozier’s uncanny interpretation of Holiday’s voice and persona in Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill. This one-woman show, in Miami Beach for one weekend only, is set in 1959, at a concert just four months before Holiday’s untimely death. Dozier’s complex performance allows for gorgeous singing while still conveying the artist’s imminent breakdown. Then again, Dozier better be good at this part by now; she has already played it at productions in Boca Raton and Coral Springs, where she won raves from critics.
Fri., Sept. 21, 8 p.m.; Sat., Sept. 22, 2 & 8 p.m.; Sun., Sept. 23, 2 p.m., 2012