This show is part of the 15th Annual Indianapolis Theatre Fringe Festival, a/k/a IndyFringe, Aug. 15-25, 2019 on Mass Ave downtown. Info, etc., at www.IndyFringe.org.

By John Lyle Belden

For those who saw Monica Cantrell as Billie Holiday in “Lady Day” earlier this year, it was easy to presume that this was a rehash of the same material — but this is not a copy, rather it’s a companion-piece. Where in “Lady Day,” we go back to the past to visit Ms. Holiday, in “Lady LIVES,” she comes to us.

It has been announced that the immortal Billie Holiday, who passed from us in 1959, is going to make an appearance in Indianapolis today. Anything is possible in the theatre, so a place is made. And sure enough, there she is, in a shimmering robe — singing 1970s hit “Hello, It’s Me” as though Todd Rundgren had written it for her.

Apparently you can keep up with things here from the Beyond, as she takes on a couple of other contemporary hits (she even says, “More cowbell!”) but she also sings a couple of her own classics, including the biting reminder that “Strange Fruit” once hung from America’s trees. 

As I said during her earlier show (produced in March by Fonseca Theatre Company), Cantrell can channel Holiday perfectly, nailing that unique voice without sinking into parody. It’s as though the Lady truly visited us. Perhaps she did!

This production is conceived and directed by Bill Myers, produced in association with The Timeless Music Project and The Chatterbox. Remaining performances are 7:30 p.m. Thursday and Saturday, 4:30 p.m. Sunday at the District Theater (former TOTS location),  627 Massachusetts Ave.