A legend and her fall

It's March 1959 and Billie Holiday is performing in a small bar in Philadelphia. Within months she'll be dead. Over the course of her set, the liquor and drugs take over and we gain a glimpse into her sad life and the self-destructive habits that will soon overwhelm her.

Imitating a legend was always going to be hard. Holiday sang like her whole physical make-up had been customised to the voice. Dawn Hope is a fine singer and has worked at the vocal quirks but she never comes near capturing that sound. And while American productions have used a jazz trio, here we get a lone pianist.

It wouldn't matter if Lanie Robertson's script was good but it's a hack's collection of attacks on racism and pleas for victim status that turn the woman into a dull mouthpiece for her sex and race in a time long gone. Here Holiday goes straight from jaunty to miserable; a stagey falsehood. This show is for indiscriminate obsessives only.

Until Jul 23, New Players Theatre, Under The Arches, Villiers Street WC2, Tue to Sat 7.45pm, Wed and Sat mats 4pm, £12.50 to £27.50. Tel: 0870 033 2626. Tube: Charing Cross