A contestant in a talent show comes on stage looking utterly out of place in her shabby, disheveled clothes and the audience jeers in wicked anticipation of seeing someone make a fool of herself. Then she begins to sing and the once-rowdy crowd is flabbergasted by her voice and musicianship.

This isn’t about Susan Boyle, the frumpy British singer who turned into a YouTube phenomenon last spring after appearing in the British version of "America’s Got Talent." No, the event described above took place in 1934, when a 17-year-old girl who had been living on the street to escape an abusive stepfather stunned the amateur-night crowd at Harlem’s Apollo Theater by singing Hoagy Carmichael’s "Judy" and following it with "The Object of My Affections."

The duckling-to-swan singer was Ella Jane Fitzgerald, and she later said that night at the Apollo was a personal revelation -- the discovery that she was fearless and joyous when she was on the stage. "I knew I wanted to sing before people the rest of my life," she recalled.

Coincidentally, the singing actress who portrays Fitzgerald in "Ella," a well-traveled tribute that opens Friday at the Guthrie Theater, also made her first mark at the Apollo.

"I was 17 at the time, so there’s something of a connection there," said Tina Fabrique, who has been portraying Fitzgerald in "Ella" since a concert version was first staged at Theater Works in Hartford, Conn., in 2005.

Since then, the concert has evolved into a full-fledged musical play, with a book that was developed by Twin Cities playwright Jeffrey Hatcher. Officially, it’s had 15 regional productions, though Fabrique says the show has played in at least 22 different venues during the past four years.

"We have not approached one of them," said Fabrique about the theaters staging the play. "They’ve come to the show and said, 'Can we book it?' It’s been very good."

The play is set during a rehearsal and concert that took place in Nice, France, in 1966, when Fizgerald was 51 years old. The concert marked a pivotal moment in Fitzgerald’s career, both professionally and emotionally. It took place shortly after the death of Fitzgerald’s beloved sister, Frances, and it was one of the first that was entirely filmed.

Fitzgerald also was being encouraged to engage in more between-song chatter with her audiences -- and, needless to say, Hatcher’s script has her telling a life story. Members of the band become characters in Fitzgerald’s life and career. Through it all, Fabrique sings 24 songs -- "A-Tisket, A-Tasket," "How High the Moon," "That Old Black Magic," "They Can’t Take That Away From Me," and other hits.

You learn, Fabrique said, that Fitzgerald had both a difficult and generous life. Musicians adored her, though she outlived most of her mentors and collaborators. A marriage to bassist Ray Brown lasted less than a decade and ended in divorce, though they never really separated emotionally. The son she and Brown adopted and named Ray, Jr. was actually her sister’s eighth child.

By 1966, when the play is set, Fitzgerald was a musical giant, partly as the result of her so-called "songbook" albums that featured her versions of works by other musicians, including Cole Porter, Duke Ellington, the Gershwins, Johnny Mercer, Irving Berlin and Rogers and Hart. Ira Gershwin was famously quoted as saying, "I never knew how good our songs were until I heard Ella Fitzgerald sing them."

For Fabrique, whose long career has included turns on Broadway and touring productions (she was last here in a touring version of "How to Succeed in Business Without Even Trying" at the Ordway in St. Paul), a big thrill has been being compared favorably to Fitzgerald by musicians who knew the singer. The show is a joy to perform, Fabrique said -- especially when the audience includes people who grew up with Fitzgerald’s songs.

"You can always tell who they are," she said. "You see them suddenly holding hands when they hear the beginning of a song. It brings back their best memories."

"Ella" opens Friday and continues through Sept. 6 at the Guthrie Theater. For schedules and tickets, go here.