You can’t always believe rumors when it comes to Broadway but in this case, it’s true! Yes, 5-time Tony Award Winner Audra McDonald will portray Billie Holiday, one of the greatest jazz singers of all time, on Broadway in Lanie Robertson’s “Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill” directed by Lonny Price.
The musical will open at Circle in the Square March 25th for previews, with an official opening date of April 13th.
Audra will portray Billie’s last performance in 1959 at a seedy Philadelphia Bar, shortly before her death at age 44. Some of the great Holiday standards to be heard will be “God Bless the Child,” “Strange Fruit” and “Taint Nobody’s Biz-ness.”
Circle in the Square Theatre 1633 Broadway, New York, NY 10019
