Get a first look at Audra McDonald’s West End debut in Lady Day At Emerson’s Bar & Grill, portraying Billie Holiday in a performance that won her a record-setting sixth Tony Award on Broadway.
The critically acclaimed production broke box office records at the Circle in the Square in New York and won two Tony Awards in 2014, including ‘Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play’ for McDonald, making her Broadway’s most decorated performer and the first and only person to receive awards in all four acting categories.
Audra McDonald and Shelton Becton in Lady Day At Emerson’s Bar & Grill at Wyndham’s Theatre (Photo: Marc Brenner)
Written by Lanie Robertson and directed by Lonny Price, Lady Day At Emerson’s Bar & Grill recounts Holiday’s life story through the songs that made her famous, including God Bless The Child, What A Little Moonlight Can Do, Strange Fruit and Taint Nobody’s Biz-ness.
The show is set in 1959, in a small, intimate bar in Philadelphia. Billie Holiday puts on a show that unbeknownst to the audience, will leave them witnesses to one of the last performances of her lifetime. Through her poignant voice and moving songs, one of the greatest jazz singers of all-time shares her loves and her losses.
Audra McDonald in Lady Day At Emerson’s Bar & Grill at Wyndham’s Theatre (Photo: Marc Brenner)
Lady Day At Emerson’s Bar & Grill plays at Wyndham’s Theatre until 9 September.
