Billie Holiday News

The Robert and Margrit Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts, UC Davis announces its 18th season of performing arts, filled with the leading artists in music, dance and theater alongside an insightful group of speakers. The season begins on Sunday, September 29, with a family-friendly performance from gospel true-believers Trey McLaughlin & The Sounds of Zamar and concludes June 7, 2020 with the Alexander String Quartet finishing a two-year cycle of the complete Shostakovich string quartets.

Coastal Jazz & Blues Society announced today additional performances for the 34th annual TD Vancouver International Jazz Festival, taking place June 21 to July 1. The Festival lineup now includes headliner Herbie Hancock at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre on June 29 as well as genre-bending performances from diverse, cutting-edge artists at Performance Works on Granville Island, Pyatt Hall (843 Seymour Street), and Frankie's Jazz Club (765 Beatty Street).

Segerstrom Center for the Arts has announced its annual Jazz, Cabaret and Chamber Music series for the 2019-2020 Season. It's another musically absorbing year of exceptional and adventurous music performed by some of the world's top solo artists and musical ensembles, whose work will canvas a range of styles and traditions. Subscriptions to the 2019 - 2020 Jazz, Cabaret and Chamber Music series will be on sale beginning Monday, March 25 at 10:00 a.m.

Auburn has been captivating audiences around the world with their unique blend of Americana, blues and roots music. Fronted by female vocalist Liz Lenten, who's voice has been described as “so sweet it'll make your hair curl” and “husky, with an emotional frailty,” who “isn't afraid to show her full range of vocal tones or emotions.”

Upstage Lung Cancer (ULC), a nonprofit celebrating a decade of raising awareness in the fight against lung cancer through the performing arts, presents a one night only concert benefit Here's to the Ladies! From Lady Day to Lady Gaga on Thursday, April 18, 7:30 pm at the Mosesian Center for the Arts, 321 Arsenal Street, Watertown.  Presented in partnership with the Addario Lung Cancer Foundation, all proceeds from the performance support the critically important cause of early lung cancer detection research. 

The Riant Theatre's 32nd Strawberry One-Act Festival presented the 'Best Play Award' to the drama LEAVES written by Victor Vauban Jr., and the "Best Play Award for Full Length Plays" to LIFE BOAT by Lloyd Khaner on March 24 at Theatre 54 @ Shetler Studios & Theatres.

The Riant Theatre's 32nd Strawberry One-Act Festival presented the 'Best Play Award' to the drama LEAVES written by Victor Vauban Jr., and the 'Best Play Award for Full Length Plays' to LIFE BOAT by Lloyd Khaner on March 24 at Theatre 54 @ Shetler Studios & Theatres.

Patina Miller thrilled the full house audience at Kean Stage's Enlow Recital Hall on Saturday night, March 23. Her 90-minute show featured a well-selected, varied repertoire of songs, all wonderfully performed.

Garry Marshall Theatre presents the Broadway play Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill by Lanie Robertson for 15 performances May 15 to June 2, 2019 (press opening is Friday, May 17).  The time is 1959, a seedy bar in Philadelphia. The audience is about to witness one of Billie Holiday's last performances, given four months before her death. More than a dozen musical numbers - including "What a Moonlight Can Do," "Crazy He Calls Me," "Easy Living," "Strange Fruit," "Taint Nobody's Biz-ness If I Do," and "God Bless the Child" -- are interlaced with salty, often humorous, reminiscences to project a riveting portrait of the lady and her music.

Having seen Audra McDonald's Tony Award winning Broadway performance of Billie Holiday in 'Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill,' I went to see the Beck production of the show with trepidation.

On March 9 in Brooklyn and March 16 in Los Angeles, The Billie Holiday Theatre, in collaboration with Frank Silvera Writers' Workshop, presented its third annual monologue showcase, 50IN50: LETTERS TO OUR DAUGHTERS, to honor Women's History Month.

Acclaimed Jazz harpist-pianist-vocalist Corky Hale will present a 102nd Birthday Show honoring Billie Holiday on Thursday, April 6, at 7:30 PM, at the Catalina Jazz Club in Hollywood. Hale is one of the few people still performing who was actually a close friend of Holiday's, playing for her on the 'Stars of Jazz' TV show, and on several recordings and live appearances, and was the only female pianist to regularly accompany her.

Lauded jazz vocalist Dee Dee Bridgewater, accompanied by THE MEMPHIS SOULPHONY, will be bringing her latest show MEMPHIS: YES, I'M READY, based on her latest musical release Memphis: Yes, I'm Ready to The Wallis for one night only March 23, 2019. The most warm and delightful Ms. Bridgewater managed to entertain and enlightened me on the phone for an informative, heartfelt forty-five minutes.

Dixon Place presents Glory!, a new play written by Nan-Lynn Nelson and directed by Kevin R. Free, previewing Thursday, April 11, 2019 at 7:30pm and running three weekends through April 27 at Dixon Place (161A Chrystie Street) in Manhattan. Tickets are $18 in advance, $21 at the door for adults, and $15 in advance, $18 at the door for students and seniors. Group rates are available. For tickets and further information please visit www.dixonplace.org

The monologue showcase 50 in 50: Letters to Our Daughters features an all-star cast of familiar names and faces from stage and screen, including Tony award-winning Broadway star LaChanze, actress Pauletta Pearson Washington, original Hamilton cast member Jasmine Cephas Jones, and actress and comedienne Phyllis Yvonne Stickney who bring to life letters written by 50 women of color about their hopes, dreams, regrets and fears for their daughters.

In Her Shoulders is pleased to present a staged reading of Wine In The Wilderness by Alice Childress, directed by Bianca LaVerne Jones today, March 15, 2019. Doors open at 6:45pm for a 7:00pm start with The Play in Context by Arminda Thomas, who situates the script in its historical time and place, followed by the reading and a post-performance Q&A with refreshments. Admission is by Donation ($10 suggested).The performance is at The New School, Starr Foundation Hall, 63 Fifth Avenue, Room UL102. R.S.V.P. to OnHerShouldersReservations@gmail.com.

Beck Center for the Arts to produce Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill, featuring regional favorite and talent Nicole Sumlin.

 Lotus Music & Dance will celebrate its 30th Anniversary in 2019 with a benefit dinner and performance on Monday, March 25th. This year also marks the 100th Birth Anniversary of bharata natyam dance guru, T. Balasaraswati ("Bala"). They will honor legendary choreographer, George Faison with the inaugural Bala Award for Excellence . Other Honorees include Manhattan Borough President, Gale Brewer for her support of cultural diversity in the performing arts.

Beck Center for the Arts to produce Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill, featuring regional favorite and talent Nicole Sumlin.

Schimmel Center at Pace University concludes its 2018-19 Cabaret Series with an evening of standards and musical theater selections composed by women titled Baby, Dream Your Dream: The Great Women Songwriters today, March 9, 2019 at 7:30pm. Tickets start at $29 and can be purchased at SchimmelCenter.org, by phone at 212-346-1715, or by visiting the Schimmel Center Box Office at 3 Spruce Street, Manhattan. Box office hours are Tuesday-Today, Noon-5pm, and then beginning three hours prior to each performance, through intermission.