Billie Holiday News

City Theatre announces the lineup for this year's two-day Momentum festival, featuring new works by returning favorites Jessica Dickey and Keith Reddin.

Sally Kellerman, the legendary Oscar-nomInated 'Hot Lips' of the original 'M*A*S*H,' will bring her new show, 'A Little Jazz, a Little Blues, a Little Rock and Roll' to the Catalina Jazz Club in Hollywood on Wednesday, June 3 at 8:30 PM.

Queen Latifah is Bessie Smith!

A thrilling new production of Jim Cartwright's much-loved The Rise And Fall Of Little Voice opens at Birmingham Repertory Theatre and West Yorkshire Playhouse this spring. The Olivier award-winning play about the painfully shy but hugely talented Little Voice and her faultless impersonations of the greatest divas will be directed by James Brining, artistic director of West Yorkshire Playhouse and stars Vicky Entwistle, Chris Gascoyne and Nancy Sullivan.

?RAIN PRYOR's one-woman autobiographical play, FRIED CHICKEN & LATKES, will have its World Premiere at Dr. Barbara Ann Teer's National Black Theatre (NBT) in Harlem, running Tuesday, June 2, through Sunday, June 28. Directed by Kamilah Forbes, this Limited Off-Broadway run is the actress-writer-comedian's funny take on growing up Black & Jewish as the daughter of one of the world's most beloved & iconic funny men, comic genius Richard Pryor.

WHAT: Little Black Dress, by English On Stage in cooperation with Habima 4 at Habima National Theater.

Oscar® nominee Queen Latifah ("Chicago") stars as legendary blues singer Bessie Smith in the HBO Films drama BESSIE, directed by acclaimed filmmaker Dee Rees ("Pariah") from a screenplay by Dee Rees and Christopher Cleveland & Bettina Gilois.

?Oscar® nominee Queen Latifah ("Chicago") stars as legendary blues singer Bessie Smith in the HBO Films drama BESSIE, directed by acclaimed filmmaker Dee Rees ("Pariah") from a screenplay by Dee Rees and Christopher Cleveland & Bettina Gilois.

Oscar® nominee Queen Latifah ("Chicago") stars as legendary blues singer Bessie Smith in the HBO Films drama BESSIE, directed by acclaimed filmmaker Dee Rees ("Pariah") from a screenplay by Dee Rees and Christopher Cleveland & Bettina Gilois.

Seven outstanding vocalists, songwriters, and musicians born in 1915 will be honored at Weill Recital Hall on Tuesday, June 9th, at 7:30 p.m., when The Mabel Mercer Foundation presents the annual concert, "It Was A Very Good Year." Cohosted by the Foundation's artistic director KT Sullivan and the distinguished critic Rex Reed, the one-night-only event celebrates the centennial birthdays of (alphabetically) Alice Faye, Billie Holiday, Bart Howard, Edith Piaf, Frank Sinatra, Billy Strayhorn, and Cy Walter.

IRT and Ricochet Collective announce the addition of Jody Flader (The Slug Bearers… at The Vineyard), to the cast of the World Premiere of GORDY CRASHES, by Sam Byron. Directed by Sherri Eden Barber, previews begin June 5 at IRT Theater with opening night slated for Friday, June 12. Flader replaces Clea Alsip, who leaves to join the cast of Neil Labute's The Way We Get By with Amanda Seyfried and Thomas Sadoski.

International touring and recording artist Clairdee joins forces with the Capital Jazz Orchestra, Clayton 'Skip' Poole, Music Director, for a very special 100th birthday tribute to the great “Lady Day”, Billie Holiday, tonight, May 15, at 7:30pm. Based in San Francisco, Clairdee will be performing such Billie classics as “Travelin' Light,” “Any Old Time,” and “God Bless the Child,” along with many other selections featuring both the big band and the more intimate CJO combo.

Palm Beach Dramaworks concludes its fifteenth anniversary season with Lanie Robertson's Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill, a moving and surprisingly joyous look back at the too-short, turbulent life of the legendary Billie Holiday. Lady Day opens at  the Don & Ann Brown Theatre tonight, May 15 and continues through June 7.

Harlem Stage will present the world premiere of Notes of a Native Song, a new work by Tony and Obie award-winning playwright, singer-songwriter Stew (Passing Strange), co-composed with his long-time collaborator Heidi Rodewald, who also performs. Commissioned and produced by Harlem Stage, Notes of a Native Song is a live collage of songs, text and video inspired by James Baldwin's brave and visionary proclivity for airing uncomfortable truths as celebratory events of poetry and beauty. Notes Of A Native Song is the culminating presentation of The Year of James Baldwin, a 14-month celebration of Baldwin spearheaded by Harlem Stage.

The Ensemble Studio Theatre Marathon of One-Act Plays, the original festival of its kind, returns for its 35th incarnation, tonight, May 13, at 7:00pm at the Ensemble Studio Theatre, 549 West 52nd Street. 

Tribute shows to iconic entertainers celebrating a centennial birthday in 2015 seem to be all the rage this year. But nobody has been celebrated more in cabaret variety shows than Frank Sinatra—and rightly so. Wall Street Journal entertainment columnist Will Friedwald, also a producer and author who wrote the 1997 book Sinatra! The Song Is You—A Singer's Art, this past Saturday presented the biggest (and longest) tribute to “Ol' Blue Eyes” so far this year with Sinatra-Thon at The Cutting Room (co-curated with performer Cary Hoffman), a potpourri of events running from 10 am to an after-midnight jam, and which included varied live entertainment, rare film clips, and panel discussions.

VERONIC Voices will raise a glass to the LGBT community during May and June performances to benefit the Human Rights Campaign Foundation. The hit show at Bally's Las Vegas will celebrate diversity as part of "Lend Your Voice," which supports selected nonprofit organizations.

Joe's Pub at The Public has announced its nightly performances, running May 13-24, 2015. Scroll down for details!

In its 23rd incarnation, the Kennedy Center Spring Gala was a triumph. This year's edition of the Gala — titled “It Don't Mean a Thing…” — paid homage to the big-band music, extraordinary tunes, and iconic dancing of the Swing Era.