Billie Holiday News

Audra McDonald brought her Broadway prowess to Carnegie Hall last night, April 29, 2015 and performed 'Rainbow High' from Andrew Lloyd Webber's EVITA -- a role she first took on at the age of 16 in Fresno, Calif. Watch a clip of her fierce performance below!

Birdland Jazz Club has announced its May 2015 schedule, featuring The Legendary Count Basie Orchestra, BossaBrasil, Diane Schuur, Freddy Cole Quartet, Barbara Carroll, Jim Caruso's Cast Party and more! Scroll down for details.

Quality Hill Playhouse in Kansas City, Missouri announced their 2015-2016 season. Century of the Songbook explores 100 years of music. Producing Artistic Director J. Kent Barnhart has programmed four original cabaret revues and one Broadway revue, each highlighting songs of the musical tradition called the Great American Songbook. The Playhouse season focuses on contributions to the Songbook by first Americans, big band leaders, women songwriters, Broadway musicals, and folk singer-songwriters.

Audra McDonald performs tonight, April 29, 2015 in Carnegie Hall's Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage. She will be joined by music director and pianist Andy Einhorn, bassist Mark Vanderpoel, and drummer Gene Lewin.

Kurt Elling, the preeminent male vocalist in jazz, will release Passion World - his fifth album from Concord Records - on June 9. For his most ambitious project yet, Elling casts his net far and wide around the globe, using songs rooted in Iceland (Bjork's 'Who Is It') to Ireland (U2's 'Where The Streets Have No Name'), France (Edith Piaf's 'La Vie En Rose') to Brazil (Dorival Caymmi's 'Voce Ja Foi a Bahia?') and beyond, to explore the passionate forces that shake our souls. Elling - a Grammy Award winner and 10-time Grammy Award nominee - will launch Passion World with a weeklong engagement at Birdland Jazz Club (315 West 44th Street in Manhattan) from June 10-13.

IRT and Ricochet Collective present 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.

The Chan Centre for the Performing Arts at the University of British Columbia (UBC) announces its spectacular 2015/16 concert series, bringing a staggering array of virtuosic musicians, spirited vocal wonders, thrilling débuts, and anticipated returns to the acoustically exquisite Chan Shun Concert Hall. From passionate flamenco to cherished American folk, from energized West African pop to stirring Indian sitar music, the season's performances defy standards and transcend genres, promising to inspire and amaze.

Grammy-nominated jazz singer Barbara Morrison will perform Sunday (May 3) with accomplished musicians Llew Matthews, Luther Hughes and Peter Buck at the Bahia Corinthian Yacht Club. The show begins at 6 p.m.

Birdland Jazz Club has announced its lineup for May 4 - May 10, featuring The Legendary Count Basie Orchestra with guest vocalist Carmen Bradford, Daniel Reichard in a special Mother's Day concert, Barbara Carroll, and more. Scroll down for details!

The Duke Ellington Center for the Arts (DECFA), headed by renowned dancer/choreographer Mercedes Ellington, the Duke's granddaughter, will celebrate Ellington's 116th birthday this year today, April 25, with a musical tribute to five other legendary jazz performers from 1 to 3 PM in front of the towering Duke Ellington Statue in the Plaza at the intersection of Fifth Avenue and 110th Street.

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 on May 15 and continues through June 7, with specially priced previews on May 13 and 14.

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

Singing sensation Veronic DiCaire will make her highly anticipated return to Bally's Las Vegas for performances from May 14 - June 13, 2015. The vocal impressionist, who just completed a tour in Europe, will take the stage in VERONIC Voices for 14 performances that go on sale Friday, April 24 at 10 a.m. PT.

Landau Eugene Murphy Jr. will co-headline a very special "Centennial Salute To Sinatra and Billie Holiday" Friday night May 1st at the Scottish Rite Auditorium in Collingswood, NJ, in suburban Philadelphia.

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.

The Duke Ellington Center for the Arts (DECFA), headed by renowned dancer/choreographer Mercedes Ellington, the Duke's granddaughter, will celebrate Ellington's 116th birthday this year on Saturday, April 25, with a musical tribute to five other legendary jazz performers from 1 to 3 PM in front of the towering Duke Ellington Statue in the Plaza at the intersection of Fifth Avenue and 110th Street.

Entertainer, vocalist and jazz aficionado Keith A. Dames presents a centennial celebration of Billie Holiday at 'Homage To Eleanora' on Friday, April 24th at Manna House (338 E. 106th Street) in East Harlem at 7:00pm.

Grammy-nominated jazz singer Barbara Morrison will perform at the Catalina Bar & Grill tonight, April 18. The show begins at 8:30 p.m.

Accomplished jazz clarinetist and tenorman, Frank Griffith travels from England to Lancaster to perform two unique concerts tonight, April 17 and Saturday, April 18. His performance on April 17 is promised to wrap up the Ware Center's season of the Jazz in the Sky performances on a high note. The concert begins at 7:30 pm at the Ware Center located at 42 N. Prince Street, Lancaster. On Saturday, April 18 at 7:30 pm, Frank Griffith will join the 10th Annual Single Reed Symposium and finish the evening as a guest artist in the Jazz & Java concert on campus at Gordinier Hall located at 40 S. George Street, Millersville.

Recognized worldwide for her soul-stirring solo performance of "God is Trying to Tell You Something" in the classic film The Color Purple, actress and vocalist Maria Howell - also known for recent recurring roles on NBC's "Revolution" and Lifetime's "Devious Maids" - is making her Los Angeles singing debut on Sunday, April 26 at 7:00pm at The Colony Theatre at 555 North Third Street in Burbank.