Photos: First Look at LADY DAY at Playhouse on Park in Rehearsal

LADY DAY AT EMERSON'S BAR AND GRILL by Lanie Robertson will run at Playhouse on Park September 28 - October 16, 2022. This production will be directed by Broadway veteran Stephanie Pope Lofgren.

Check out a first look at rehearsals below!

The time is 1959. The place is a seedy bar in Philadelphia. The audience is about to witness one of Billie Holiday's last performances, given four months before her death. In Robertson's Tony award-winning play, Holiday engages the audience with salty, often humorous reminiscences of her troubled life as a traveling performer in a segregated south. With the help of her piano man, Jimmy Powers, she lets music tell her story, sharing soulful and heart-wrenching songs from her memorable canon including: "Strange Fruit," "God Bless the Child," "When a Woman Loves a Man," and "Ain't Nobody's Business if I Do."

Stephanie Pope Lofgren (Director) is an actress, singer, dancer, writer, director, choreographer, producer, voice actor, performance coach and a musical theater veteran with a career spanning over 35 years. She has appeared in over 10 Broadway shows and recently received both Connecticut Critics Circle Award and Regional Theater Award nominations for her portrayals of Camila Rosario in Lin Manuel Miranda's In The Heights at Playhouse On Park and Tanya in North Carolina Theater's Production of Mama Mia!. Broadway and touring credits include the revival of Pippin, for which she received an Astaire Award nomination, an ACCA Award and the beloved Legacy Robe, Chicago (Velma Kelly),Thoroughly Modern Millie (Muzzy Van Hossmere), Fosse (Leading Player), Smokey Joe's Cafe (Brenda), A Funny Thing... Forum (Gymnasia), Kiss of The Spider Woman (Stand-by for Ms. Chita Rivera), Jelly's Last Jam (The Hunnies) and The Will Rogers Follies... just to name a few. Stephanie has the distinct honor of having been hand-picked to work with the legendary director/choreographer, Bob Fosse, along with his wife and muse, Gwen Verdon on her first two Broadway shows, the revival of Sweet Charity starring Debbie Allen and Bebe Neuwirth and Bob Fosse's Big Deal. She holds the distinct and treasured title of "Fosse Dancer" and is one of a handful of Fosse reconstructeurs teaching Fosse repertoire and Master Classes on behalf of The Verdon Fosse Legacy LLC. In addition to her work on the stage, screen and television, Ms. Pope is a producer with several projects in development including a musical she is creating with Drama Desk Award winner, Chesney Snow, titled Grin and Bare It and an adaptation of Eugene O'Neill's A Touch of The Poet. She most recently produced a new play written by Lloyd Khaner, directed by Tonya Pinkins and starred Chuck Cooper and Robert Cuccioli for the 2021 TRU Virtual Play Reading Series.

About Playhouse on Park: Managed under the direction of Playhouse Theatre Group, Inc., Playhouse on Park is Greater Hartford's award-winning destination for the performing arts. Playhouse on Park offers a wide range of thought-provoking, inspiring and thoroughly enjoyable professional theatre productions that leave audiences often smiling, sometimes crying, and always talking about what they have just experienced.

Don't Miss a Connecticut News Story
Sign up for all the news on the Summer season, discounts & more...