Billie Holiday News

Producer Mark Cortale has announced that historic six-time Tony Award Winner Audra McDonald will return to Cape Cod with Sirius XM Radio star Seth Rudetsky as music director and host

People's Light presents Mud Row, a world premiere play by recent Tony Award nominee Dominique Morisseau (Ain't Too Proud - The Life and Times of the Temptations). Two generations of sisters navigate class, race, love, and family on "Mud Row," an area in the East End of West Chester, Pennsylvania.

Led by Artistic Director Robert Battle, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater will return to Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts David H. Koch Theater for a seven-performance engagement from June 12-16. Highlights include the world premiere of Darrell Grand Moultrie's Ounce of Faith on Wednesday, June 12; The Ailey Spirit Gala benefit celebrating the 50th Anniversary of The Ailey School on Thursday, June 13; performances celebrating and commemorating Pride Month; and a culminating program on Sunday, June 16 honoring dance legend Carmen de Lavallade.

Peninsula Players Theatre, America's Oldest Professional Resident Summer Theatre and Door County's theatrical icon, is thrilled to announce the artistic company for its 84th season, running June 18 through October 20, 2019.  Nestled along Door County, Wisconsin's scenic shore, the award-winning acting company of Peninsula Players has been enthralling generations of audiences in its 600-plus seat, all-weather pavilion, since 1935, presenting hundreds of pre-Broadway tryouts, world premieres, classic dramas, comedies and musicals.

Max Crumm (You're The One That I Want) and Natasha Yvette Williams (Waitress) will star in a private industry reading of Douglas Lyons's new family comedy Chicken & Biscuits. Directed by Zhailon Levingston (Neptune), the full cast includes Danny Johnson (Daredevil, Luke Cage, Gotham), Pat Bowie (The Trip to Bountiful), Gayle Turner (The Wiz), Akira Golz (Matilda), Alana Raquel Bowers (What to Send Up, When it Goes Down), and Justin Sams (When We Rise).

Full casting has been announced for the staged reading of David Stallings' new drama Leonora, which will be performed at The Williams CME Institutional Church in Harlem on Monday June 3 at 7pm.

Garry Marshall Theatre has added performances of Deidrie Henry starring in the Tony Award winning Broadway play Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill by Lanie Robertson, which now must close Sunday, June 9, 2019. 

Radian percussionist and composer Martin Brandlmayr has announced the release of his new album Vive Les Fantômes, out on June 14th. The radio play was created for German station SWR and awarded The Karl Sczuka Prize for Works of Radio Art, an honor previously given to the likes of John Cage, Luc Ferriari, Hanna Hartman, and Pierre Henry.

Just a warning to those who think that Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill is a musical revue of Billie Holiday's greatest hits. Lanie Robertson's work is a very heavy play with music featuring brilliant Deidrie Henry front and center baring her soul in one of Holiday's last performances in 1959 before her death. Incredible musicians Abdul Hamid Royal as musical director and as Jimmy Powers at the ivories and James Leary on bass add immense flavor to the evening, currently onstage under the outstanding direction of Gregg T. Daniel, at the Garry Marshall Theatre through June 2 only.

It's that time of the week, theater lovers! With the weekend set to kick off at any moment - personally, we like to consider Thursday morning at 12:01 a.m. the official start of the weekend (that's directed primarily to the Dowager Countess of Grantham who quite clearly didn't understand what actually constitutes a 'weekend') - so we are back with a few suggestions of our own to help make your job easier. There are some new shows opening, others which are continuing their runs and still more which will be winding up their slate of performances this weekend!

Garry Marshall Theatre presents Deidrie Henry in 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 director is Gregg T. Daniel and playing Jimmy Powers is musical director Abdul Hamid Royal.  Daniel most recently directed The Mountaintop for Garry Marshall Theatre.

Artistic Director Robert Battle has announced exciting highlights to Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater's Lincoln Center season at the David H. Koch Theater June 12 – 16. In addition to a world premiere by Darrell Grand Moultrie and recent premieres by some of today's most revered choreographers across three distinct programs – Bold Visions, Trailblazers, and Timeless Ailey – the engagement includes The Ailey Spirit Gala benefit celebrating the 50th Anniversary of The Ailey School; An Evening Honoring Carmen de Lavallade; and a series of special activities for people of all ages and backgrounds. The engagement also marks the debut of five new Company dancers.

It's another busy weekend in Nashville - but when is Music City not packed with events, festivals, affairs? - and we're back with our Critic's Choice recommendations to have you cut through the theatrical flotsam and jetsam and find a cultural opening that's a good fit for your harried lifestyle. Nashville Opera opens its staging of Marc Blitzstein's The Cradle Will Rock at Noah Liff Opera Center, Way Off Broadway Productions unveils its version of Les Liaisons Dangereuses at Music Valley Event Center, Street Theatre Company invites you to the see their staging of Lynn Nottage's Sweat at their new venue on Elm Hill Pike and Nashville Rep continues its celebration of 10 years of The Ingram New Works Festival at Nashville Children's Theatre.

The Frank Silvera Writers' Workshop will present Douglas Lyons's new family comedy Chicken & Biscuits Monday May 13th at 7pm; at The Billie Holiday Theatre. Chicken & Biscuits, written in residence at The Directors Company, has previously been selected and performed in the Front Porch Reading Series and Queen Theatre's 2019 New American Voices Reading Series.

The Choir of Hard Knocks has a unique and inspiring story of Australia's most unlikely musical phenomenon - they are the only artists in Australian music history to have been awarded an ARIA, Platinum and Gold records, a Logie and a Helpmann award.

Directed with grace and wit by Tennessee Women's Theater Project founder Maryanna Clarke, Sistas the Musical is now onstage through May 19 at The Z. Alexander Looby Theatre, located conveniently just off Rosa Parks Boulevard in north Nashville, a historically black enclave that has been central to the civil rights struggles of the citizens of Tennessee's capital city.

This Autumn, The Watermill Theatre takes its highly acclaimed productions of Shakespeare's Macbeth and A Midsummer Night's Dream on the road for a six week tour that will begin at Northern Stage Newcastle on September 10 and culminate at The Theatre Royal Norwich on October 19.

This Autumn, The Watermill Theatre takes its highly acclaimed productions of Shakespeare's Macbeth and A Midsummer Night's Dream on the road for a six week tour that will begin at Northern Stage Newcastle on September 10 and culminate at The Theatre Royal Norwich on October 19. Playing side-by-side, Artistic Director Paul Hart's visceral actor-musician led productions are presented by the Newbury based theatre's celebrated resident Shakespeare company, The Watermill Ensemble, whose previous successes have also included Romeo and Juliet and Twelfth Night.

Downtown Music Publishing has signed a publishing administration and catalog marketing agreement for the George Gershwin catalog with the Godowsky family and Heyward Memorial Fund, respective successors to the historic American songwriter and Porgy and Bess authors DuBose and Dorothy Heyward. In addition to many of Gershwin's preeminent works, the agreement includes management of more than 300 previously unpublished songs by Gershwin that have been largely unavailable since their discovery in the 1980s.

Garry Marshall Theatre presents Deidrie Henry in 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 director is Gregg T. Daniel and playing Jimmy Powers is musical director Abdul Hamid Royal. Daniel most recently directed The Mountaintop for Garry Marshall Theatre.