Billie Holiday News

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 In addition to many of Gershwin's preeminent works, the agreement includes management of more than 300 previously unpublished songs by Gershwin that have been largely unavailable since their discovery in the 1980s.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.

The Apollo Theater will bring the New York premiere of TWISTED MELODIES, an intimate one-man production inspired by the life, artistry, and struggles of 1970s soul singer and composer Donny Hathaway, to its iconic stage, 45 years after Hathaway himself last performed on it.

Tennessee Women's Theater Project presents the revival of the most popular show in company history when SISTAS the Musical opens at the Z. Alexander Looby Theatre for a May 3-19 run.

The Apollo Theater Salon Series in partnership with Dr. Barbara Ann Teer's National Black Theatre (NBT) will present WiLDFLOWER, the staged concert reading of the full-length musical with book, music and lyrics by Jason Michael Webb and Lelund Durond Thompson. The performance, directed by Logan Vaughn and starring Broadway stars Tshidi Manye (The Lion King) and Quentin Earl Darrington (Once on this Island), will take place at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, April 26, and Saturday, April 27, on the Apollo Theater Soundstage.

The nation's most diverse orchestra, Chicago Sinfonietta, and Music Director Mei-Ann Chen are proud to present the finale to the illustrious 2018-2019 season with SoundSketch, a concert rooted in painting portraits in rhythm, blues and beyond. The orchestra puts its own spin on the concept of "the tribute" by highlighting musical icons throughout history in a string-centric program, with MacArthur Genius and violin virtuoso Regina Carter as a featured special guest. Chicago Sinfonietta's performances will occur Saturday, May 11, 2019 at 8 p.m. at Wentz Concert Hall at North Central College, 171 E. Chicago Ave., Naperville, and on Monday, May 13, 2019 at 7:30 p.m. at Symphony Center, 220 S. Michigan Ave., Chicago.

The award-winning Billie Holiday Theatre has today announced the world premiere of the ground-breaking A Walk Into Slavery.  As 2019 marks the 400th year of the first enslaved Africans brought to the Jamestown settlement in America, The Billie will present this multi-media meditation experience as it takes audiences on an evocative and emotional historical expedition to the genesis of the Transatlantic slave trade as seen through the lens of one man's journey.

Hylton Performing Arts Center announced today its 2019-2020 season of mainstage performances, featuring a diverse lineup of artists and ensembles across genres, as part of Hylton Presents, Hylton Family Series, Matinee Idylls, and the American Roots Series. The Hylton Center also announced the first Hylton Center EXTRA! for the season: the husband and wife duo and banjo icons, B la Fleck and Abigail Washburn, in a special concert event featuring their unique blend of alternative bluegrass. Season subscriptions are on sale to Friends of the Hylton Center at HyltonCenter.org/preview or by phone at 703-993-7700. For the general public, subscriptions go on sale Wednesday, April 24 and single tickets on Thursday, August 1. More details are available at HyltonCenter.org.

On Friday, April 26, Flushing Town Hall will present critically-acclaimed jazz pianist Renee Rosnes, who will lead a mesmerizing performance, showcasing her instrumental, compositional, and improvisational skills. Her quartet will perform jazz classics and original material, sharing music that expresses who they are, where they have been, and where they are headed.

"This may be the first time in our 33 years," stated Human Race Artistic Director and Founding Member Kevin Moore, "that we selected a season theme before we selected our shows." And for good reason. The 2019-20 Human Race Theatre season at the Loft Theatre coincides with the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment, the first step in all women having the right to vote and the catalyst for our movements for Equality.

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.