Billie Holiday News

On Thursday, August 15 at 7:00 p.m., the Apollo Theater in partnership with Spectrum News NY1, WLBS, and New York Amsterdam News will present Apollo Uptown Hall: Harlem's Culture - Past. Present. Future. The panel will gather thought leaders from some of Harlem's most influential arts organizations to celebrate milestone anniversaries in the Harlem arts community and discuss the roles these cultural organizations will play in either preserving traditions or advancing change. The event is free with RSVP.

Birdland will kick-off their exciting month of programming with John Pizzarelli: A Tribute to Benny Goodman, Dee Dee Bridgewater, David Matthews Trio, The Count Basie Orchestra, Charlie Parker Birthday Celebration, Chris Byars Original Sextet, Nicki Parrott, Gunhild Carling, Ken Peplowski and Diego Figueiredo, Birdography: Celebrating Charlie Parker, Lorin Cohen, Sam Behr, Laila Biali, Carole J. Bufford, The Lineup with Susie Mosher, Jim Caruso's Cast Party, and more!

We spoke with Evan Sherman of EVAN SHERMAN BIG BAND at Bickford Theater At The Morris Museum about his upcoming show in Morristown NJ!

Irish Repertory Theatre will present a concert performance of Christine Tobin: Sailing to Byzantium on the Francis J. Greenburger Mainstage on Tuesday August 27, 2019, at 7pm.  

Northlight Theatre announces casting for its 45th season, opening with Mother of the Maid by Jane Anderson, directed by BJ Jones and featuring Kate Fry (Isabelle Arc), Kareem Bandealy (Jacques Arc), Hayley Burgess (Moniqueus Joan), Ricardo Gutierrez (Father GilbertChamberlainGuardScribe), Casey Morris (Pierre Arc), Grace Smith (Joan Arc) and Penelope Walker (Lady of the Court).

The Watermill Theatre has announced the casting for the autumn tour of its highly acclaimed productions of Shakespeare's Macbeth and A Midsummer Night's Dream.

JPAS and Jonathan Mares Productions have announced a brand-new musical event from the multi-talented New Orleans singer and performer, Dorian Rush. This show, titled 100 Years of Women in Blues, will take the audience on a journey through the roots of blues back in 1919 all the way to today. One hundred years of love, heartache, tears, and struggles are the stories told in the lyrics of the songs sung by the Women of the Blues. Dorian Rush will tell these stories and sing these songs made famous by artists such as Ma Rainey, Big Mama Thornton, Billie Holiday, Irma Thomas, Janis Joplin, Bonnie Raitt, and Amy Winehouse among many others.

Billie Holiday: Front and Center, the acclaimed show with songs is written and performed by Sybil D. Jatta, directed by B'ANCA, and presented by Champion Club Productions. Associate producer: Linda Bronson-Abbot. Musical director: Casey McCoy.

New Repertory Theatre is excited to announce that Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill will join their 2019-2020 MainStage season. The production runs March 28 ? April 19, 2020 in the MainStage Theater at the Mosesian Center for the Arts, 321 Arsenal Street, Watertown, MA. Tickets to Lady Day may currently be purchased as part of a 2019-2020 subscription package by calling the New Rep Box Office at 617-923-8487 or visiting newrep.org. Single tickets will be available for sale on August 1. Lady Day will replace the previously announced Piaf.

America since the 2016 election has provoked no small amount of questioning. How could it ever have come to this? Beyond the immediacy of partisanship, the GOP has set about dismantling landmark legislation such as the Voting Rights Act. It has sent us reeling back in time to reexamine modern history for clues, and also to seek comfort in moments in which we felt secure in the march of progressiveness.

Jazzmobile Inc. and Harlem Jazz Enterprises have entered into a new partnership to present live music at the iconic Minton's Playhouse jazz club, 206 West 118th Street, in Harlem. This open-ended residency will begin on Independence Day with pianist Nat Adderley, Jr. and will continue every Thursday evening with a world-class jazz band. The Summer lineup will be announced at the opening celebration on July 4.

Alicia Foxworth's period drama Ghost Writer will bring the curtain down on the 2018 -19 season of the Frank Silvera Writer's Workshop monthly play reading series in partnership with The Billie Holiday Theatre.

Last evening, the Apollo Theater celebrated its 14th Annual Spring Gala, raising over $2 million for its year-round artistic and community programming initiatives.

The League of Professional Theatre Women (Kelli Lynn Harrison and Catherine Porter, Co-Presidents), an organization which has been leading the gender parity conversation and championing women in the professional theatre for over 35 years, is pleased to announce that 2019 Tony Award-winner Andre De Shields (Hadestown) will host their inaugural Rachel Crothers Leadership Award Luncheon to honor Donna Walker-Kuhne, on Thursday, June 27 from 12-3pm at Sardi's Restaurant (234 West 44th Street, New York, NY 10036). The event will also feature a special performance by LaChanze (2006 Tony Award winner for The Color Purple; Summer: The Donna Summer Musical). Tickets: Members $95; Non-Members $125.00; VIP tickets $175 (includes journal ad); VIP table $1,700 (with a journal ad). For more information and to purchase tickets please visit www.theatrewomen.org.

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).