Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill recounts Billie Holiday's life story through the songs that made her famous. 1959, in a small, intimate bar in Philadelphia, Holiday puts on a show that unbeknownst to the audience, will leave them witnesses to one of the last performances of her lifetime. Through her poignant voice and moving songs, one of the greatest jazz singers of all-time shares her loves and her losses.
The ungainly stage at Broadway's Circle in the Square has proved an inspiration for set designer James Noone to recreate Emerson's Bar & Grill, the seedy joint in North Philadelphia where Billie Holiday played one of her last club dates in 1959, three months before she died...It's a known fact that McDonald is a majestic singer. (Maybe the best Bess, of 'Porgy and Bess,' our modern stage has seen.) In more than a dozen songs, she captures the plaintive sound, the eccentric phrasing and all the little vocal catches that identify Billie Holiday's unique style. But it's her extraordinary sensitivity as an actor that makes McDonald's interpretation memorable.
Under the direction of Lonny Price, the evening is a stinging portrait of a great artist's failed life. But even with deep admiration for McDonald's potent acting, the evening feels out of balance. The details of Holiday's story are already well-known, so it doesn't have the allure of revelation. (The same material was covered last year in the off-Broadway bio-musical 'Lady Day.') What the production does offer that's fresh, exciting and irresistibly entertaining is McDonald singing Holiday. Too bad the vivid evening wasn't more strongly tilted in that direction.
| 1986 | Off-Broadway |
Original Off-Broadway Production Off-Broadway |
| 1986 | Off-Broadway |
Off-Broadway |
| 2014 | Broadway |
Original Broadway Production Broadway |
| 2017 | West End |
West End Production West End |
| Year | Ceremony | Category | Nominee |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | BroadwayWorld Awards | Best Leading Actress in a Play | Audra McDonald |
| 2014 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Actress in a Play | Audra McDonald |
| 2014 | Drama League Awards | Outstanding Revival of a Broadway or Off-Broadway Musical | Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill |
| 2014 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Actress in a Musical | Audra McDonald |
| 2014 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Revival of a Musical (Broadway or Off-Broadway) | Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill |
| 2014 | Tony Awards | Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Play | Audra McDonald |
| 2014 | Tony Awards | Best Sound Design of a Play | Steve Canyon Kennedy |
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