Posted by | Ray Cornelius

BroadwayWorld.com is reporting that cable giant HBO is bringing Audra McDonald’s Tony winning performance as Billie Holiday in “Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill” to the small screen. The news was announced on Wednesday by HBO’s president of programming, Michal Lombardo.

“The great Audra McDonald’s brilliant performance as the legendary Billie Holiday was a Broadway landmark,” said Lombardo. “I’m thrilled that we will be able to bring this riveting show to viewers who weren’t able to experience it in person.”

The special will be recorded before a live audience at Café Brasil in New Orleans this month and will feature many of Holiday’s biggest hits including “God Bless the Child,” “Strange Fruit” and “What a Little Moonlight Can Do.” The original play was written by Lanie Robertson in 1987.

McDonald made history earlier this year when she picked up her sixth Tony Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Play. She has appeared in such classics as “A Raisin the Sun,” “Ragtime “and “Porgy & Bess” and is slated to star in “Night Mother” opposite Oprah Winfrey in 2015. She is also the rumored front running actress for the proposed Aretha Franklin biopic.

Check out Audra McDonald’s stellar performance as Lady Day in a clip below:

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Photo Credit: TheBirdFeedNYC.com

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