Posted by | Ray Cornelius
Audra McDonald‘s Tony-winning performance as jazz legend Billie Holiday is coming to HBO this March 12, 2016.
“Lady Day at Emerson ‘s Bar & Grill” is the title of the project and is taken from the Broadway musical of the same name. The special was recorded before a live audience at Café Brasil in New Orleans and features 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.
“The great Audra McDonald’s brilliant performance as the legendary Billie Holiday was a Broadway landmark,” said HBO’s President of Programming Michael 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.”
McDonald made history in 2014 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 also the rumored front running actress for the proposed Aretha Franklin biopic.
Check out McDonald in a clip from “Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill” below:
Photo Credit: Shadow and Act
