Six-time Tony Award winner Audra McDonald, as well as one of TIME magazine’s 100 most influential people of 2015, brings her acclaimed portrayal of Billie Holiday in the Broadway smash “Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill” to HBO on March 12.
Filmed before a live audience at Cafe Brasil in New Orleans, the special features McDonald in her history-making, tour de force performance as the jazz icon.
Originally written for off-Broadway by Lanie Roberston in 1987, LADY DAY AT EMERSON’S BAR & GRILL tells Holiday’s life story through the songs that made her famous, including “God Bless the Child,” “What a Little Moonlight Can Do,” “Strange Fruit” and “Taint Nobody’s Biz-ness.”
McDonald made history and became Broadway’s most decorated performer when she won her sixth Tony Award, for “Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill,” in 2014.
In addition to setting the record for most competitive wins by an actor, she also became the first person to receive awards in all four acting categories. The show’s run at the Circle in the Square Theatre on Broadway was extended four times due to high demand.
She is also the recipient of two Grammy Awards and an Emmy, and is a Juilliard-trained soprano.
I loved her in TV’s Private Practice years ago.
Her resume is beyond stellar.
She is one AMAZING talent.
WOW.