Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill at the Wyndhams’ Theatre.
Six-time Tony Award® winner Audra McDonald makes her West End debut as legendary jazz icon, Billie Holiday.
Spend an intimate evening filled with some of the most inspiring and moving songs ever written and hear the personal stories of Holiday’s loves and losses through a turbulent but extraordinary life. With a glorious score featuring God Bless the Child, What a Little Moonlight Can Do, Strange Fruit, Crazy, He Calls Me and Taint Nobody’s Biz-ness you’d better pull up a chair and order a drink because this legend’s got a life to sing.
Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill will play a limited run in 17 June 2017 until 9 September 2017 at the Wyndham’s Theatre.
STORY
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.
CAST
Audra McDonald stars as Billie ‘Lady Day’ Holiday.
Audra McDonald is unparalleled in the breadth and versatility of her artistry as both a singer and an actress. Recipient of a record-breaking six Tony Awards, two Grammy Awards, and an Emmy Award, she was named one of Time magazine’s 100 most influential people of 2015. Aside from her Tony-winning performances in Carousel, Master Class, Ragtime, A Raisin in the Sun, The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess, and Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill, she has appeared on Broadway in The Secret Garden, Marie Christine (Tony nomination), Henry IV, and 110 in the Shade (Tony nomination).
CREATIVE TEAM
Written by Lanie Robertson and Directed by Lonny Price.
REVIEWS
Audra McDonald is a vocal genius! One of the greatest performances I ever hope to see – New York Magazine
Mesmerizing! Pouring her heart into her voice, Audra McDonald breathes life into Billie Holiday’s greatest songs – The New York Times
One of the most exquisite & haunting performances of the year! – Entertainment Weekly
Show Information
Important Notes
Mask
The government advises you to wear a face mask in crowded and enclosed spaces
Covid safety
This venue is complying with the latest industry 'See It Safely' guidelines.
Venue Information
Wyndham's Theatre, 32-36 Charing Cross Road, London, WC2H 0DANearest Tube or Train: Leicester Square (Northern line, Piccadilly line)
Nearest Buses: 24, 29, 176
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A reviews round-up for Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill starring Audra McDonald
Audra McDonald makes her long awaited West End debut in Billie Holiday musical-play Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill.
Set in a north Philadelphia dive in 1959, a few months before her death at the age of 44, the play centres on one of Holiday’s final performances.
The six-time Tony winner’s performance was applauded for ‘capturing the style and spirit of the legendary jazz singer’ with Dominic Cavendish (Daily Telegraph) going so far as to say ‘she’s pouring divine nectar into your ears… utterly intoxicating’ and Anne Treneman (The Times) calling her ‘spell binding’.
There was some criticsim levelled at Lanie Robertson’s book which seemed to dwell on the misery and decline of the hugely accomplished Holiday.
Read our round-up of reviews below.
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Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill runs until 19 September 2017 at the Wyndham’s Theatre.