Audra McDonald brings her acclaimed portrayal of Billie Holiday from Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill to HBO starting this Saturday, March 12. Filmed before a live audience at Café Brasil in New Orleans, the special features McDonald in her Tony-winning performance as Billie Holiday, telling the jazz icon’s life story through the songs that made her famous. Returning to Broadway in Shuffle Along, McDonald is the subject of a feature in New York magazine's Best of New York issue titled "Shocking As It Is to Believe, the Theater May Be in a New Golden Age" and subtitled "One reason: Audra McDonald, Broadway's greatest voice, is back."
Audra McDonald brings her acclaimed portrayal of Billie Holiday from Lanie Robertson’s musical play Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill to HBO starting this Saturday, March 12, at 9 PM. Filmed before a live audience at Café Brasil in New Orleans, the special features McDonald in her performance as Billie Holiday, telling the jazz icon’s life story through the songs that made her famous. You can watch a short featurette from HBO below.
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. She will bring Lady Day to London, making her West End debut with a nine-week run at Wyndham's Theatre starting June 25. Lonny Price, who directed the Broadway and HBO productions, leads the London show as well.
Audra McDonald is the subject of a feature profile in New York magazine as part of its cover story on The Best of New York. She returns to Broadway in Shuffle Along—a retelling of the 1921 musical, directed by George C. Wolfe and choreographed by Savion Glover—which begins previews next Tuesday, March 15, and opens on April 28. In the article, titled "Shocking As It Is to Believe, the Theater May Be in a New Golden Age" and subtitled "One reason: Audra McDonald, Broadway's greatest voice, is back," New York's Jesse Green talks with her about the new role and so much more.
"[S]he is Broadway’s greatest star singer, possibly ever," Green exclaims. "The combination of innate beauty, invisible technique, broad expressiveness, and dogged stamina ... means that her voice functions as one with her acting; her singing makes emotion audible in the same way a blush makes it visible."
You can read the complete article in the latest issue of the magazine and online at vulture.com.
Audra McDonald’s fifth solo album, Go Back Home, was released on Nonesuch Records in 2013, and followed her previously released albums Build a Bridge (2006), Happy Songs (2002), How Glory Goes (2000), and Way Back to Paradise (1998).
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