It's Official: Audra McDonald Will Portray Billie Holiday on Broadway Beginning Next Month

As was recently rumored, five-time Tony Award winner Audra McDonald will return to Broadway this spring to take on the role of legendary jazz singer Billie Holiday in the Broadway premiere of Lanie Robertson's Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill. The musical play will be directed by Lonny Price and will begin previews March 25 at the Circle in the Square Theatre. The engagement is strictly limited to 10 weeks with 70 performances. Opening night is set for April 13.

Set in 1959 in a seedy Philadelphia bar, the production relives Holiday's last performance, taking place only four months before her death at age 44. The show's musical numbers include "God Bless the Child," "What a Little Moonlight Can Do," "Strange Fruit," and "Taint Nobody's Biz-ness." The production made its New York debut off-Broadway at the Vineyard Theatre in 1986 and has since gone on to tour the world.

The winner of five Tony Awards, McDonald is tied with Angela Lansbury and Julie Harris for the most performance Tonys ever received by an actress. She has received her Broadway accolades for performances in Carousel, Master Class, Ragtime, A Raisin in the Sun, and most recently, The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess. She was also recently rumored to be in talks to return to the Great White Way as Oprah Winfrey's likely costar in a 2015-16 Broadway production of '''night, Mother''.

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