Theater News

Audra McDonald Extends in Broadway's Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill One Last Time

The production will now run through September at the Circle in the Square Theatre.

Audra McDonald plays Billie Holiday in Lanie Robertson's Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill at the Circle in the Square Theatre .
Audra McDonald plays Billie Holiday in Lanie Robertson's Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill, directed by Lonny Price, at the Circle in the Square Theatre.
(© Evgenia Eliseeva)

Six-time Tony Award winner Audra McDonald will sing the blues on Broadway in Lanie Robertson's Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill for a little while longer. The production has extended its run, for the final time, through September 21. McDonald and the musical drama will take a brief hiatus from September 1-7 before beginning the final 16 performances on September 9.

Set in 1959 at 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 "'Tain't Nobody's Business If I Do." The production made its New York debut off-Broadway at the Vineyard Theatre in 1986 and has since gone on to tour the world.

Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill began previews March 25 and was initially set to play 70 performances during a 10-week limited engagement. McDonald is joined onstage by a jazz trio led by Shelton Becton as well as by a Chihuahua named Roxie.

Click here for tickets to see McDonald at the Circle in the Square Theatre.

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