The long-awaited West End debut of six-time Tony Award-winner, Broadway and screen star Audra McDonald sees her portrayal of legendary jazz icon Billie Holiday, reliving her loves, losses and extraordinary life.

After the joyous news of Audra McDonald’s unexpected pregnancy last year, producers of the postponed London run of Lady Day At Emerson’s Bar & Grill are delighted to announce that this summer, McDonald, the Tony, Grammy, and Emmy Award-winning singer and actress, will be making her long awaited West End debut portraying jazz legend Billie Holiday in a performance that won her a record-setting sixth Tony Award.

The show transports audiences to 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.   

Written by Lanie Robertson and directed by Lonny Price, Lady Day At Emerson’s Bar & Grill recounts 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.

This critically acclaimed production, which broke box office records at the Circle in the Square in New York, runs for a limited engagement at Wyndham’s Theatre.

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