Audra McDonald is finally to make her previously postponed West End bow, reprising her Tony winning performance in Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill, beginning performances June 17 prior to an official opening June 27, at Wyndham’s Theatre, for a run through September 9.
She was previously announced to bring the play to the West End in the summer of 2016 (for which she was going to take a hiatus from Shuffle Along, in which she was starring on Broadway at the time), but the engagement had to be postponed due to her pregnancy.
This production was first seen at Broadway’s Circle in the Square Theatre in 2014, where it opened April 13, and ran for 173 performances and 20 previews. Written by Lanie Robertson and directed by Lonny Price, the play is set in 1959, in a small, intimate bar in Philadelphia where it finds Holiday putting on one of the last performances of her lifetime. McDonald won her sixth Tony Award for the performance, making her the most Tony-decorated performer of all time, and the first and only person to receive awards in all four Tony acting categories.
McDonald previously appeared in London in concert at the Donmar Warehouse in 1999, She also appeared in the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall, including a concert staging of Wonderful Town in 1999 and The Last Night of the Proms in 2002. She has won Tony Awards for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Play for Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill in 2014, for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical for The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess in 2012, for Best Featured Actress in a Play for Master Class in 1996 and A Raisin in the Sun in 2004, and for Best Featured Actress in a Musical for Ragtime in 1998 and Carousel in 1994. She has in addition been nominated for Best Actress in a Musical for Marie Christine in 2000 and 110 in the Shade in 2007.
Prior to making her West End debut in Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill this summer, Audra McDonald will travel to London to perform four concerts at the Leicester Square Theatre hosted by Seth Rudetsky and featuring special guest Will Swenson from April 12 to 15, as previously announced.
To book tickets, contact the box office at 0844 482 5120 or visit LadyDayWestEnd.com.
