Following its critically acclaimed, award-winning Broadway run, ALL THE WAY, a riveting behind-the-scenes look at President Lyndon B. Johnson's tumultuous first year in office in the wake of President Kennedy's assassination, comes to HBO this May, while the exclusive presentation of Broadway's LADY DAY AT EMERSON'S BAR & GRILL, starring six-time Tony winner Audra McDonald, will air Saturday, March 12.
Bryan Cranston (four-time Emmy®winner for "Breaking Bad") reprises his Tony Award-winning role for the HBO Films presentation of ALL THE WAY, which is directed by Jay Roach ("Trumbo"; Emmy®winner for HBO's "Game Change" and "Recount") from a screenplay by Robert Schenkkan (Pulitzer Prize winner for "The Kentucky Cycle"; two-time Emmy® nominee and Writers Guild Award winner for HBO's "The Pacific"), who has adapted his Tony Award-winning play of the same name.
Co-starring with Cranston are Anthony Mackie (Martin LUTHER King), Melissa Leo (Lady Bird Johnson), Bradley Whitford (Hubert Humphrey) and Frank Langella (Sen. Richard Russell).
Additional cast members include Joe Morton (Roy Wilkins), Stephen Root (J. Edgar Hoover), Marque Richardson (Bob Moses), Aisha Hinds (Fanny Lou Hamer), Todd Weeks (Walter Jenkins), Mo McRae (Stokely Carmichael) and Spencer Garrett (Walter Reuther).
The 2014 Broadway production of "All the Way," starring Cranston, swept the awards season, winning Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, Drama League and Tony awards, as well as the Steinberg/American Theater Critics Award, the inaugural Edward M. KENNEDY Award and Boston's Elliot Norton Award. The play also set Broadway box-office records twice for biggest weekly gross of a new play (non-musical).Originally written for off-Broadway by Lanie Roberston in 1987, LADY DAY AT EMERSON'S BAR & GRILL tells 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."
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. The show's run at the Circle in THE SQUARE Theatre on Broadway was extended four times due to high demand.
Also the recipient of two GRAMMY AWARDS and an Emmy® Award, McDonald was named one of TIME magazine's 100 most influential people of 2015. Aside from her Tony-winning performances in "Carousel," "Master Class," "Ragtime," "A Raisin in the Sun," "The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess" and "Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill," McDonald has appeared on Broadway in "The Secret Garden," "Marie Christine" (Tony nomination), "Henry IV" and "110 in the Shade" (Tony nomination). McDonald returns to Broadway this year in "Shuffle Along."
The Juilliard-trained soprano's opera credits include "La Voix Humaine" and "Send" at the Houston Grand Opera and "Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny" at the Los Angeles Opera. McDonald also maintains a major career as a concert artist, regularly appearing on the great stages of the world and with leading international orchestras.
McDonald's most recent TV appearances include playing the Mother Abbess in "The Sound of Music Live!" and Dr. Naomi Bennett on "Private Practice." Her other TV credits include "The Good Wife," "Homicide: Life on the Street," "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit," "Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters' First 100 Years," "The Bedford Diaries," "Kidnapped" and the 1999 remake of "Annie."
She won an Emmy® Award for hosting PBS's "Live From Lincoln Center" in 2015, having previously been nominated for "A Raisin in the Sun" and HBO's "Wit."
McDonald has appeared in such feature films as "Seven Servants," "The Object of My Affection," "Cradle Will Rock," "It Runs in the Family," "The Best Thief in the World," "She Got Problems," "Rampart" and, most recently, "Ricki and the Flash."
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