The original cast recording of Broadway's Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill, which topped four of the Billboard Charts in its first week of release (#1 in Cast Albums, #1 in Jazz, #1 in Traditional Jazz and #1 in Heatseekers), continues to hold on to it's Number One spot on the Cast Album chart, according to Billboard.com
The album comes in ahead of Wicked's Original Broadway Cast Recording, which comes in at Number 2 after 448 weeks on the charts, and
Idina Menzel's If/Then, which first debuted eight weeks ago.
Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill began performances on March 25th, 2014, and opened on April 13th, 2014. In addition to
Audra McDonald's Tony Award for Best Leading
Actress in a Play, the productions sound designer Steve Canyon
Kennedy won the 2014 Tony Award for Best Sound Design of a Play.
Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill recounts Holiday's life story through the songs that made her famous. 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.
Among the songs that are performed: "God Bless the Child," "What a Little Moonlight Can Do," "Strange Fruit" and "Taint Nobody's Biz-ness."
Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill is directed by Ms. McDonald's frequent collaborator,
Lonny Price.
Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill is produced by
Jeffrey Richards,
Jerry Frankel,
Jessica Genick, and
Will Trice, who are joined by
Ronald Frankel,
Rebecca Gold,
Roger Berlind,
Ken Greiner,
Gabrielle Palitz,
Irene Gandy and GFour Productions.
Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill made its award-winning premiere with off-Broadway's
Vineyard Theatre in 1986.
