Singer Dee Dee Bridgewater will be playing Billie Holiday in a new Broadway production Lady Day, whose premier is planed at the Little Shubert Theater on 26 September.
The musical was named after a nickname of the timeless artist and one of the greatest in jazz history. Directed by Stephen Stahl, this will be his New York debut after a very successful production of the musical in Paris and London during the 80’s.
“It’s a life-long dream to bring this show to New York, and I am so pleased that it’s finally going to happen,” stated Mr. Stahl and added “the last 25 years has given me many new perspectives of life-challenges and I am honored for this opportunity to incorporate some of my personal observations into the new ‘Lady Day’ script.”
Lady Day brings the story of a great Billie Holiday performance that announced her final comeback, it will present 25 of most popular songs of the legendary singer, among which are Strange Fruit, My Man, God Bless the Child and Mean to Me.
The Broadway audience remembers Bridgewater in the role of Glinda, a good witch in the musical The Wiz for which the singer won the Tony Award in 1975 for best female part in a musical.
This is just one of many awards Bridgewater won in her career. We are going to mention that she is a three time Grammy Award winner. She won her latest Grammy in 2011 for the album Eleanora Fagan (1915-1959): To Billie With Love From Dee Dee. Billie Holiday was born as Eleanora Fagan on 7 April 1915.