Annotation

Experience on disc the performance that won Audra McDonald her unprecedented sixth Tony Award. "One of the greatest performances I ever hope to see" is how New York Magazine described McDonald's portrayal of Billie Holiday in Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill, Lanie Robertson's award-winning play with music dramatizing one of the final concerts in the beloved singer's extraordinary, tragic life. Recorded live at Broadway's Circle in the Square Theatre, the two-disc set features McDonald's "spellbinding, tour-de-force" (NY Daily News) renditions of signature Holiday songs such as "God Bless the Child," "What a Little Moonlight Can Do," "Strange Fruit" and "Taint Nobody's Biz-ness." The Associated Press proclaimed Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill "one of the supreme honors of the Broadway season," while The New York Times delighted in "the pleasure of hearing Ms. McDonald breathe aching life into some of Holiday's greatest songs... with sensitive musicianship and rich seams of feeling that command rapt admiration." Now, "the best 90 minutes you'll ever witness" (NY1) have been preserved on disc by PS Classics, giving audiences the chance to savor "not just one but two of the most extraordinarily gifted dramatic vocalists America has produced" (Los Angeles Times).

Tracklist

1CD
#TitleLength
1Introduction1:57
2I Wonder Where Our Love Has Gone1:44
3When a Woman Loves a Man
recording of:
When a Woman Loves a Man
lyricist:
Johnny Mercer (in 1938)
composer:
Bernie Hanighen (in 1938) and Gordon Jenkins (in 1938)
publisher:
Anne-Rachel Music Corp.
2:19
4“I’m even glad to be back in Philly…”
1:47
5“I want to introduce my accompanist…”
0:54
6What a Little Moonlight Can Do2:52
7“We got this contract…”
2:24
8Crazy He Calls Me2:25
9“They used to be hangin’ from the rafters…”
7:07
10Gimme a Pigfoot (and a Bottle of Beer)2:02
11“That was in the early thirties…”
1:44
12Baby Doll
recording of:
Baby Doll
writer:
Bessie Smith and Harold Webman
publisher:
Frank Music Corp.
2:05
13“I better watch myself here…”
6:50
14God Bless the Child4:23
15“That was for my mama…”
0:16
2CD