![]() ![]() "I'm excited to honor Billie's human experience and tell her story," Talese said in a release. Holiday was born in the city in 1915 and lived there briefly before moving to Baltimore. ![]() The performer took part in 6ABC special, "Looking For Lady Day" in 2021, talking about the musician's cultural impact and connections to Philadelphia. Talese will make her theatrical debut as Holiday on April 7 when "Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill" begins its run at PTC. Just four months after her Philadelphia performance, Holiday died from complications from cirrhosis of the liver. The show is based on an actual performance of Holiday's at Emerson's Tavern, a small jazz club that sat near the intersection of 15th and Bainbridge streets in South Philadelphia before its closure in 1960. It includes more than a dozen musical numbers, including beloved songs like "What a Moonlight Can Do," "Crazy He Calls Me," "Easy Living," "Strange Fruit," "Taint Nobody's Biz-ness If I Do" and "God Bless The Child." The songs are woven into the story as a fictionalized Holiday reminisces on her loves and losses. ![]() The play, which premiered in Atlanta in 1986, recounts Holiday's life and career through the songs that made her famous. MORE: Admire the beauty of spring at Philly's cherry blossom festival ![]() Cleveland native vocalist and composer Laurin Talese will portray the jazz and swing icon at the Center City theater from April 7-30. That is the story behind "Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill," the Tony-winning musical by Lanie Robertson that will make its debut at the Philadelphia Theatre Company next month. Just a few months before her death in 1959, Billie Holiday took the stage at a sleazy bar in South Philadelphia and performed some of her most memorable hits for a small audience in her hometown. ![]()
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