For 4 performances only, the Tony Award winning, Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill will play at the Award winning Waterfront Playhouse, now celebrating its 80th Anniversary.

Performances are at 8pm February 12,13,14,15 and tickets can be obtained by calling 305-294-5015 or by visiting waterfrontplayhouse.org. Following the closing performance, the Waterfront will host a party in the sculpture garden catered by The Saint.

Photo: Kenney M. Green, Tracey Conyer Lee. Photo credit: Sue & Michael Karchmer

Taking place in Philadelphia, audiences are treated to one of the final performances by Billie Holiday. Peppered with salty dialogue and such songs as :”When a Woman Loves a Man” ,”What a Little Moonlight Can Do” , “Gimme a Pigfoot (And a Bottle of Beer)”, “God Bless the Child” , “Strange Fruit”, “T’ain’t Nobody’s Business If I Do”, “What a Little Moonlight Can Do”  and many more.

The show will star Tracey Conyer Lee as Billie Holiday. This marks Ms. Lee’s 5th production of Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill: her 2nd with Mr. Free, her 3rd with Mr. Green. Recent roles include Clairee in Steel Magnolias, Cynthia in Sweat and Ida Green in Into the Breeches.

Other acting highlights include original off-Broadway casts of Sistas, The Musical and Bedbugs!!! It’s a Musical as well as Carbonell, NAACP, and Barrymore Award winning work at regional theaters including Yale Rep, Baltimore Centerstage, Denver Center, Pittsburgh Public, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Portland Stage, Actors Theatre of Louisville, St. Louis Rep, Cincinnati Playhouse, Theatre of the Stars, Detroit Public Theatre, Laguna Playhouse, TheatreWorks, Delaware Theatre Co, Westport Playhouse, Merrimack Rep, Virginia Stage, Ogunquit Playhouse, Great Lakes, Cleveland Playhouse, Palm Beach Dramaworks, Pittsburgh CLO, Syracuse Stage, InterAct, Bucks County Playhouse, Weston Playhouse, national and international tours totaling more than 75+ productions.

Onscreen highlights include roles on “The Path”, “SMASH”, “L&O: Criminal Intent”, “Ed”, “All My Children”, “Guiding Light”. Also a playwright, Ms. Lee’s plays have received development or production in New York, Boston, DC, Vermont and Chicago.

Kenney M. Greene will play her music director Jimmy.  His Off-Broadway credits include: Finks! (Ensemble Studio Theatre), Growing Up 70’s  starring Barry Williams (Luther).  National/European Tours: Smokey Joe’s Cafe starring Gladys Knight (Victor/Dance Capt.), Ain’t Misbehavin’, The Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber , (Ensemble).  Regional: Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (Atkins), Avenue Q (Gary Coleman), Diva Diaries: The Musical  [WORLD PREMIERE] (Young Randee Jean), Ain’t Misbehavin’ (Milwaukee Rep./Arkansas Rep), The Music Man, A Chorus Line, The Full Monty, Once On This Island, and many more.

He will be joined by Skipper Kripitz and Geoff Lowe.

Kevin R. Free (Director) is a multidisciplinary artist whose work as an actor, writer, director, and producer has been showcased and developed in many places, including The Moth Radio Hour; Project Y Theater; Flux Theater Ensemble; the Queerly Festival (of which he is now the curator), and The Fire This Time Festival, where he served as Producing Artistic Director for 5 years, winning an Obie for his work in 2015.

As a director, he has a longstanding collaboration with Tracey Conyer Lee, whose solo play STANDING UP: Bathroom Talk and Other Stuff We Learn From Dad, and her full- lengths THE FIRST TIME and Rabbit Summer (formerly Waiting for Superman) he directed in both readings and workshops. Other favorite directing credits include The Last Five Years (Portland Stage); GLORY (Dixon Place); and  Topdog/Underdog (University of Arkansas). The 1986, Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill opened on Broadway at Circle in the Square on April 13, 2014. Directed by Lonny Price, the production starred Audra McDonald as Billie Holiday and featured Shelton Becton as pianist Jimmy Powers and won Audra McDonald won her record-breaking sixth Tony Award for the production.

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