Lady Day: further casting announced

Further casting has been announced for the upcoming Billie Holiday musical Lady Day, written and directed by Stephen Stahl, and starring three times Grammy Award winner Dee Dee Bridgewater as 'Billie Holiday.

Joining Bridgewater are David Ayers ('Wicked' and 'SILENCE!') in the role of 'Robert,' Billie Holiday's Manager along with newcomer Rafael Poueriet in the role of the 'Assistant Stage manager' as well as Jim Cammack (veteran bass player for jazz pianist Ahmad Jamal), Ken Hitchcock (NY Saxophone Quartet & Manhattan Jazz Orchestra's tenor sax player), Jerome Jennings (performer & drummer for Benny Golson and Sonny Rollins) and Bill Jolly(three-time Emmy Award winning pianist/composer/arranger).

Lady Day will make its New York debut having been produced at the Theatre de Boulogne-Billancourt and Theatre du Gymnase Marie Bell in Paris as well as The Donmar Warehouse and The Piccadilly Theatre in London, where it garnered an Olivier "Best Actress in a Musical" Award nomination for Bridgewater.

The original play with music on the life of Billie Holiday, "Lady Day" features a cavalcade of Holiday hit songs and tells the story of how Holiday attempts a final comeback performance.

Told through onstage triumphs and backstage personal trials, the production features over twenty-five standards including: "Don't Explain," "Good Morning Heartache," "A Foggy Day (In London Town)," "Them There Eyes," "Strange Fruit," "My Man," "God Bless the Child," and "Mean to Me."

The creative team features sets by Beowulf Boritt, costumes by Patricia A. Hibbert, lighting by Ryan O'Gara abd sound by Brett Jarvis.

The show is being produced off-Broadway by Misty Road Productions.

Dee Dee Bridgewater has received nine Grammy Award nominations and three wins: Best Jazz Vocal Album for "Dear Ella," Best Arrangement Accompanying a Vocal for "Cotton Tail" (from "Dear Ella"), and the 2011 Grammy for Best Jazz Vocal Album for "Eleanora Fagan (1915-1959): To Billie With Love From Dee Dee." Broadway audiences will remember her role as 'Glinda,' the Good Witch, in 'The Wiz' a performance that won her the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical.