Lady Of The Day Is LADY DAY AT EMERSON'S BAR & GRILL at Beck Center

Beck Center for the Arts to produce Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill, featuring regional favorite and talent Nicole Sumlin. This limited engagement runs March 15 to April 14, 2019 in the Studio Theater. This intimate performance space will be transformed into a 1950's nightclub, complete with cabaret seating options on the stage. Show times are 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 3 p.m. Sundays. Buy early and save with promo code: BILLIE to receive $5 off each adult/senior ticket purchased by March 14. Preview performance is the Thursday before opening night, March 14. Tickets range from $10 Smart Seats to $33 each. Group and student discounts are available. Tickets are on sale now.

A perfect fit in Beck Center's 85th Season of Professional Theater, this production was written by Lanie Robertson, known for his work on iconic women and the world around them during turbulent times. Directed by artistic director Scott Spence, Musical Direction by Ed Ridley, and featuring Nicole Sumlin, this piece is not to be missed. The play received two 2014 Outer Critics Circle Awards nominations and two 2014 Tony Award nominations. Audra McDonald, as Billie Holiday, won the Outer Critics Circle Award and a Tony Award for her performance.

Nicknamed 'Lady Day' by saxophonist Lester Young, Billie Holiday was one of the greatest jazz voices of all time. The award-winning Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill takes place in 1959 at a small Philadelphia club where she takes to the stage for one of the last shows of her accomplished, yet turbulent life. More than a dozen musical numbers, including 'God Bless the Child' and 'Strange Fruit,' are interlaced with salty, often humorous, reminiscences to project a riveting portrait of the lady and her music.

Scott Spence, director of Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill says this production "affords us a duel look at one of the legendary vocalists of the last 100 years. While the Billie Holiday we see here is the product of years of drug abuse and an extraordinarily difficult life, we also get to see the spirit and not-so-diminishing talents of what we know is a legend for the ages. Billie's depth is amazingly expressed in both song and story in this 90 minute glimpse into greatness."

Nicole Sumlin is an Actors' Equity Association member, a singer, director, and arts educator based in Cleveland, with New York theater credits. Her regional work includes A Raisin in the Sun at Ensemble Theatre , Treasure Island at Ohio Shakespeare Festival, Memphis at Cain Park, Caroline, or Change at Tantrum Theater, Minton's Place at Cleveland Play House, Mr. Burns: A Post-Electric Play at Cleveland Public Theatre, A Civil War Christmas at Dobama Theatre. She has also performed at Near West Theater, Mercury Theatre Company, MOCA-CLE, Bop Stop, Nighttown, and Severance Hall. Setting the mood for this immersive atmosphere is Ed Ridley as Jimmy Powers (Billie's pianist), who is also the musical director. Bradford McGhee plays bass.

Beck Center is located at 17801 Detroit Avenue in Lakewood, just ten minutes west of downtown Cleveland. Free onsite parking is available. For more information visit beckcenter.org or call Beck Center Customer Service at 216.521.2540 x10.

This production of Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill is presented through special arrangement with Samuel French Inc. Programming at Beck Center for the Arts is made possible through the generous support of the Ohio Arts Council. Beck Center gratefully acknowledges the generous funding provided by the citizens of Cuyahoga County through Cuyahoga Arts and Culture.

Beck Center for the Arts is a not-for-profit 501(c)3 organization that offers professional theater productions on two stages, arts education programming in dance, music, theater, visual arts, early childhood, and creative arts therapies for individuals with special needs, free gallery exhibits year-round, and outreach education programming.