Record-breaking Tony Award Winner Audra McDonald has yet another hit on her hands, this time in the form of PS Classics Lady Day Live album featuring the vocal styling of McDonald as the late singer, Billie Holiday.
Lady Day Live has garnered it’s second week at the top of the Billboard Cast Album charts and is the first to do so consecutively since PS Classics 2011 release, Follies. Lady Day Live is also showing strength in the Jazz and Traditional Jazz charts placing #2 behind Michael Bublé. In it’s first week, not only did it chart #1 in Cast albums but also in Jazz, Traditional Jazz, and Heatseekers, making it McDonald’s highest charting solo release ever.
In an interview with Playbill.com, co-founder of PS Classics, Philip Chaffin offered his take on the success of the album:
“First-week sales are typically strong, because they include all the weeks of pre-orders. So it’s the second-week sales that are telling; usually you have a strong first week, then the second week, you fall behind Wicked. That’s been the pattern for years. So it’s really gratifying to see Lady Day holding up so well. You know, we had a lot of customers write us when we announced the recording, wondering why we were doing it live, and why the whole show – I think there was a little resistance – but many of those same customers, once we released the album, wrote us back to say, ‘Oh, now I get it.’ From the emails and reviews we’ve gotten, people are really feeling that all the heart and humor and drama of the evening comes through so clearly even without the visuals, and that’s such a tribute of course to Audra’s magnificent performance, but also to Lanie Robertson‘s play, which is so rich with detail and emotion. It’s wonderful to see both the Broadway and the jazz communities embracing the album as they have.”
The track listing for the album includes the following songs recorded live during the May 27-31 performances and is produced by Tommy Krasker who also produced McDonald’s first three solo albums.
Disc One:
Introduction
I Wonder Where Our Love Has Gone
When a Woman Loves a Man
“I’m even glad to be back in Philly…”
“I want to introduce my accompanist…”
What a Little Moonlight Can Do
“We got this contract…”
Crazy He Calls Me
“They used to be hangin’ from the rafters…”
Gimme a Pigfoot (and a Bottle of Beer)
“That was in the early thirties…”
Baby Doll
“I better watch myself here…”
God Bless the Child
“That was for my mama…”
Disc Two:
“Nobody but me ever liked Sonny…”
Foolin’ Myself/Somebody’s on My Mind
Easy Living
“I was singin’ with Artie’s band…”
Strange Fruit
“It’s bad again, Jimmy…”
Blues Break
“Now I’ll take a little break right here…”
‘Tain’t Nobody’s Biz-ness If I Do
“I want you all to meet Pepi…”
“I was doin’ the bad drugs heavy…”
Don’t Explain / What a Little Moonlight Can Do (Reprise)
Deep Song
In other Lady Day news, it’s been reported that the production has already recouped it’s $2.3M investment so brava to Audra and the supporting members of the show!
