Billie Holiday to return to Apollo Theatre as hologram

PanARMENIAN.Net - Legendary singer Billie Holiday will return to the New York stage posthumously this year as the Apollo Theatre launches hologram performances, ABC News reports.

The Apollo, the iconic cradle of jazz located in Harlem, announced on Wednesday, September 9, it would be the first theatre in the United States to feature regular programming by hologram.

The first performance will take place later in the year — a show by Holiday, one of the greatest influences on generations of jazz and pop singers, who died destitute in 1959.

"The possibilities inherent in this initiative are very exciting, allowing us the ability to show the enduring impact and relevance of artists across time periods and geographic locations," said Jonelle Procope, president and chief executive of the Apollo Theatre.

Procope said the Holiday show, made in consultation with her estate, and subsequent performances would also accommodate the growing number of daytime tourists looking to visit the famous theatre.

Holiday, who would have turned 100 last April, sang frequently at the Apollo — one of the few racially integrated theatres at the time — including an early performance of the seminal protest song Strange Fruit about lynchings of African Americans in the US south.