(1888PressRelease)
November 18, 2007 - Grammy Award winning actress and singer Jennifer Holliday has been on the stage since the tender age of 19 landing her first big role on Broadway in 1979 in the production “Your Arms Too Short To Box With God†. She know best for her performance as Effie Melody White in the hit musical Broadway show Dreamgirls. Her performance in the role was widely acclaimed, particularly in her iconic performance of the musical number that ends Act I, "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going".
This will be Jennifer Holliday’s first performance in 20years in San Francisco. Among the acclaim was Holliday's sweep of awards in 1982, including the Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical, a Grammy Award for her recorded version of the song, and Drama Desk and Theater World awards for the performance. Holliday also performed in the touring company of Sing, Mahalia, Sing in 1986. The song became very successful, peaking at number-one on the Billboard R&B Singles chart, and number 22 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States. She continued to have success as a recording artist through the rest of the decade. Her follow-up song, "I Am Love", became another hit in 1983.
Holliday's later R&B, Pop and/or Dance chart and radio hits included. "Hard Time For Lovers" (1985), "No Frills Love" (1985), "Heart on the Line" (1987), "I'm on Your Side" (1991) and "A Woman's Got the Power" (2000). "A Woman's Got the Power" charted at #7 in summer of 1999. However, it recharted the following year, peaking at #1. She continued to appear on the charts throughout the 1990s, but never had the same level of success she had in the 1980s. Holliday was a featured vocalist on the #1 single "I Want to Know What Love Is" by Foreigner in 1985.
Apart from her career in the music industry and on the stage, Holliday has also made appearances on primetime television. In addition to appearances on Touched By An Angel and Hang Time, she had a half dozen appearances in a recurring guest star role on Ally McBeal, where she played choir director Lisa Knowles.
In 2001, she sang America The Beautiful on the first WWE pay-per-view to be held after the September 11 terrorist attacks.
On June 26, 2007 she made a surprise appearance at the BET Awards singing "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going" in a duet with Jennifer Hudson, who portrayed Effie White in a 2006 film adaptation of Dreamgirls. Holliday had repeatedly expressed her displeasure with the film version of Dreamgirls in the media, also noting that she was not offered a cameo role in the film (one of the other original Dreamgirls cast members, Loretta Devine, was given a cameo in the film version.
Herbst Theater
San FranciscoWar Memorial and Performing Arts Center
401 Van Ness Avenue, Room 110
San Francisco, CA 94102
Regarding the Performance:
For tickets, call (415) 392-4400 or www.cityoxoffice.com for details
For Press information contact: Angela Thomas: (201) 503-1333
LiDan Long
Prana Marketing
560 Sylvan Ave
Englewood, Cliffs NJ 07632
201.503.1333(O)
404.323.0271(C)
###
