She’s been on Broadway & TV. Now KCK native plays jazz legend in ‘perfect homecoming’
Angela Wildflower’s journey over the past 15 years has taken her from Los Angeles to New York and from Whitefish, Montana, to South Sudan. Now she is returning to where her career began.
The Kansas City, Kansas, native will star in “Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill,” which opens Tuesday, Oct. 8, at the Kansas City Repertory Theatre’s Copaken Stage. She will portray jazz legend Billie Holiday, who was known as “Lady Day,” in what is essentially a one-woman play (also on stage will be Brian Ward as Holiday’s accompanist).
“I feel like everything I’ve done up to this point has been a culmination to this show, of what would be needed to tell the story at this level,” she said by phone recently. “I feel very blessed to have this opportunity. A one-woman show, they don’t come around very often.”
Wildflower was a regular in Coterie and Theatre for Young America productions locally in the early and mid-2000s. But her only previous KC Rep appearance came in the first-ever production of “Venice” in 2010, a part she landed shortly after relocating from Kansas City to Los Angeles. She now lives in New York, where she moved when “Venice” played off-Broadway.
She has since performed on Broadway (“Motown the Musical”) and appeared around the country in “The Color Purple” and other productions. She also has multiple TV credits, including “Russian Doll,” “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” “Atlanta” and “Blue Bloods.”
Still, she wasn’t confident KC Rep wanted her for “Lady Day.”
“There’s not the sense that just because I’m from here that things will work out, because I’ve auditioned for other things here that I didn’t book,” she said. “But this was just the right time, and it was the perfect homecoming.”
Wildflower, a Schlagle High School graduate, grew up as Angela Polk but used the stage name “Wildflower” early in her singing career. After she performed as Angela Wildflower Polk for a while, her agent suggested that name was too long.
“Angela Wildflower is just where I landed,” she said.
Meanwhile, she has never veered from her life’s goals.
“I’ve known what I was supposed to do since I was 9 years old,” Wildflower said. “I really had a vision of what my life would be, and I knew I would be an actor/singer and I wanted to help people. And so I’ve really held strong to that vision of my life.”
Helping people, primarily children, is how she’s traveled even farther for her arts education Dream Camps and nonprofit 1UrbanGirl. She traveled to the African nation of South Sudan, one of the world’s poorest countries, in 2022 to interact with kids who had little access to arts and since has created a scholarship program there.
Through all her travels, Kansas City remains home. Wildflower’s family remains here and, in fact, so does her cellphone — she still has a 913 number.
“I’m very proud to be from here, very proud to be from Kansas City, Kansas, to be from Wyandotte County,” Wildflower said. “My roots are deep. I really have carried that with me across this whole world.”
Here’s what you need to know if you plan to attend “Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill.”
When and where will it run?
The musical opens at 7 p.m. Oct. 8, and runs through Oct. 27, with shows nightly Tuesday-Friday (except Oct. 22) and shows at 2 and 8 p.m. on Saturdays, at KC Rep’s Copaken Stage. The theater is in the H&R Block headquarters in the Power & Light District, 1 H&R Block Way.
How much does it cost?
Tickers range from $44 to $70.
Where can I park?
Parking is available on Levels 2-5 in the garage beneath the building via Main Street or Walnut Street between 13th and 14th streets.
Other things to know
▪ The play is a fictionalized version of a 1959 performance by Billie Holiday at a South Philadelphia bar four months before her death. The establishment has long since closed, but the building still stands.
▪ It features 14 musical numbers, including “What a Moonlight Can Do,” “Strange Fruit” and “God Bless the Child.”
▪ The production is recommended for ages 14 and older. It mentions drug and alcohol use, sexual violence, racism and racial violence and includes racial slurs.
Where can I get more information?
