Although she's best known as the no-nonsense Nurse Haleh Adams on TV's "ER," Yvette Freeman is a theatre veteran, winning an Obie in 1998'sDinah Was Off-Broadway. May 8-12 , Freeman returns to the role of Dinah Washington for Los Angeles' Theatre Works.

Set in the lobby of a Vegas hotel in 1959, Dinah Was finds the great "Queen of the Blues" refusing to perform because the casino management won't let her in unless she has a white escort. In the course of the evening, Freeman recounts Washington's life story and recreates such standards as "What a Difference a Day Makes", "I Wanna Be Loved" and "I Won't Cry Anymore."

Joining Freeman are her Obie-winning co-star Adriane Lenox (Kiss Me, Kate), Bud Leslie, and Darryl Alan Reed. Lanny Hartley, Freeman's husband, is the musical director.

Tickets are $36-$40. Skirball Cultural Center is located at 2701 N. Sepulveda Blvd. For reservations, call (310) 827-0889.

All TheatreWorks theatre productions are recorded for future broadcast on public radio KPCC, on XM Satellite Radio and are sold on the L.A. Theatre Works homepage at http://www.latw.org. In the past 14 years, productions have won several awards including the Corporation for Public Broadcasting's Gold and Silver Awards, three Sony Awards, the Writer's Guild of America's Best Comedy Award and the 1999 Audie Award for Best Dramatic Production from the Audio Publishers Association. Their recording of The Prisoner of Second Avenue, featuring Richard Dreyfuss and Mason, was recently nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Spoken Comedy Album. — By Christine Ehren