Friday 5: 5 Favorite Audra McDonald Performances

5 Favorite Audra McDonald Performances

With only 6 Tony Awards (and a meager 10 nominations), maybe some day Audra McDonald will be a success on the Broadway stage, right? My first memory of her wasn't on Broadway, but on a national tour stop for The Secret Garden, where she played a small, but noticeable role, Ayah. It was the role in which she'd make her Broadway debut - as Audra Ann McDonald. She's been somewhat successful since then... 

Here are our 5 favorite Broadway performances from this incredible actress:

5. Billie Holiday - Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill (Broadway - 2014): 

Boozy Audra is captivating. We hung on her every word. Billie Holiday would have been so honored.

 

4. Bess - The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess (Broadway - 2012): 

A classic role for a classic singer! Her pair of duets with co-star Norm Lewis ("Bess, You Is My Woman Now" and "I Loves You, Porgy") were lightning in a bottle, so passionate and moving.

 

3. Carrie Pipperidge - Carousel (Broadway - 1994): 

Mike recalls her earthy take on Carrie frequently and with delight. Surely, this was a unique and lively star-making turn, earning her her first Tony Award!

 

2. Sarah - Ragtime (Broadway - 1998): 

I've often said that Ragtime was kind of disappointing to me as a staged production, at least as compared to the glorious cast recording. But the biggest exception to that assessment was the brilliant, epic (and devastating) performance by Ms. McDonald.

 

1. Rose - Gypsy (Broadway - 2025): 

I admit I was one of those "What?? Another Gypsy?" people when this was announced. Of course, with Audra attached, I still had to see it. I've seen many great Roses over the years, but honestly, watching her tear up that Majestic stage was as jaw-dropping as it was refreshing. It was like a whole new show. I shouldn't be surprised, though. I mean, she is pretty much the gold standard in everything she does. What a privilege to be there to see it.

Celebrating Audra McDonald: Our Favorite Moments

This week, we celebrate another amazing woman - another July 3rd birthday lady - who thrills with everything she does, on TV, on film, and, of course, the Broadway stage. With a record 6 Tony Awards (and several more nominations!), and critical acclaim that accompanies everything she does, it's safe to say that Audra McDonald is a living legend.

Celebrating Audra McDonald:

Our Favorite Moments

(in no particular order)

Sarah singing to her child ("Your Daddy's Son") in Ragtime (Broadway) - A touching moment in a show full of them. And yet, her heartfelt performance is the one that sticks in my memory. So beautiful. 

"Mr. Snow" in Carousel (Broadway) - She was very joyful and sort of sexual.  She played up the ever-so-slightly-suggestive lines in the song, throwing herself on a table when she sang, "Here I am, Mr. Snow, here I am!"

Madame Garderobe in Beauty and the Beast (film) - Proof that there are no small parts, only small actors. She makes a meal out of a morsel here, with wit and grace. Funny, and spot-on in her send-up of the operatic diva-turned-wardrobe.  I mean look at the poster!

The Beggar Woman in Sweeney Todd (Live from Lincoln Center) - Her voice is a perfect match for this role, and her acting was superb. I wonder when we'll get her as Mrs. Lovett? Why not?

Her boozy descent in Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill (Broadway) - Holding the entire audience in the palm of her hand from the moment she took the stage, watching this insanely detailed performance was indeed a pleasure. But witnessing her gradual unraveling as she drank and drugged her way to rock bottom was a true privilege.

Bess in Porgy and Bess (Broadway) - We sat, literally, as far from the stage at the Richard Rodgers Theatre as one can. And yet, we felt her captivating performance. The stunning vocals, the just as stunning acting, and her chemistry with Norm Lewis was off the charts. Truly mesmerizing.

The Mother Abbess in The Sound of Music Live! (television) - It was a groundbreaking production, and her natural abilities in front of the camera together with her live performance prowess really helped the entire endeavor, particularly in the moving duet she shared with star Carrie Underwood. Ms. Underwood took full advantage of the scene, probably her most confident of the evening. Thanks, Audra!

Singing "The Ladies Who Lunch" with Christine Baranski and Meryl Streep in Take Me to the World (streaming) - Mike described her funny and warm performance like this: "She is someone who has such a grace and stature but still seems completely down to earth."

I think that sums her up perfectly.

#2597

The Tony Awards: The Best Revival of a Play Nominees on TV

The nominees for Best Revival of a Play represent a wide variety of plays - comedy and drama, classic American, classic modern European, and classic (in every way) Shakespeare.  They also represent some of the very best in theatre from the entire season!

The Cripple of Inishmaan



Grade: C Okay, they can claim "The Most Tony Nominations of Any Play On Broadway," but on a technicality... the plays that got the most, its competition, no less, isn't "on" Broadway anymore.  And a laugh track to show how "funny" it is?  Wow.  Don't get me wrong, I loved the play, and they are smart to include some of the visual comedy in the ad, but people shouldn't go into it expecting a guffaw-fest.  And, just as with the Tony nominations, the best thing about it, star Daniel Radcliffe gets the short shrift here.

Twelfth Night



Grade: A  Since it closed long before the Tony nominations, obviously they couldn't come up with/didn't need an awards-related ad.  But what is here represents the show perfectly, from the "Elizabethan" sounding British voice, to the visuals that match the critical huzzahs and still manage to capture Shakespearean grandeur and simplicity of the production.  Classy.  The ad, like the production, is first-rate.

A Raisin in the Sun
Apparently, there is no TV ad for Raisin, at least not one I could find.  Of course, who needs one, when your show is already sold out!

The Glass Menagerie
I've already rhapsodized over this brilliant show many times.  And the same for their commercial - HERE.

BONUS!: Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill






Both Grade A+: Let there be no doubt, even in these 15 second ads, that Audra McDonald loses herself (and any previous expectations the audience might have) in the role of Billie Holiday.  And the song choices tht go along with the montage of bits match the actual show's tone and serious nature.  Has anyone done "cut-up shtick" and looked so tragic doing it? The ads make this look like must-see theatre, and for Audra alone, it is.

Jeff
5.178

REVIEW: Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill

Review of the Sunday, May 11 matinee at the Circle in the Square Theatre in New York City.  Starring Audra McDonald. Directed by Lonny Price. 90 minutes, no intermission.  Through August 10. 90 minutes, no intermission.

Grade: B+ 

Were anyone else starring in Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill, there would really be no other reason for this slight play with music to even come close to a Broadway theater.  For like every other bio-play/bio-musical this season, playwright Lanie Robertson lets a great opportunity pass right by.  Just like the Wikipedia/Behind-the-Music treatment Carole King and Janis Joplin have gotten earlier this season, another icon with a ton of baggage, Billie Holiday, gets gussied up in a slick presentation, with mere glimpses of what might have been.  I've asked it before, and I'll ask it again: if her life cried out for dramatization, why does the result lack so much drama?

There are a few moments in the show that lack the awkward shoe-horning of facts, and actually reveal the context in which Lady Day suffered, and some of the many reasons for her pain.  One of those moments is a story about the segregation of the South, and the dehumanizing treatment she got in a restaurant.  It lead to one hell of a punchline, and a hearty laugh from the audience, followed by a sort of stunned, awkward silence as we realized her humor about it covered the pain and anger, and we were witnessing the sad long-term result. And there are two gasp-inducing seconds - one when she nearly falls off the stage, and the other, when she drops a reality bomb about being raped at the age of ten like it is just one item on a list, and immediately laughs it off while the rest of us sit, mouths agape.

As a production, the show is very good, too.  James Noone has transformed the Circle in the Square Theatre into a smoky bar, full of late 50's charm, and Robert Wierzel's savvy lighting easily alternates between the shadowy nightclub and softer memory lighting that illuminates a series of Victrolas in the background.  ESosa's costume design hints at the Lady Day that used to be - a simply elegant white gown that some how seems destined to be ruined, like the broken woman that wears it.  And Lonny Price has done everything he can to give the piece decent pacing and emotional peaks and valleys, where a lesser director might struggle to find them.

The play with music features a menu of standards played by a most excellent jazz trio - George Farmer, bass, and Clayton Craddock, drums.  The third member, pianist Shelton Becton, also plays a minor character, and while he isn't a great actor, per se, his bland line readings fit his place in the show.  Why would a great pianist, unprepared to talk to the audience, sound like a great actor if this were really happening?

Of course, the entire reason for this being where it is, and, honestly, the only reason I wanted to see it, is Audra McDonald.  When she makes her entrance through the audience, the applause is for Audra.  We are in the presence of probably the greatest theatre actress of our time.  And then she turns around and faces us.  She starts to talk, and Audra McDonald vanishes in less than a second.  The applause abruptly stops and there is a collective gasp.  Billie Holiday - a broken shell of a woman near the end of her life - stands before us. Now I have never heard a recording of Holiday's speaking voice, and have only the slimmest familiarity with her as a singer, but McDonald's characterization is mesmerizing, and how accurate her mimicry is becomes instantly irrelevant.  (I'm told she's spot on, but it matters not to me.)  What is so astonishing, and utterly thrilling, is watching this brilliance evolve into a drunken, self-pitying mess.  You'd swear she was getting really drunk, that the vodka bottle wasn't really full of water.  And it is a sad descent - only the coldest person wouldn't feel for the desperate life that lead this remarkable talent's impending demise.  Audra's fans who love to hear her sing may be shocked at how she uses her voice to croak through song after song, only occasionally giving hints at what Holiday's voice used to be.  Lady Day standards "Strange Fruit" and "God Bless the Child" are particularly powerful.  I would not have missed this career pinnacle performance for the world.


It seems like Ms. McDonald is destined to become the most Tony-winning actress in history, and that she will complete her collection of actress awards.  I won't be surprised at all if this is the performance of hers that makes that happen.  Thank heaven that she, unlike the woman she's playing these days, still has many years ahead of her to delight us all yet again.

Photos by Joan Marcus

Jeff
5.173