Audra McDonald

Last updated

Audra McDonald
Audra mcdonald 2021 2.jpg
McDonald at the 74th Tony Awards in 2021
Born (1970-07-03) July 3, 1970 (age 54)
West Berlin, West Germany
(now Berlin, Germany)
Education Juilliard School (BM)
Occupations
  • Actress
  • singer
Years active1994–present
Spouses
  • Peter Donovan
    (m. 2000;div. 2009)
  • (m. 2012)
Children4
Awards Full list

Audra Ann McDonald [1] (born July 3, 1970) [2] is an American singer and actress. Primarily known for her work on the Broadway stage, she has won six Tony Awards, more performance wins than any other actor, and is the only person to win in all four acting categories. [note 1] In addition to her six Tony Awards she has received numerous accolades including two Grammy Awards, and an Emmy Award. She was honored with the National Medal of Arts in 2016 from President Barack Obama, and was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 2017. [3]

Contents

She has performed in musicals, operas, and dramas. She has received six Tony Awards for her roles in Carousel (1994), Master Class (1996), Ragtime (1998), A Raisin in the Sun (2004), Porgy and Bess (2012), and Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill (2014). Her other Tony-nominated roles were in Marie Christine (2000), 110 in the Shade (2007), Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune (2020), and Ohio State Murders (2023).

On television, she portrayed Dr. Naomi Bennett in the ABC series Private Practice from 2007 to 2011, and Liz Lawrence in The Good Wife and its spinoff series The Good Fight . She received Primetime Emmy Award nominations for her roles in Wit (2001), A Raisin in the Sun (2008), and Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill (2016). She won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Special Class Program for hosting Live from Lincoln Center (2015). On film, she has acted in Ricki and the Flash (2015), Beauty and the Beast (2017), Respect (2021), and Rustin (2023).

As a classical soprano, she has performed in staged operas with the Houston Grand Opera and the Los Angeles Opera, and in concerts with symphony orchestras like the Berlin Philharmonic and New York Philharmonic. Her recording of Kurt Weill's Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny (2008) with the Los Angeles Opera won the Grammy Award for Best Classical Album and the Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording. She maintains an active concert and recording career throughout the United States performing genres ranging from jazz standards to musical theatre.

Early life and education

McDonald was born in West Berlin, West Germany, the daughter of American parents, Anna Kathryn (Jones), a university administrator, and Stanley James McDonald Jr., a high school principal. [1] [4] At the time of her birth, her father was stationed with the United States Army. McDonald was raised in her father's native Fresno, California, the elder of two daughters; her sister, Alison, writes and directs for television and film. McDonald graduated from the Roosevelt School of the Arts program within Theodore Roosevelt High School in Fresno. [5]

She got her start in acting with Dan Pessano and Roger Rocka's Good Company Players, beginning in their junior company. In a feature article about her written when she was a child, she said that she knew she wanted to be involved in theater "when I had my first chance to perform with the Good Company Players Junior Company." She also said that the people who have had the most impact on her life are "Good Company director Dan Pessano and my mother." [6] She studied classical voice as an undergraduate under Ellen Faull at the Juilliard School, [7] graduating in 1993. [8]

Career

1992–1999: Early work and breakthrough

McDonald in 1998 Audra Mcdonald 1998.jpg
McDonald in 1998

McDonald made her Broadway debut as a replacement portraying Ayah in the musical The Secret Garden in from 1992 to 1993. For her role as Carrie Pipperidge in the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical Carousel (1994), she won her first Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical. The following year she played Sharon Graham in the Terrence McNally play Master Class (1995) earning her second Tony Award this time for Best Featured Actress in a Play. From 1997 to 1999 she played Sarah acting in 20th Century musical written by McNally, Ragtime at the Ford Center for the Performing Arts. She won her third Tony for Best Featured Actress in a Musical. In 1999 she played Marie Christine L'Adrese in the musical Marie Christine on Broadway and The Beggar Woman in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street at Avery Fisher Hall in Lincoln Center. [9]

McDonald has also made many television and film appearances, both musical and dramatic. In 1996 she made her film acting debut in Seven Servants by Daryush Shokof. [10] After being cast in The Object of My Affection and Cradle Will Rock , in 1999, she appeared on the television series Homicide: Life on the Street ; in television remake of Annie as Daddy Warbucks's secretary & soon-to-be wife, Miss Farrell; and in the television film Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters' First 100 Years. In 2000, McDonald acted in two episodes of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and in the television film The Last Debate.

2000–2010: Broadway stardom and acclaim

McDonald was a three-time Tony Award winner by age 28 for her performances in Carousel , Master Class , and Ragtime , placing her alongside Shirley Booth, Gwen Verdon and Zero Mostel by accomplishing this feat within five years. She was nominated for another Tony Award for her performance in Marie Christine before she won her fourth in 2004 for her role in A Raisin in the Sun , placing her in the company of then four-time winning actress Angela Lansbury. She reprised her Raisin role for a 2008 television adaptation, earning her a second Emmy Award nomination. On June 10, 2012, McDonald scored her fifth Tony Award win for her portrayal of Bess in Broadway's The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess, thus tying Angela Lansbury and Julie Harris. [11] Her 2014 performance as Billie Holiday in Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill earned McDonald her sixth Tony award and made her the first person to win all four acting categories.

In 2001, she received her first Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or Movie for the HBO film Wit , which starred Emma Thompson and was directed by Mike Nichols. [12] In 2003, McDonald starred as Sarah Langley in It Runs in the Family, [13] and as Jackie Brock in nine episodes of short-lived Mister Sterling. [14] From 2005 to 2006, she acted in several television series and films, such as The Bedford Diaries and Kidnapped, while from 2007 to 2013 she played Dr. Naomi Bennett in Private Practice , a spinoff of Grey's Anatomy, replacing Merrin Dungey, who played the role in the series pilot. [15] [16] She sang with the New York Philharmonic in the annual New Year's Eve gala concert on December 31, 2006, featuring music from the films; it was televised on Live from Lincoln Center by PBS. [17]

She has a close working relationship with composer Michael John LaChiusa who has written several works for her, including the Broadway musical Marie Christine , the opera Send (who are you? i love you), and The Seven Deadly Sins: A Song Cycle. With her full lyric soprano voice, [18] McDonald appeared as Lizzie in the Roundabout Theatre Company's 2007 revival of 110 in the Shade , directed by Lonny Price at Studio 54, for which she shared the Drama Desk Award for Best Actress in a Musical with Donna Murphy. [19] On April 29, 2007, while she was in previews for the show, her father was killed when an experimental aircraft he was flying crashed north of Sacramento, California. [20]

McDonald is known for defying racial typecasting in her various Tony Award-winning and -nominated roles. Her performances as Carrie Pipperidge in Nicholas Hytner's 1994 revival of Carousel , Lizzie Curry in Lonny Price's 2007 revival of 110 in the Shade , and Rose in George C. Wolfe's forthcoming revival of Gypsy have made her the first Black woman to portray those traditionally white roles in a major Broadway production. Of her groundbreaking work in encouraging diversity in musical theatre casting, she said in an interview for The New York Times , "I refuse to be stereotyped. If I think I am right for a role I will go for it in whatever way I can. I refuse to say no to myself. I can't control what a producer will do or say but I can at least put myself out there." [21] In a Talk of the Nation interview on NPR, Asian-American actor Thom Sesma said McDonald's performance in Carousel "transcended any kind of type at all", proving her to be "more actress than African-American." [22]

McDonald has also performed in opera. In 2006 she made her opera debut at the Houston Grand Opera performing Francis Poulenc's La voix humaine and the world premiere of Michael John LaChiusa's one-woman opera Send (who are you? I love you). [23] She had previously performed in the world premiere of John Adams' I Was Looking at the Ceiling and Then I Saw the Sky which was given in concert, and can be heard on the 1997 recording of the opera. In 2007 she performed the role of Jenny Smith in Kurt Weill's Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny at the Los Angeles Opera. [24] Her performance was recorded and won the Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording in 2009. In 2008, McDonald starred as Ruth Younger in the critically acclaimed television film A Raisin in the Sun , [25] and was nominated at the 60th Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or Movie, [26] and at the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actress in a Television Movie. [27]

2011–2019: Career expansion

She appeared in a revised version of George Gershwin's opera Porgy and Bess , at the American Repertory Theatre (in Cambridge, Massachusetts) from August through September 2011, and recreated the role on Broadway at the Richard Rodgers Theatre, which opened on January 12, 2012, and closed on September 23, 2012. [28] For this role, McDonald won her fifth Tony Award and her first in a Leading Actress category. [29] This American Repertory Theater production was "re-imagined by Suzan-Lori Parks and Diedre Murray as a musical for contemporary audiences." [30]

McDonald portrayed Billie Holiday on Broadway in Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill (2014) Billie Holiday 1947 (cropped).jpg
McDonald portrayed Billie Holiday on Broadway in Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill (2014)

Since 2012, McDonald has served as host for the PBS series Live from Lincoln Center , [31] for which she won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Special Class Program with the show's producers for Sweeney Todd , aired in 2015. [32] In 2013, McDonald appeared in the HBO documentary Six by Sondheim, [33] and she played Mother Abbess in the 2013 NBC live television production of The Sound of Music Live! . [34] [35] In 2014, she was featured in Lynn Nottage's short play Poof!, alongside Tonya Pinkins. It was produced for radio and podcast by Playing On Air. [36] She appeared at the Williamstown Theatre Festival, Williamstown, Massachusetts, in Eugene O'Neill's play A Moon for the Misbegotten in August 2015, co-starring with her husband Will Swenson. [37] In 2016, McDonald starred on Broadway as the vaudeville performer Lottie Gee in a new musical titled Shuffle Along, or, the Making of the Musical Sensation of 1921 and All That Followed about the making of the 1921 musical Shuffle Along. [38] Shuffle Along closed on July 24, 2016, and McDonald began a maternity hiatus at that time. [39] [40] In 2019 McDonald played as Frankie in Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune at the Broadhurst Theatre, [41] earning her ninth Tony Award nomination for her performance for Best Actress in a Play. [42]

McDonald played Billie Holiday on Broadway in the play Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill in a limited engagement that ended on August 10, 2014. [43] After previews that began on March 25, 2014, the play opened at the Circle in the Square Theatre on April 13, 2014. [43] Of the play, McDonald said in an interview, "It's about a woman trying to get through a concert performance, which I know something about, and she's doing it at a time when her liver was pickled and she was still doing heroin regularly...I might have been a little judgmental about Billie Holiday early on in my life, but what I've come to admire most about her – and what is fascinating in this show – is that there is never any self-pity. She's almost laughing at how horrible her life has been. I don't think she sees herself as a victim. And she feels an incredible connection to her music – she can't sing a song if she doesn't have some emotional connection to it, which I really understand". [43]

McDonald in 2018 AudraSexySmileMcDonald.png
McDonald in 2018

McDonald won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for this role, making her the first person to earn six Tony Award wins for acting (not counting honorary awards) and the first person to win a Tony Award in all four acting categories. [44] In her acceptance speech, "she thanked her parents for encouraging her to pursue her interests as a child." [45] She also thanked the "strong and brave and courageous" African-American women who came before her, saying in part, "I am standing on Lena Horne's shoulders. I am standing on Maya Angelou's shoulders. I am standing on Diahann Carroll and Ruby Dee, and most of all, Billie Holiday. You deserved so much more than you were given when you were on this planet. This is for you, Billie." [46] This performance was filmed at Cafe Brasil in New Orleans and broadcast on HBO on March 12, 2016. [47] McDonald was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie for her role in the broadcast. [48] She lost to Sarah Paulson playing Marcia Clark in The People v. O. J. Simpson: American Crime Story .

McDonald had planned to make her West End debut as Holiday in Lady Day in June through September 2016, [49] but after becoming pregnant she postponed these plans. [50] She performed in Lady Day in June 2017 through September 9, 2017, at the Wyndham's Theatre in the West End. [51] In 2016, McDonald starred as Billie Holiday in the filmed stage production, Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill , [52] for which she received critical acclaim. She earned nominations for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie and the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Television Movie or Limited Series. [53] [54] In 2017, McDonald starred in Disney's live action remake film Beauty and the Beast (based on the 1991 animated film of the same name) as Madame de Garderobe, directed by Bill Condon, and co-starring with Emma Watson and Dan Stevens, earning a nomination at the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture. [55] On August 1, 2017, it was announced that she had been added to the main cast for the second season of The Good Fight , reprising her role as Liz Lawrence from The Good Wife season 4. [56] McDonald stayed in the cast for the next seasons, and was nominated twice for the Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Drama Series. [57]

2020–present

In 2021, McDonald portrayed Rachel Boutella in television series The Bite and hosted the television ceremony of the 74th Tony Awards . [58] [59] In 2021, she appeared as Barbara Siggers Franklin in Aretha Franklin's biographical musical drama film Respect , earning a nomination at the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture. [60] In 2022, she starred as Dorothy Scott in HBO's television series The Gilded Age . [61] In 2023, McDonald portrayed civil rights activist Ella Baker in the Netflix biographical drama Rustin . [62] That same year she acted in the comedy Down Low , the Civil Rights biopic and the Ava DuVernay directed drama Origin . [63] In May 2024, it was announced that McDonald would return to Broadway as Mama Rose in a revival of Gypsy , with previews beginning November 21. [64]

Recordings and concerts

McDonald performing at the Wright Center in 2011 Audra McDonald 2011.jpg
McDonald performing at the Wright Center in 2011

McDonald has maintained ties to her classical training and repertoire. She frequently performs in concert throughout the U.S. [65] and has performed with musical organizations such as the New York Philharmonic and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Carnegie Hall commissioned the song cycle The Seven Deadly Sins: A Song Cycle for McDonald, and she performed it at Carnegie's Zankel Hall on June 2, 2004. [66] She sang two solo one-act operas at the Houston Grand Opera in March 2006: Francis Poulenc's La voix humaine and the world premiere of Michael John LaChiusa's Send (who are you? I love you). [67] On February 10, 2007, McDonald starred with Patti LuPone in the Los Angeles Opera production of Kurt Weill's opera Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny directed by John Doyle. [68] The recording of this production of Mahagonny won two Grammy Awards, for Best Opera Recording and Best Classical Album in February 2009. [69]

In September 2008, American composer Michael John LaChiusa was quoted in Opera News Online, as working on an adaptation of Bizet's Carmen with McDonald in mind. [70]

McDonald has recorded five solo albums for Nonesuch Records. Her first, the 1998 Way Back to Paradise, featured songs written by a new generation of musical theatre composers who had achieved varying degrees of prominence in the 1990s, particularly LaChiusa, Adam Guettel and Jason Robert Brown.

Her next album, How Glory Goes (2000), combined both old and new works, and included composers Harold Arlen, Leonard Bernstein and Jerome Kern. [7] Her third album, Happy Songs (2002), was big band music from the 1920s through the 1940s. [71] Her fourth album, Build a Bridge (2006), features songs from jazz and pop. [72]

In May 2013, Audra McDonald released her first solo album in seven years, Go Back Home, with a title track from the Kander and Ebb musical The Scottsboro Boys . To coincide with the album's release, McDonald performed a concert at Avery Fisher Hall in New York City that aired on the PBS series Live from Lincoln Center titled Audra McDonald In Concert: Go Back Home. [73]

At the 2010 BCS National Championship Game on January 7, McDonald sang America the Beautiful for the sold-out stadium fans to celebrate the final game of the college football season. [74]

In May 2000, Audra McDonald appeared as "The Beggar Woman" in Lonny Price's concert version of Stephen Sondheim's Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street , performed at Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center, New York, with the New York Philharmonic with George Hearn and Patti LuPone. She reprised the role in some performances of the March 2014 Lincoln Center concert production, again directed by Price, this time opposite Bryn Terfel and Emma Thompson. She performed three concerts, titled "Audra McDonald Sings Broadway", in the Sydney Opera House in November 2015, which also included "The Facebook Song" by Kate Miller-Heidke. [75] In late December 2023, McDonald was a guest narrator at Disney's Candlelight Processional at Walt Disney World. [76]

Personal life

McDonald married bassist Peter Donovan in September 2000. [7] They have one daughter, Zoe Madeline Donovan, named after McDonald's close friend and Master Class co-star Zoe Caldwell and the late Madeline Kahn. McDonald became close friends with Kahn after they filmed a TV pilot together, and she found out she was carrying a girl the same day she sang at Kahn's memorial. [77] McDonald and Donovan divorced in 2009. [78]

She married Will Swenson on October 6, 2012. [79] On October 19, 2016, she gave birth to their daughter, Sally James McDonald-Swenson. [80] She is the stepmother to Swenson's two sons from his previous marriage. [81]

McDonald attended Joan Rivers' funeral in New York on September 7, 2014, where she sang "Smile".

McDonald resides with her family in Croton-on-Hudson, New York. [82]

Activism and charitable work

In October 2020, McDonald joined many other Broadway stars in a virtual voter education and letter-writing party sponsored by VoteRiders to raise awareness about voter ID requirements. [83]

In June 2020, McDonald and a coalition of professionals from across the theatre industry launched Black Theatre United, an organization whose mission is to inspire reform and combat systemic racism within the theatre community and throughout the nation. Emphasizing four goals awareness, accountability, advocacy, and action BTU works at the community and national levels to elevate anti-racist causes and support the Black community through various resources and initiatives. [84]

McDonald joined other Broadway stars including Lin-Manuel Miranda, Josh Groban, Idina Menzel, Laura Benanti, and Kristin Chenoweth in 2018 to record Singing You Home, a bilingual children's album designed to benefit organizations that aid families separated at the border. [85]

She joined the Covenant House board of Directors in 2014. Covenant House oversees programs for homeless youth in 27 cities in six countries across the United States, Canada, and Latin America. Audra was the recipient of their 2018 Beacon of Hope Award. [86]

Acting credits

Key
Denotes works that have not yet been released

Film

YearFilmRoleNotes
1996 Seven Servants Opera Singer
1998 The Object of My Affection Wedding Singer
1999 Cradle Will Rock Blitzstein – "Joe Worker" Singer
2003 It Runs in the Family Sarah Langley
2004 The Best Thief in the World Ruth
2011 Rampart Sarah
2015 Ricki and the Flash Maureen
2017 Beauty and the Beast Madame de Garderobe [87]
2017 Hello Again Sally (The Actress)
2021 Respect Barbara Siggers Franklin
2023 Down Low Patty
Rustin Ella Baker
Origin Miss Hale

Television

YearTitleRoleNotes
1999 Annie Grace FarrellTelevision film
Homicide: Life on the Street Teresa GiardelloEpisode: "Forgive Us Our Trespasses"
Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters' First 100 Years Young Bessie Delany Television film
2000 Law & Order: Special Victims Unit Audrey Jackson2 episodes
The Last Debate Barbara ManningTelevision film
2001 Wit Susie MonahanTelevision film
2003 Mister Sterling Jackie Brock9 episodes
Partners and CrimeUnknownTelevision film
Tea Time with Roy & SylviaSylviaShort
2005 Passion: Live From Lincoln Center ClaraTV special
2006 The Bedford Diaries Professor Carla Bonatelle8 episodes
2006–07 Kidnapped Jackie Hayes3 episodes
2007–13 Private Practice Dr. Naomi Bennett 77 episodes
2007 Great Performances Jenny SmithEpisode: "Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny"
2008 A Raisin in the Sun Ruth YoungerTelevision film
2009 Grey's Anatomy Dr. Naomi BennettEpisode: "Before and After"
She Got ProblemsHerselfShort
2012–13 Sesame Street Chicken3 episodes
2013 The Good Wife Liz LawrenceEpisode: "Runnin' with the Devil"
The Sound of Music Live! Mother AbbessLive telecast
Audra McDonald: Go Back Home SelfConcert special
It Could Be WorseSharonEpisode: "Starring Veronica Bailey"
The OrdainedAntheaTelevision film
2014 Submissions Only Tracy MintznerEpisode: "Dangerous Anaesthesia"
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street Lucy Barker Filmed Live from Lincoln Center stage production
2015 Doc McStuffins Itty Bitty BessVoice, episode: "Itty Bitty Bess Takes Flight" [87]
2016 Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill Billie Holiday Filmed stage production
2018 RuPaul's Drag Race Herself (guest judge)Episode: "Snatch Game" [88]
2018–19 BoJack Horseman Mother SuperiorVoice, 2 episodes
2018–22 The Good Fight Liz Lawrence-ReddickMain cast
2020 American Experience Additional voicesEpisode: "The Vote"
Central Park AshleyVoice, episode: "A Fish Called Snakehead"
Vampirina MedusaVoice, episode: "Vee and the Family Stone"
2021 The Bite Rachel Boutella6 episodes
74th Tony Awards Herself (host)TV special
2022 The Gilded Age Dorothy Scott6 episodes
2023 Great Performances NarratorSeason 51, Episode 7: "Making Shakespeare: The First Folio"

Theatre

YearShow [89] RoleNotes
1992 The Secret Garden Ayah (replacement) St. James Theatre
1992 – January 3, 1993
1994 Carousel Carrie Pipperidge Vivian Beaumont Theater
February 18, 1994 – January 15, 1995
1995 Master Class Sharon Graham Philadelphia Theatre Company
March 1995
Something WonderfulPerformer Gershwin Theatre
July 12, 1995
Master Class Sharon Graham John Golden Theatre
October 26, 1995 – June 29, 1997
1997 Ragtime Sarah Ford Center for the Performing Arts
December 26, 1997 – October 29, 1999
January 10–16, 2000
1999 Marie Christine Marie Christine L'Adrese Vivian Beaumont Theater
October 30, 1999 – January 9, 2000
2000 Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street Lucy, The Beggar Woman Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center
May 4–6, 2000
2001 Dreamgirls Deena Jones New York Actor's Fund Benefit Concert
2002 Carousel Julie Jordan Carnegie Hall
June 6, 2002
2003 Passion Clara Ravinia Festival
August 22–23, 2003
Henry IV, Part 1 Lady Percy Vivian Beaumont Theater
October 28, 2003 – January 18, 2004 [90]
2004 A Raisin in the Sun Ruth Younger Royale Theatre
March 30 – July 11, 2004
The Seven Deadly Sins: A Song CyclePerformer Carnegie Hall
June 2, 2004
Sunday in the Park with George Dot / Marie Ravinia Festival
September 3–4, 2004
2005 Passion Clara Lincoln Center
March 30 – April 1, 2005
Wonderful Town Eileen Berlin Philharmonic
Anyone Can Whistle Nurse Fay Apple Ravinia Festival
August 26–27, 2005
2006 La voix humaine /Send (who are you? I love you)Singer Houston Grand Opera, March
2007 Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny Jenny Los Angeles Opera
February 2007
110 in the Shade Lizzie Curry Studio 54
April 13 – July 29, 2007
2009 Twelfth Night Olivia Delacorte Theater
June 25 – July 12, 2009
2011 Porgy and Bess Bess American Repertory Theater
August/September 2011
Richard Rodgers Theatre
December 17, 2011 – September 23, 2012
2014 Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street Lucy, The Beggar Woman Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center
March 5–8, 2014
Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill Billie Holiday Circle in the Square Theatre
March 25 – October 5, 2014
2015 A Moon for the Misbegotten Josie Williamstown Theatre Festival
August 2015
2016 Shuffle Along Lottie Gee Music Box Theatre
March 14 – July 24, 2016
2017 Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill Billie Holiday Wyndham's Theatre
June 27 – September 9, 2017 [91] [92]
2019 Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune Frankie Broadhurst Theatre
May 4 – July 28, 2019 [41]
2022 Ohio State Murders Suzanne Alexander James Earl Jones Theatre
November 11, 2022 – January 15, 2023 [93]
2023 Ragtime Sarah Minskoff Theatre
March 27, 2023
2024 Gypsy Rose Majestic Theatre
November 21, 2024 –

Accolades and achievements

Over her career she has received six Tony Awards out of ten nominations, two Grammy Awards out of three nominations, one Emmy Award out of five nominations in addition to nominations for two Screen Actors Guild Awards. She was honored with the National Medal of Arts in 2016 from President Barack Obama, and was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 2017. McDonald received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement presented by Awards Council member General Colin Powell in 2012. [94] [95]

On September 22, 2016, Audra McDonald was awarded the National Medal of Arts by President Barack Obama for 2015. The Award states, in part: "for lighting up Broadway as one of its brightest stars.... In musicals, concerts, operas, and the recording studio, her rich, soulful voice continues to take her audiences to new heights." [96] In 2017, she was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame. [3] McDonald served as the grand marshal of the 2024 Tournament of Roses Parade. [97]

Concerts

Audra McDonald in Concert (2013–14)

DateCityStateVenue
March 9, 2013 Chicago Illinois Lund Auditorium
March 16, 2013 Boca Raton Florida Mizner Park Amphitheater
April 6, 2013 Stamford Connecticut Palace Theatre
May 16, 2013 Norfolk Virginia Attucks Theatre
May 24, 2013 New York City New York Stern Auditorium [98]
October 5, 2013 Colden Auditorium
October 10, 2013 Washington, D.C. Library of Congress
October 12, 2013ChicagoIllinois Symphony Center
October 19, 2013 Louisville Kentucky Brown Theatre
October 20, 2013 Austin Texas Michael & Susan Dell Hall
October 22, 2013 Las Vegas Nevada Reynolds Hall
October 25, 2013 San Diego California Balboa Theatre
October 26, 2013 Los Angeles Dorothy Chandler Pavilion
November 15, 2013 St. Louis Missouri Sheldon Concert Hall
November 16, 2013 Kansas City Muriel Kauffman Theatre
December 21, 2013 Mesa Arizona Ikeda Theater
January 5, 2014, &
February 26, 2014
West Palm Beach Florida Dreyfoos, Jr. Concert Hall
January 18, 2014 Rohnert Park California Joan and Sanford Weill Hall
February 1, 2014Washington, D.C.Library of Congress
February 22, 2014 Worcester Massachusetts Hanover Theatre
February 28, 2014 Visalia CaliforniaL.J. Williams Theater
March 8, 2014 Atlanta Georgia Atlanta Symphony Hall

23 concerts total; the gap between May and October 2013 is due to McDonald's work with television and her album coming out, causing the three and a half month gap. The tour ended due to McDonald's show, Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill opening on Broadway, but she picked up again with a new tour once the show closed.

An Evening with Audra McDonald (2014–15)

DateCityCountryVenue
December 2, 2014 Los Angeles United States Walt Disney Concert Hall
December 5, 2014 Rohnert Park Joan and Sanford Weill Hall
December 6, 2014 Berkeley Zellerbach Hall
December 12, 2014 New York City Stern Auditorium
January 8, 2015 Ft. Lauderdale Parker Playhouse
January 17, 2015 Rochester Kodak Hall
January 24, 2015 Naples Hayes Hall
February 6, 2015 Chapel Hill UNC Memorial Hall
February 21, 2015 Des Moines Des Moines Civic Center
February 27, 2015 Kohler Kohler Memorial Theatre
March 1, 2015 Boston Boston Symphony Hall
March 12, 2015 Richmond EKU Auditorium
March 15, 2015 Tucson Fox Tucson Theatre
March 21, 2015 Jacksonville Jacoby Symphony Hall
March 22, 2015 Sarasota Van Wezel Hall
March 24, 2015 West Palm Beach Dreyfoos, Jr. Concert Hall
March 27, 2015 Bethesda The Music Center at Strathmore
April 7, 2015 Indiana Indiana University Auditorium
April 15, 2015 Pittsburgh Byham Theater
April 17, 2015 Princeton McCarter Theatre
April 19, 2015 Newark Prudential Hall
April 23, 2015 Greenville Peace Concert Hall
April 29, 2015New York CityStern Auditorium
May 8, 2015 Englewood Bergen Performing Arts Center
May 9, 2015 Greenvale Tilles Center Concert Hall
May 11, 2015PittsburghByham Theater
May 15, 2015 Norfolk Virginia Arts Festival
June 12, 2015 Saratoga Mountain Winery
June 22, 2015 Vienna Wolf Trap
July 19, 2015 Lenox The Shed
September 1, 2015, &
September 3, 2015
Los Angeles Hollywood Bowl
October 1, 2015 Richmond Carpenter Theater
October 7, 2015 Philadelphia Merriam Theater
October 8, 2015 Storrs Jorgenson Center
October 13, 2015GreenvillePeace Concert Hall
October 31, 2015 Melbourne Australia Hamer Hall

37 concerts; this tour marked her Australian debut. The lack of August shows was due to her run in A Moon for the Misbegotten .

Other concerts

McDonald in the East Room of the White House, 2013 Audra McDonald performs in the East Room of the White House, 2013.jpg
McDonald in the East Room of the White House, 2013

Discography

Solo recordings

Source: [101]

Source: [104]

Cast recordings

Video recordings

Audio books

Explanatory notes

  1. Best Actress in a Play, Best Actress in a Musical, Best Featured Actress in a Play, and Best Featured Actress in a Musical. "Tony Awards Facts & Trivia". Archived from the original on July 4, 2015. Retrieved June 9, 2014.

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Lynn Ahrens is an American writer and lyricist for the musical theatre, television and film. She has collaborated with Stephen Flaherty for many years. She won the Tony Award, Drama Desk Award, and Outer Critics Circle Award for the Broadway musical Ragtime. Together with Flaherty, she has written many musicals, including Lucky Stiff, My Favorite Year, Ragtime, Seussical, A Man of No Importance, Dessa Rose, The Glorious Ones, Rocky, Little Dancer and, recently on Broadway, Anastasia and Once on This Island.

Celia Keenan-Bolger is an American actress and singer. She won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play for portraying Scout Finch in the play To Kill a Mockingbird (2018). She has also been Tony-nominated for her roles in The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (2005), Peter and the Starcatcher (2012), The Glass Menagerie (2014), and Mother Play (2024).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eden Espinosa</span> American actress and singer (born 1978)

Eden Erica Espinosa is an American actress and singer who is best known for her performances as Elphaba for the Broadway, Los Angeles, and San Francisco productions of the musical Wicked. In 2022, she was nominated for an Emmy Award for her role as the Queen of Hearts in Alice's Wonderland Bakery. In 2024, Espinosa received a nomination for the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical for her performance in Lempicka.

Judy Kaye is an American singer and actress. She has appeared in stage musicals, plays, and operas. Kaye has been in long runs on Broadway in the musicals The Phantom of the Opera, Ragtime, Mamma Mia!, and Nice Work If You Can Get It.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kelli O'Hara</span> American actress and singer (born 1976)

Kelli Christine O'Hara is an American actress and singer, most known for her work on the Broadway and opera stages.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">LaChanze</span> American actress, singer, and dancer (born 1961)

LaChanze Sapp-Gooding, known professionally as LaChanze, is an American actress, singer, and dancer. She won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical in 2006 for her role as Celie Harris Johnson in The Color Purple. In 2023, LaChanze received two more Tony Awards, this time as a producer. She served as co-producer on Kimberly Akimbo, which won the Tony for Best New Musical and Topdog/Underdog, which won for Best Revival of a Play.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rebecca Luker</span> American actress (1961–2020)

Rebecca Luker was an American actress, singer, and recording artist, noted for her "crystal clear operatic soprano" and for maintaining long runs in Broadway musicals over the course of her three-decade-long career. The New York Times compared her to actresses such as Barbara Cook and Julie Andrews.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Laura Osnes</span> American actress

Laura Ann Osnes is an American actress and singer known for her work on the Broadway stage. She has played starring roles in Grease as Sandy, South Pacific as Nellie Forbush, Anything Goes as Hope Harcourt, and Bonnie and Clyde as Bonnie Parker, for which she received a Tony Award nomination for Best Actress in a Musical. She also starred in the title role of Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella on Broadway, for which she received a Drama Desk Award and her second Tony Award nomination for Best Actress in a Musical.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Norm Lewis</span> American actor, singer (born 1963)

Norm Lewis is an American actor and baritone singer. He has appeared on Broadway and in London'sWest End, film, television, recordings and regional theatre. He’s also noted for his wide vocal range. Lewis was the second African-American actor after Robert Guillaume to perform in the title role in Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera and the first one to do so in the Broadway production. In 2023, he reprised the role in the show's sequel, Love Never Dies, in the West End.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Will Swenson (actor)</span> American actor and singer

Will Swenson is an American actor and singer best known for his work in musical theatre. He also has developed a film career, primarily in LDS cinema.

Diane Marie Paulus is an American theater and opera director who is currently the Terrie and Bradley Bloom Artistic Director of the American Repertory Theater at Harvard University. Paulus was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical for her revivals of Hair and The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess, and won the award in 2013 for her revival of Pippin.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Patina Miller</span> American actress and singer (born 1984)

Patina Renea Miller is an American actress and singer. Miller's breakout role was as originating the role of disco diva wannabe Deloris Van Cartier in the 2009 West End and 2011 Broadway productions of Sister Act for which she earned Laurence Olivier Award and Tony Award nominations, respectively. She also starred as the Leading Player in the 2013 Broadway revival of Pippin, for which she won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical. She later returned to Broadway to star as the Witch in the 2022 Broadway revival of the Stephen Sondheim musical Into the Woods.

Larry Hochman is an American orchestrator and composer. He has won four Emmy Awards for his original music on the TV series Wonder Pets! and a Tony Award for his orchestrations for The Book of Mormon.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jessie Mueller</span> American actress and singer

Jessica Ruth Mueller is an American actress and singer. She started her acting career in Chicago and won two Joseph Jefferson Awards in 2008 and 2011 for her roles as Carrie Pipperidge in Carousel and Amalia Balash in She Loves Me. In 2011, she moved to New York City to star in a Broadway revival of musical On a Clear Day You Can See Forever, for which she was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical. She won the 2014 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical for her performance as Carole King in Beautiful: The Carole King Musical. She went on to receive two additional Best Actress in a Musical Tony Award nominations for her leading roles in Waitress (2016) and the Broadway revival of Carousel (2018).

The 68th Annual Tony Awards were held June 8, 2014, to recognize achievement in Broadway productions during the 2013–14 season. The ceremony was held at Radio City Music Hall in New York City, and was televised live on CBS. Hugh Jackman was the host, his fourth time hosting. The 15 musical Tony Awards went to seven different musicals, and six plays shared the 11 play Tony Awards.

Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill is a play with music featuring several of Billie Holiday's most famous songs. The play was written by Lanie Robertson and recounts some events in the life of Holiday. It premiered in 1986 at the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta, Georgia, and soon played Off-Broadway. The play opened on Broadway in 2014, and also played in London's West End in 2017.

Lucy St. Louis is an English actress and singer. From 2021 to 2023, she played Christine Daaé in the West End production of The Phantom of the Opera, making her the first black performer to do so. She was then cast as Glinda in Wicked, also on the West End.

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