Audra McDonald performed with the San Francisco Symphony Monday night and brought out "one gem-like number after the next," says the San Jose Mercury News, which describes her voice as "Full and mellow, elegant and sexy, lush, plush, brassy, growling, howling across her gigantic range, or expressing starry-eyed enchantment." This summer, she will reprise her role in 110 in the Shade, for a limited run in Utah; make her Tanglewood debut; and perform at Aspen and at the Ravinia Festival's Sondheim celebration.
Audra McDonald, fresh off the set of her ABC TV series Private Practice, where she stars as Dr. Naomi Bennett, returned to the live stage for a performance with the San Francisco Symphony, led by conductor Ted Sperling, a longtime collaborator of McDonald's, at San Francisco's Davies Symphony Hall Monday night.
For the concert, McDonald brought out "one gem-like number after the next," reports the San Jose Mercury News, including works by music theatre greats like Stephen Sondheim, Leonard Bernstein, and Adam Guettel, whose "Dividing Day," from the Tony-winning play The Light in the Piazza, was featured on the program.
"Audra McDonald is our Judy, our Barbra, as in Garland and Streisand," exclaims Mercury News music critic Richard Scheinin. "Yeah, yeah, it's a heresy to say it, to strike a comparison between anyone from this era and those Hall of Fame divas. But how else to explain the electric commotion accompanying McDonald's mere stepping out onto the stage Monday night at Davies Symphony Hall?"
Scheinin calls McDonald as "the diva next door," describing her voice this way: "Full and mellow, elegant and sexy, lush, plush, brassy, growling, howling across her gigantic range, or expressing starry-eyed enchantment."
Whether performing a repertoire of standards or surprising the audience with more unexpected tunes, McDonald delivers. "She finds the meaning in the make-believe. She brings out the kid in you," says Scheinin, "that fresh response to a song that all of us can remember from the time when music began to rear its head in our lives."
Read the complete concert review at mercurynews.com.
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This summer, McDonald will reprise her Tony-nominated role as Lizzie Curry in 110 in the Shade, June 28 through July 10, at the Hale Center Theater in Orem, Utah. She will be joined by Will Swenson, her co-star from the 2007 Broadway revival of the play, who will be playing Bill Starbuck this time around, having played Cody Bridger in 2007. McDonald and Swenson are donating their time and talents for this limited-engagement, a fundraiser for the nonprofit Hale Center Foundation for the Arts and Education.
McDonald recently spoke with the Salt Lake Tribune about the event, saying: "You need to support the arts in your community," McDonald said. "Especially in this day and age when the arts are taking a back seat in schools because of money not being available." Read more at sltrib.com.
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Following those performances, Audra McDonald will make her Tanglewood debut at Seiji Ozawa Hall in Lenox, Massachusetts, July 18. Later that month, she will perform at Harris Concert Hall in Aspen, Colorado, for the Aspen Music Festival's Season Benefit, and at the Ravinia Festival's 80th Birthday Celebration of Stephen Sondheim, also featuring Patti LuPone, Michael Cerveris, and George Hearn, with Paul Gemignani leading the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
For further details of these and other upcoming performances, visit nonesuch.com/on-tour. To explore McDonald's Nonesuch catalog, visit the Nonesuch Store.
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