AUDRA MCDONALD
- By KEN WERTHER
My first Audra McDonald experience was all the way back in 1994 at Lincoln Center in NYC when she played Carrie Pipperidge in the Royal National Theatre production of Carousel (and won her first Tony Award). A year later, she came to the Mark Taper Forum (where I was working in the press office) in Terrence McNally’s Master Class, prior to Broadway (for which she won her second Tony Award). My momentary brush with greatness!
She has won six Tony Awards, more performance wins than any other actor, and she is the only person to win in all four acting categories. She has performed in musicals, operas, and dramas including A Moon for the Misbegotten, 110 in the Shade, Ragtime, A Raisin in the Sun, and Porgy and Bess. In addition to her six Tonys, she has won two Grammy Awards and an Emmy Award. She was honored with the National Medal of Arts in 2016 from President Barack Obama and she was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 2017.
On December 2, LA Opera is bringing McDonald back to the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion for an intimate evening of show tunes, standards, and original pieces written especially for her. Along with music director and conductor Andy Einhorn, she will be joined by a featured ensemble and several esteemed musicians of the LA Opera Orchestra (Jeremy Jordan, Gene Lewin, and Mark Vanderpoel). Not to be missed!
For tickets, click here.