[41], 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. She’s beautiful, bold, and noble, yet she also shines in unglamorous roles. Thank you to…” In 2016 she was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series or Movie and a Screen Actors Guild Award for her performance in Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill for HBO in which McDonald portrayed jazz legend Billie Holiday. Audra McDonald has shared an Instagram post defending Meghan Markle. In 2013 she performed the role of Mother Superior in The Sound of Music Live! Please continue to check back for the most updated schedule. McDonald graduated from the Roosevelt School of the Arts program within Theodore Roosevelt High School in Fresno. On February 13 at 3 pm EST, Elias, Audra… I’m so so glad she was, So my family has recently connected with a family, I’m posting this now before my husband(who took. 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. Audra McDonald and the Philharmonic: “Climb Ev’ry Mountain” Inappropriate Musicals: A Quiet Place, Taxi Driver & Shape of Water w/ Audra McDonald & Dan Stevens Audra McDonald and Billy Eichner on The Late Late Show with James Corden Wonder Woman asked Santa for an exercise bike and, Rebecca Luker was just the sweetest, kindest, soul, So there is the most adorable dog in our neighborh, Sally just drew a picture of the two of us. This is for you, Billie." [24], McDonald won the Tony Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role 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. Buy Tickets [49][50], In films, McDonald has appeared in Beauty and the Beast (2017), Ricki and the Flash (2015), Best Thief in the World (2004), It Runs in the Family (2003), Cradle Will Rock (1999), The Object of My Affection (1998), and Seven Servants by Daryush Shokof which was her film acting debut in 1996. 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. [36] The recording of this production of Mahagonny won two Grammy Awards, for Best Opera Recording and Best Classical Album in February 2009. PLEASE READ and help this sweet doggy Dusty if…” [62], She joined the Covenant House board of Directors in 2014. 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. Check your local listings. [note 1] She has performed in musicals, operas, and dramas such as A Moon for the Misbegotten, 110 in the Shade, Carousel, Ragtime, Master Class and Porgy and Bess. Her performances as Carrie Pipperidge in Nicholas Hytner's 1994 revival of Carousel and Lizzie Curry in Lonny Price's 2007 revival of 110 in the Shade made her the first black woman to portray those (traditionally white) roles in a major Broadway production. The Official Website of Singer and Actress Audra McDonald. McDonald attended Joan Rivers' funeral in New York on September 7, 2014, where she sang "Smile". She has appeared on the stage in both musicals and dramas, such as Ragtime, A Raisin in the Sun, and Porgy and Bess.. She maintains an active concert and recording career, performing song cycles and operas as well as performing in concert throughout the U.S. Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited Series or Movie, Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series or Movie, Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Special Class Program, I Was Looking at the Ceiling and Then I Saw the Sky, Shuffle Along, or, the Making of the Musical Sensation of 1921 and All That Followed, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or Movie, Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters' First 100 Years, Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie, NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series, NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actress in a Television Movie or Mini-Series, Curtis M Phillips Center for Performing Arts, Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical, Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical, Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play, Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical, Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play, Best Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie, Best Actress in a Television Movie or Miniseries, Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Television Movie or Limited Series, NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture, "Audra McDonald Biography: Theater Actress, Singer, Television Actress (1970–)", "Audra McDonald, Matthew Broderick, Marin Mazzie among 2017 Theater Hall of Fame inductees", "Audra McDonald's a tough act to follow in, "Chenoweth, Dench, Linney, McDonald, Rashad Nominated for Emmy Awards", "Stanley McDonald Jr., Father of Tony-Winner Audra McDonald, Dies in Air Crash", "Audra McDonald Premieres LaChiusa's Send at Houston Grand Opera", "Six-Time Tony Winner Audra McDonald Will Lead, "Audra McDonald to Return to Broadway as Billie Holiday", "Audra McDonald Wins 6th Tony Award Makes Broadway History", "Audra McDonald, Viola Davis, Bryan Cranston Among 2016 Emmy Nominees", "Record Six-Time Tony Award Winner Audra McDonald to Make West End Debut in, "Baby on the Way for Will Swenson and Audra McDonald", "Audra McDonald to Offer Concerts Throughout U.S.", "Audra McDonald to Debut New LaChiusa Piece at Houston Grand Opera", "In the Heights Cast Recording Wins Grammy; Hudson and LuPone-McDonald, "Audra McDonald Sings Composers of Today and Future, "On The Record: A Complete Cabaret With Judi Dench, and Audra McDonald's "Build a Bridge", "Audra McDonald's New Album, "Go Back Home" Sets May Release; PBS Concert Will Follow", "Alabama wins 13th national championship", "Audra McDonald review: reviving the fading art of singing", "Emmy Noms Go to 'Wit,' 'South Pacific,' 'Laughter on the 23rd Floor' and More", "PBS to Broadcast Audra McDonald's New Year's Eve Concert", "Stage to Screens: Audra McDonald, Kenneth Branagh, Craig Wright, Jill Clayburgh", "Audra McDonald to Exit Private Practice", Audra McDonald, Laura Benanti and Christian Borle Join Cast of NBC's Sound of Music, 'Sound of Music Live!' [45] She sang with the New York Philharmonic in the annual New Year's Eve gala concert on December 31, 2006, featuring music from the movies; it was televised on Live from Lincoln Center by PBS. 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. Her next album, How Glory Goes (2000), combined both old and new works, and included composers Harold Arlen, Leonard Bernstein and Jerome Kern. I love you). opposite Carrie Underwood as Maria. December 9, 7:30pm ET; available to... Audra McDonald’s performance in Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire is now available to stream on Audible in partnership with the Williamstown Theatre Festival. Audra McDonald, American actress and singer whose melodious soprano voice and expressive stage presence made her a primary figure on Broadway. [44] She also has appeared on Homicide: Life on the Street (1999), Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (2000), Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters' First 100 Years (1999), the short-lived Mister Sterling (2003), The Bedford Diaries (2006), and Kidnapped (2006–2007), and in the 1999 television remake of Annie as Daddy Warbucks' secretary & soon-to-be wife, Miss Farrell. Audra McDonald, Stephanie J. On Feb. 28, the kids put on their “wax museum” exhibit, which featured historical figures like Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, Jr., sports stars like Jackie Robinson and Michael Jordan, political icons like the Obamas, STEM heroes like Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, and Mary Jackson, and of course, a tiny Audra McDonald. [28] McDonald received a 2016 Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series or Movie for her role in the broadcast. McDonald shared a video of … [24] 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. I … [61], 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. In 2017 she was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame.[4]. McDonald and family live in Croton-on-Hudson, New York. Family. 19.1k Likes, 319 Comments - Audra McDonald (@audramcdonald) on Instagram: “So honored and excited about this book! [39] Her fourth album, Build a Bridge (2006), features songs from jazz and pop. She won Tony Awards for her work in Carousel, Master Class, Ragtime, A Raisin in the Sun, Porgy and Bess, and Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill. In 2016, McDonald was awarded the National Medal of Arts by President Barack Obama. [60], 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. Audra McDonald is equally comfortable in both musical and non-musical roles, and her versatility is as wide-reaching as her vocal range. [16] For this role, McDonald won her fifth Tony Award and her first in a Leading Actress category. 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. [42], 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.