Here's how: Carolyn and I went to hear one of my favorite performers, Audra McDonald, performing downtown at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. I didn't have a chance to eat first so before the show, when I noticed a little fast food shoppe on the promenade there selling tomato soup, I bought myself a cup. Now, I haven't sampled the tomato soup in every venue on this planet that sells tomato soup but I just know I'm right about this: I found the worst tomato soup in the world.
Unbelievably bad. I mean, one sip and it was into the trash can with the balance…and I noticed other similarly full-but-for-one-sip cups of it already in there. My new policy: Check the nearby disposal bins before you buy. A cup, by the way, was six bucks. They should have had a sign that said a bowl was three dollars and if you gave them a ten, you didn't have to eat the soup at all. They'd have cleaned up.
My lusting for the tomato soup they serve sometimes at Souplantation seems to have deluded some folks into thinking I like any or all tomato soup. Not so. It's just that one. In fact, that one may have spoiled me for others…and if it hasn't, the raw sewage passed off as tomato soup outside the Chandler has made me gun-shy (soup-shy?) of trying any other for a long time. There are tastier liquids in this world that you take the night before a colonoscopy.
Fortunately, Audra was as good as the soup was bad. What a stunning voice — and not just on the opening and closing numbers, which is all some singers can manage, but on every single number. She favors obscure tunes…though I've never heard "I Could Have Danced All Night" or "Summertime" sung better. The between-songs patter was very funny, especially the story about how her young daughter doesn't understand the difference between screaming and what her mother does for a living.
On the way in, I overheard a lady who was thumbing through the program book register disappointment when she learned the following: That Audra was not performing with a big symphony-type orchestra, the way she does on all those TV concerts, but with a piano, drums and bass. I think I preferred her that way. That rich, pitch-perfect voice doesn't need to sit on a string section to sound good.
But no one else seemed disappointed. The place was packed with an audience that was eager to stand for several ovations. If and when she comes to your neck of the woods, get seats.
One of the songs with which Ms. McDonald favored us was the lilting (and pretty funny) "Baltimore" by Marcy Heisler and Zina Goldrich. Here from one of Audra's near-daily PBS concert appearances is that tune with a full orchestra…
