Went to see this lady last evening at the Wallis in Beverly Hills. If there's someone around who sings better than Audra McDonald, I'd sure like to know who it is. She was appearing as part of a new series of shows that Seth Rudetsky is doing. Seth is a Broadway historian and piano player who is also a host on the Sirius-XM Radio Broadway channel. (By coincidence, I am today lunching with the fabulous Ms. Christine Pedi who is also a host on the Sirius-XM Radio Broadway Channel.) Seth is doing evenings with Broadway Divas where he interviews them and also accompanies them singing. The whole event was a delight as McDonald is funny and fascinating when she's not singing and just mesmerizing when she is.
I can't repeat all the stories but one I think I can re-create here is what she said about what it's like if you're in a Broadway show, you're nominated for a Tony (she's won six!) and they want you to perform a number on the live Tony Awards telecast. On Saturday, you do two shows — matinee and evening — so you're finished around 11 PM. It's a tiring day but nothing compared to what you have to do on Sunday, the day of the telecast.
7 AM the next morning, short on sleep, you have to be at the theater from which the broadcast is emanating. You have to get into full costuming and before you leave that theater, you do a complete, full-energy performance of the number you'll be performing on the show that evening. This is not only your final Dress Rehearsal but they record it as a back-up in case there are tech problems that prevent you from doing it live that evening. (She didn't mention it but I assume you rehearsed this number there in the days before. Even though you do it eight times a week in your own show, songs are truncated and changed for the telecast, plus the staging may have to be adjusted for the award show stage, and the TV director and camerapersons need to learn how to shoot it.)
Once you're done taping that, you race to your own theater and do the Sunday matinee. And right after the matinee is done, you have to shower and do your make-up and get into the fancy duds you'll wear for the Tony Awards ceremony. You race back to the broadcast theater, walk the red carpet, take your seat…
…and then at some point during the show, someone will come down and inform you it's time to go backstage, get back into your costume and then do the number on the live show. Then when that's done, you get back into your gown or tux, go back out and take your seat and wait for your category to see if you get to go up on stage and accept a Tony. By that point, you sure deserve one.
Audra was in great voice and all the songs were wonderful but at the end, she really brought chills to the audience. She supposedly closed with "Climb Every Mountain" and as we were all standing and clapping and she and Rudetsky exited, it felt like one of those bogus bow-offs where the star comes back and surprises us with one more number. I was kinda thinking to myself, "Gee, what can follow 'Climb Every Mountain'?" Then they came back out and she sang "Summertime" from Porgy and Bess. Without the microphone.
The Wallis is not a huge theater but it ain't tiny. It seats 500 and though it has great acoustics, you still need a powerful voice to fill it, sans amplification. We were in the second row and we heard fine…but I suspect the folks in the back row did as well. I cannot recall ever hearing a more robust, beautiful voice hitting every note of a song with such absolute perfection. At the end, people cheered and clapped but for a split-second before they did, you could hear little gasps and exhales of awe. It was worth the whole price of admission just for that song and the accompanying tingles. Wow. And I mean Wow.