Audra McDonald is a legendary performer, an icon of both the stage and screen. At only 51, the celebrated soprano is the most decorated performer working in American theater today.
McDonald was a three-time Tony Award winner by the age of 28, a feat she accomplished within five years of working professionally. She won Best Featured Actress in a Musical for “Carousel” in 1994, for “Master Class” in 1996 and for “Ragtime” in 1998.
The latter works were penned by the late St. Petersburg native Terrence McNally, the openly gay playwright the New York Times billed as “the bard of American theater.” The frequent collaborator became a personal friend of McDonald’s over the years, one she helped posthumously honor with Equality Florida’s Edie Windsor Lifetime Achievement Award last year.
McDonald now has a record six Tonys and is the first person to receive awards in all four acting categories. She won Best Featured Actress in a Play for “A Raisin in the Sun” in 2004 and Best Leading Actress in a Musical for “The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess” in 2012. In 2014, she won Best Leading Actress in a Play for “Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill,” in which she played bisexual icon Billie Holiday.
Among other competitive wins, McDonald also has two Grammys and an Emmy, but her impressive body of work has been celebrated by more than just her peers – it’s been honored by presidents.
She received a National Medal of Arts from former President Barack Obama in 2015, the nation’s highest honor in the field.
As the performer’s profile rose, so too did her platform. McDonald has long used it to advocate for the LGBTQ community – from joining Twitter in 2009 with the handle AudraEqualityMc to promote her support for same-sex marriage to serving as a member of the Covenant House International Board of Directors. The organization works to protect LGBTQ and other youth across the Americas.
In 2020, as the nation grappled with systemic racism and the ongoing pandemic that shut down most live entertainment, McDonald also co-founded Black Theatre United. The nonprofit seeks to “help protect Black people, Black talent and Black lives of all shapes and orientations in theatre and communities across the country.”
McDonald currently appears as attorney Liz Reddick in the Paramount+ legal drama “The Good Fight,” as Dorothy Scott in HBO’s “The Gilded Age” and was featured in the Aretha Franklin biopic “Respect” as the singer’s mother.
She’ll also play civil rights icon Ella Baker in Netflix’s “Rustin,” the story of gay civil rights activist and adviser to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Bayard Rustin, who’s been described as “the godfather of intersectionality” who was “lost to history because of who he loved.”
McDonald continues to tour on top of her busy workload, sharing stories and songs with audiences worldwide. After appearing at the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts for Duke Ellington’s “Black, Brown and Beige and Sacred Music” Jan. 26, the Broadway legend is now preparing to welcome fans for an intimate evening at the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall Feb. 11.
Watermark spoke with McDonald ahead of her Sarasota stop about representation, rebuilding Broadway and more.
WATERMARK: What are some of your earliest memories of wanting to perform? What drew you to the stage?
AUDRA MCDONALD: I come from a really, really musical family. There was always music in my house and in my world – but I think because I was such a hyperactive kid, my parents were looking for some sort of outlet to channel my energy. They found this dinner theater, a local dinner theater that had a kids’ group, and they asked me if I wanted to audition for it.
I was nine, I did and that was it. I got into that group, I got on stage. I had done dance lessons and piano recitals and things like that, but that was the first time I was doing shows and singing solos. Basically I never looked back. (Laughs.)
It’s certainly paid off.
I have been very fortunate.
Did you always see yourself on stage and screen?
No, I didn’t. I only ever thought I’d be on stage. I was very afraid to get in front of a camera.
Why is that?
I figured I didn’t know what I was doing. I was too insecure about my looks and concerned that I just didn’t have an understanding of how to work in front of a camera. So I feared the camera for a long time, and then I got the opportunity when I was about 37 to be in [ABC’s “Grey’s Anatomy” spin-off] “Private Practice.”
I had done television shows by that point, but I thought, “well, you know what, here’s an opportunity that’s coming along – for whatever reason in my life at this moment – and I should take advantage of it and really try and conquer my fear.” And 26 episodes a year for four years is certainly a way to get you at least used to being in front of the camera. (Laughs.)
Did that impact your professional ambitions? How have they evolved throughout your career?
My ambitions started to change once I got more comfortable with who I was in front of the camera. That sort of helped me to evolve on the small screen and the big screen. In terms of concertizing, because I had done so much of it as a kid – not touring like I am now, but just singing at concerts which I did at the dinner theater – it was nice to sort of step back into that after I’d been on Broadway for a while.
I think I first really started concertizing in late 1998 or early 1999, around there, where I would step out and do my own solo show that wasn’t attributed to one particular director, musical or play.
I loved the freedom of that and it sort of kicked off that part of my career. I just started to pursue those opportunities and I’m so glad I stepped back into it, because it’s taken me on a journey I just wasn’t expecting.
What excites you the most about that journey?
I think it sort of feeds everything I do. Concertizing has given me opportunities to see the world and to “See the U-S-A, in your Chevrolet!” (Laughs, singing the classic General Motors automobile jingle.)
But it’s also allowed me to perform with incredible orchestras in incredible halls – and let me just be myself in front of an audience, instead of whatever character that I’m playing. There’s been a freedom and a joy that I’ve discovered in doing that.
How do you approach a concert tour? What can audiences expect during an evening with you?
With the help of my incredible music director Andy Einhorn, I still work to put together an evening that is cohesive and tries to give audiences a storyline or a mood; a through line that makes sense. That way you’re not starting out with the 11 o’clock number and then closing on a teenie number. I try to serve up the meal in the right way, you know?
I also then give myself the freedom to allow whatever has happened throughout the day, whatever is going on in the world at that moment, whatever is going on in my life – without getting, you know, TMI – to influence the show. I allow all that to be present, so that I am at my most present in front of the audience.
Which means that if I’ve had a bad travel day to get to where I am, I will explain that to the audience. I’ll tell them, “Well, it was difficult getting here,” or sometimes I’ll hit interesting cities and be like, “where’s the best place to get a biscuit here?” (Laughs.) I think in Charleston I was asking everyone where I could get ribs – it’s just that since the wall is down anyway in a concert, I want to keep it that way. That way whatever comes up is very organic.
Why is that important to you?
It gives the audience permission, and it gives me permission, to let whatever happens happen. I think I had to discover that because I used to pass out a lot during performances – literally pass out – because I think I was putting too much stress on myself, wanting to have a perfect evening with perfect notes in every moment.
And that’s not what live theater or live performance is about. It’s about making music, making a connection, being present and everybody experiencing something that is in some ways ephemeral but potent. Ephemeral and potent, if one can be both things.
That’s why I sort of bring everything with me about my day or bring my life into it, so that the audience understands they’re getting me – warts and all. Some of it’s lovely, and there may be a wart here or there, but that’s what makes me human. That’s what I’m there to do: share the human condition with the audience.
It’s been difficult for the entertainment industry to do that over the last few years, and a challenging time for Broadway and the world in general.
What are your hopes for live theater as it works to rebuild?
I’m very concerned and dedicated to making sure our industry can come back and rebuild in a way that makes it sustainable. It’s been heartbreaking to see my colleagues in the theatre industry and live performance industry as a whole take such a hit – and not just financially. There’s an emotional toll to what has happened.
This is what we do. It was like all of a sudden someone saying to an architect, “Okay, well you can’t be an architect now because there’s just there’s no architecture to make. You’re just done.” That’s what it was like.
The pause was enormous and it’s a part of our identity as performers and as all of the people who work backstage that support this craft and make it happen. So I’m dedicated and concerned that we have to absolutely support this art form and bring it back in the safest possible way that we can.
Having said that, that means also making it an anti-racist space and making it a truly diversified space by dismantling any sort of vestiges or actual tenants of systemic racism that exist within this industry. So it’s a big reset, and it’s a big rebuild that has to happen, but it has to happen.
Live theater, live performances, can’t go away. The Greeks had that figured out. (Laughs.) We need it, it is literally a necessity. We need the arts and especially live theater. It’s a necessity for our soul, I think.
You mentioned creating an anti-racist space, something you’re working to do with Black Theatre United. What can you share about its mission and specifically its support for the Black LGBTQ community?
The pillars of Black Theatre United are action, accountability, advocacy and awareness. We stand for Black bodies, Black talent, Black lives and in doing so, we understand that we can focus on that within our own industry, which is how our organization came together. We’re theater but we recognize that you can’t just remodel and fix one room of the house if the whole house is on fire.
We understand that there is a broader, more civically minded sort of advocacy, accountability and action that has to take place. So not only do we focus on what’s going on within our own community, but we try to stay as civically engaged as we possibly can to bring awareness to things like voting rights. We had a huge push to make sure that everybody registered for the Census as well.
We come from all different walks of the theatrical community and we have LGBTQIA members who have joined BTU as well as helped found our organization. That is very much a part of the advocacy and awareness that we’re doing.
What can you share about some of that work?
In creating these anti-racist, anti-transphobic and anti-homophobic spaces, we’ve done what we can and created “A New Deal for Broadway.” A lot of it has to do with Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Accessibility training that must take place within the theatrical community at every different level. The ushers, everywhere. Within that, there’s also creating the awareness and the protection in making sure that these are safe spaces.
We got “A New Deal for Broadway” signed by a lot of the of leaders within the city, and a lot of unions within the community, which was so important to do. That was signed at the end of this last year and we’re implementing a lot of those commitments beginning now.
You also have a number of projects coming up, including “Rustin.” What drew you to the film and why is it important for you to highlight LGBTQ voices?
I hope I’ve always been seen as an ally to the LGBTQIA community. I have tried to be a vocal advocate for them for as long as I can remember in any way that I can. That includes me being on the board of Covenant House, which provides care for homeless youth in Canada, South America, Central America and here in North America as well. We have 40% of our homeless youth who are LGBTQIA people who have been discarded, thrown out, sexually trafficked, all of that.
So whether it’s my work with that organization or the work that I was doing during the fight for marriage equality, this is just a part of that for me – so when I was asked to be a part of “Rustin,” it was just a no-brainer.
Of course I was going to be a part of it. I was thrilled that there was something for me to do and just thrilled that the piece existed, that we’re finally going to get the spotlight on Rustin in the way that he has deserved from the beginning.
We’ll get to see exactly how I think the whole movement would have pivoted had he not been a driving force in the civil rights era. It lets us see exactly how it would have pivoted had he not been a part of it. Also, to get a chance to work with [“Candyman” and “Rustin” lead] Colman Domingo was another no-brainer. Of course, I was going to jump at that opportunity – and also at the opportunity to work again with [“Rustin” director] George C. Wolfe, who has been a friend for many years and is one of the greatest directors and playwrights that this country has. So really it was just all a big no-brainer for me. (Laughs.)
Audra McDonald will perform at Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall Feb. 11 at 8 p.m., located at 777 N. Tamiami Trail in Sarasota. For more information and to purchase tickets, call 941-953-3368 or visit VanWezel.org.
Learn more about Audra McDonald and Black Theatre United at AudraMcDonald.com and BlackTheatreUnited.com.
