If Audra McDonald has ever been less than superb onstage, over the years since she first commandeered the Vivian Beaumont as Carrie Pipperidge in the Nicholas Hytner Carousel in 1994, I must have missed it. In musicals, of course; and plays, starting with Master Class; and in numerous concert and cabaret evenings. (I will leave discussion of her film and TV work to others, only to comment that it is to our great benefit that she sees fit to always return home to Broadway.)
It is thoroughly unfair to the actress to expect her to shine brilliantly at every performance; at the same time, it’s wildly unfair to other performers. (Not the competition; for performers at this level there are no competitors, only peers.) Part of McDonald’s astounding skill set, I suppose, is her ability to walk onstage in less than prime condition—with the flu, or on one of those days when a seriously pregnant performer might rather be sitting at home—but act her way into making us think she is giving the best performance of her life.
New Yorkers in search of an Audra fix thronged to Town Hall last night for the star’s appearance in the debut of Seth Rudetsky’s Broadway @ The Town Hall series. Rudetsky, the piano player/author/outsize personality who has never met a spotlight that he couldn’t slightly edge over to include himself, has been doing these “conversations” with musical comedy stars for several years, in Provincetown, San Francisco, London and on what they still call the High Seas (where he serves as a fixture on those Playbill cruises).
The format is overly simple. The host enters with a stack of music, which is to say the performing portfolio of the star in question. The pair sit cozily on chairs, chatting and gossiping; every so often, Rudetsky pads over to the piano and plays a vamp, brusquely informing the star as to what he has decided she will sing. Then back to the armchairs. So what we get is something akin to Dick Cavett interviewing Gwen Verdon, except that they can actually illustrate the discussion with full-out performances pulled out of Seth’s grab bag. The star, not necessarily prepared, has eight bars of music to get ready. This before an eager audience, most of whom know the material note-for-note.
This format will likely work with any well-equipped and knowledgeable raconteur/pianist. Rudetsky is ideal, though, as he is intrinsically funny and fearless. He has a long-term professional relationship with McDonald, which provides decades of material. Thus, he is very much like an adoring younger brother giving his sister a chance to shine—but unable to resist the opportunity to playfully embarrass her with occasional zingers.
You might think, Wouldn’t we rather just hear McDonald sing most of the time? The answer, somewhat surprisingly, is no. We do get an evening of astonishing songs—a full dozen, last night. But we also get Audra unrehearsed and off guard; with at least one of the songs Rudetsky flung her way (Bette Midler’s “The Rose”), she clearly didn’t remember the lyrics and had to be prompted by the pianist and members of the audience. And yet: The performance of the song was masterful, even when she was forced to (admittedly) make up lyrics. McDonald’s artistry was fully in evidence, but we also got a seemingly honest display of her personality, which is refreshingly human.
The songs performed in this one-night event, for the record: “I Am What I Am”; a combined “Children Will Listen”/”You’ve Got to Be Carefully Taught”; “Vanilla Ice Cream”; “Maybe This Time”; Kate Miller-Heidke’s “Facebook Song”; “Cornet Man”; “The Rose”; the solo film version of “The Glamorous Life”; a sequence from Evita in which Seth rummaged through the score and commanded Audra to jump in; Adam Gwon’s heartbreaking “I’ll Be Here”; “Climb Ev’ry Mountain,” sung in memory of producer Craig Zadan; and an unmiked “Summertime.” Each and every song was beyond wonderful; I mean, McDonald turned “Cornet Man”—a minor song from Funny Girl—into a veritable art song. (I can imagine Jule Styne eagerly rubbing his hands and blustering “Yes, err, of course, that’s exactly the way I wrote it.”)
The Seth & Audra show will presumably reappear in other venues, when schedules align. The Town Hall series, produced by Mark Cortale, continues on January 14, 2019, with Kelli O’Hara; and winds up for the season on March 11, 2019, with Jeremy Jordan.
Audra McDonald: Broadway @ The Town Hall was presented for one performance, Nov. 12, 2018, at Town Hall. Series tickets and information: thetownhall.org
