Interview: Audra McDonald

Reprinted from http://jazzwax.com

Audra McDonald is easily the finest Broadway actress-singer of our time. In addition to appearing in a wide range of challenging roles in productions of Ragtime, A Raisin in the Sun, Porgy and Bess and Master Class, Audra has won a record six Tony awards, including one in each of the four Tony categories. Three of those Tonys were clinched by the time she was 28. And her portrayal of Billie Holiday in Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill was both astonishing and harrowing. In today's Mansion section of The Wall Street Journal (go here), I talk to Audra about her early life for the "House Call" column. [Above, Audra McDonald, photographed at New York restaurant Sardi’s by Allison Michael Orenstein for The Wall Street Journal]

Over the summer, I caught Lady Day and was thunderstruck. I'm too young to have seen Holiday perform, but Audra captured her speaking and singing voice perfectly. This wasn't an impersonation. Audra was so far inside Holiday's personality that she brought nuanced characteristics and shadings to her performance that gave you a full feel for the singer. It was as close as I'm ever going to get to seeing Holiday live. At the end, the audience was in virtual shock not to mention swept away by Audra's vocal performances. I sensed Audra was emotionally drained, and I was right.

Though we had set up an interview date, we had to postpone it twice—once due to an extension of her Lady Day run to an eight-performance week and again due to her feeling a bit under the weather. Audra knows only one way: all in, and some.

When Audra and I finally connected a couple of weeks ago, we had a fun chat. Audra freely talked about her childhood years growing up in Fresno, Calif., and how a little girl who could have been written off as just another kid who couldn't sit still in class became a driven, determined and hard-working actress who excelled in every role after enrolling in a local theater program. [Above, Audra in The Wiz in Fresno]

Audra struck me as two people: A woman who would love a long vacation with her family and a teen who long ago made a pact with herself to push hard be better than she was yesterday and never give up. In my interview you'll learn things about Audra you likely never knew.

Here are highlights from Audra's performance in Lady Day, which depicts Holiday at Emerson's Bar & Grill in Philadelphia in March 1959, some four months before her death, baring her soul to the club audience in between singing songs...

And here's Audra's acceptance speech earlier this year after winning her sixth Tony for her performance in Lady Day...

Also in The Wall Street Journal, I interview Sir Roger Moore for the Review section's "Playlist" column. As you may recall, Sir Roger played TV's The Saint and James Bond in the film series following Sean Connery. Sir Roger's favorite song? Frank Sinatra's One for My Baby. Sinatra was a close friend. And here, I couldn't resist...

Plus, one more. If you missed my essay earlier this week on Henry Mancini for the Leisure & Arts page, go here. I write about the new 18-soundtrack box Henry Mancini: The Classic Soundtrack Collection (Sony).

Used with permission by Marc Myers