Biography
One of her era's most celebrated artists, Audra McDonald possesses classical soprano training and a versatile acting command that has allowed her to move fluidly among stage, screen, television, and recording projects. A headlining presence on Broadway since the 1990s, she has captured six Tony Awards for Carousel, Master Class, Ragtime, A Raisin in the Sun, and Porgy and Bess, establishing a record for the most wins by any performer and becoming the first to succeed in every acting category. Her technical precision and magnetic command of the stage have also brought two Grammy Awards for the 2009 cast album of Kurt Weill's Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny and the 2015 National Medal of Arts presented by President Barack Obama. Beyond the theater she has recorded her own albums, beginning with the 1998 release Way Back to Paradise, which spotlighted emerging theater songwriters. Later collections such as the aptly named Happy Songs and 2013's Go Back Home let her reinterpret favorite Broadway numbers and American Popular Standards. Viewers recognize her from the role of Dr. Naomi Bennett on ABC's Private Practice and from appearances in the 1999 film Cradle Will Rock as well as Disney's 2017 live-action Beauty and the Beast, the latter earning one of her five NAACP Image Award nominations.
She entered the world in Berlin, Germany, in 1970 while her father served in the Army and grew up in Fresno, California. Drawn to musical theater early, she received foundational instruction through the Roosevelt School of the Arts at Theodore Roosevelt High School and performed during her teenage years with Fresno's Good Company Players. After graduation she refined her technique at the Juilliard School of Music, completing a bachelor's degree in music in 1993. Professional engagements had already begun; in 1992 she joined the national tour of The Secret Garden. Immediately following her studies she joined the 1994 Broadway revival of Carousel, appeared on its cast recording, and received a Tony Award. The next year brought a second Tony for her depiction of vocal student Maria Callas in the drama Master Class. She next took part in Ragtime's premiere engagement in Toronto and, after making her screen debut in Seven Servants in 1996, returned when the production reached Broadway on January 18, 1998, securing her third Tony within five years. Both the Toronto studio cast album and the original Broadway cast album document her involvement.
McDonald entered a solo contract with Nonesuch Records and issued her first album, Way Back to Paradise, on September 22, 1998, interpreting material by young theater composers including Michael John LaChiusa, whose Marie Christine she would soon join. She made her New York nightclub debut in October 1998 to promote the record, launching a sustained concert career. That same year she appeared in the film The Object of My Affection and in a regional staging of John Adams' I Was Looking at the Ceiling and Then I Saw the Sky that yielded a cast album. In 1999 she performed in the film version of The Cradle Will Rock and the television adaptation of Annie, contributing to both soundtracks, acted in the television film Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters' First Hundred Years, and recorded a studio cast album of Wonderful Town. Marie Christine arrived on Broadway in December 1999 as her third musical there.
Her second solo album, How Glory Goes, mixing standards with newer theater songs, appeared in February 2000, followed months later by the Marie Christine cast recording. Also in 2000 she participated in a New York Philharmonic benefit concert of Stephen Sondheim's Sweeney Todd that produced a cast album and starred in the television film The Last Debate. She married bassist Peter Donovan, and the couple welcomed a daughter. In 2001 she appeared in the television adaptation of Wit and joined another benefit concert of Dreamgirls that was preserved on disc.
Happy Songs, her third solo collection, reached stores in September 2002 and revisited interwar standards identified with vocalists such as Ethel Waters and Judy Garland. During 2003 she took roles in the feature It Runs in the Family and the television film Partners and Crimes, became a regular on the series Mister Sterling, and returned to Broadway in a production of Shakespeare's Henry IV. The following year brought the film The Best Thief in the World and a featured part in the Broadway revival of A Raisin in the Sun, which earned her a fourth Tony Award.
She performed in a 2005 staged concert of Stephen Sondheim's Passion that aired live on PBS. In 2006 she joined the regular cast of The Bedford Diaries and released her fourth solo album, Build a Bridge, containing songs by rock-era writers including Randy Newman, Laura Nyro, and Burt Bacharach. Around that time she appeared in a Broadway revival of 110 in the Shade. She returned to the stage in the 2012 revival of Porgy and Bess and, in 2013, issued Go Back Home, whose title track originated in the Kander & Ebb musical The Scottsboro Boys. To support the album she filmed a PBS concert special at Lincoln Center. Also in 2013 she portrayed Mother Abbess in NBC's live telecast The Sound of Music Live!
The next year she portrayed Billie Holiday in the Broadway production of Lanie Robertson's Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill. The staging was later filmed for HBO, earning McDonald a 2016 Emmy nomination for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series or Movie. In 2018 she released Sing Happy, a live album captured at New York's David Geffen Hall with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra.
She entered the world in Berlin, Germany, in 1970 while her father served in the Army and grew up in Fresno, California. Drawn to musical theater early, she received foundational instruction through the Roosevelt School of the Arts at Theodore Roosevelt High School and performed during her teenage years with Fresno's Good Company Players. After graduation she refined her technique at the Juilliard School of Music, completing a bachelor's degree in music in 1993. Professional engagements had already begun; in 1992 she joined the national tour of The Secret Garden. Immediately following her studies she joined the 1994 Broadway revival of Carousel, appeared on its cast recording, and received a Tony Award. The next year brought a second Tony for her depiction of vocal student Maria Callas in the drama Master Class. She next took part in Ragtime's premiere engagement in Toronto and, after making her screen debut in Seven Servants in 1996, returned when the production reached Broadway on January 18, 1998, securing her third Tony within five years. Both the Toronto studio cast album and the original Broadway cast album document her involvement.
McDonald entered a solo contract with Nonesuch Records and issued her first album, Way Back to Paradise, on September 22, 1998, interpreting material by young theater composers including Michael John LaChiusa, whose Marie Christine she would soon join. She made her New York nightclub debut in October 1998 to promote the record, launching a sustained concert career. That same year she appeared in the film The Object of My Affection and in a regional staging of John Adams' I Was Looking at the Ceiling and Then I Saw the Sky that yielded a cast album. In 1999 she performed in the film version of The Cradle Will Rock and the television adaptation of Annie, contributing to both soundtracks, acted in the television film Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters' First Hundred Years, and recorded a studio cast album of Wonderful Town. Marie Christine arrived on Broadway in December 1999 as her third musical there.
Her second solo album, How Glory Goes, mixing standards with newer theater songs, appeared in February 2000, followed months later by the Marie Christine cast recording. Also in 2000 she participated in a New York Philharmonic benefit concert of Stephen Sondheim's Sweeney Todd that produced a cast album and starred in the television film The Last Debate. She married bassist Peter Donovan, and the couple welcomed a daughter. In 2001 she appeared in the television adaptation of Wit and joined another benefit concert of Dreamgirls that was preserved on disc.
Happy Songs, her third solo collection, reached stores in September 2002 and revisited interwar standards identified with vocalists such as Ethel Waters and Judy Garland. During 2003 she took roles in the feature It Runs in the Family and the television film Partners and Crimes, became a regular on the series Mister Sterling, and returned to Broadway in a production of Shakespeare's Henry IV. The following year brought the film The Best Thief in the World and a featured part in the Broadway revival of A Raisin in the Sun, which earned her a fourth Tony Award.
She performed in a 2005 staged concert of Stephen Sondheim's Passion that aired live on PBS. In 2006 she joined the regular cast of The Bedford Diaries and released her fourth solo album, Build a Bridge, containing songs by rock-era writers including Randy Newman, Laura Nyro, and Burt Bacharach. Around that time she appeared in a Broadway revival of 110 in the Shade. She returned to the stage in the 2012 revival of Porgy and Bess and, in 2013, issued Go Back Home, whose title track originated in the Kander & Ebb musical The Scottsboro Boys. To support the album she filmed a PBS concert special at Lincoln Center. Also in 2013 she portrayed Mother Abbess in NBC's live telecast The Sound of Music Live!
The next year she portrayed Billie Holiday in the Broadway production of Lanie Robertson's Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill. The staging was later filmed for HBO, earning McDonald a 2016 Emmy nomination for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series or Movie. In 2018 she released Sing Happy, a live album captured at New York's David Geffen Hall with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra.
Albums
Gypsy Starring Audra McDonald (2024 Broadway Cast Recording)
2025
Go Back Home
2013
Build a Bridge
2006
Happy Songs
2002
How Glory Goes
2000
Bernstein: Wonderful Town
1999
Way Back to Paradise
1998
Singles
