Audra McDonald on Broadway: A History of Stage Shows

This Broadway play by Adrienne Kennedy opened at the James Earl Jones Theatre in December 2022 and closed in January 2023. Audra McDonald played the role of Suzanne Alexander and received a Tony Award nomination for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Play. The story follows Suzanne, an alumnus of Ohio State University, who returns as a renowned author to speak about her use of “violence” in her writing. The truth of her traumatic experiences as a Black female student at the university are brought to light in this suspenseful one act play. It is part of a series of plays written by Adrienne Kennedy called “Alexander Plays” which all feature Suzanne Alexander.

Audra Mcdonald and Michael Shannon co-starred as Frankie and Johnny in the 2019 Broadway production of this two-hander play written by Terrence McNally and directed by Arin Arbus. What starts as a one-night-stand becomes a much more intimate encounter than either of the two had expected. Johnny finds himself falling in love with Frankie, who is more wary and protective of her heart as it becomes increasingly exposed. Al Pacino and Michelle Pfieffer starred in a 1991 film adaptation of the play. For her great performance as Frankie in its second Broadway revival, Audra McDonald received a Tony Award nomination for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Play.

Shuffle Along is revered as a noteable all-Black Broadway hit with music by Eubie Blake, lyrics by Noble Sissle, and a book by comedy duo Flournoy Miller and Aubrey Lyles. It first premiered in 1921 at the 63rd Street Music Hall. George C. Wolfe wrote the book for and directed Shuffle Along, or the Making of the Musical Sensation of 1921 and All That Followed which opened at the Music Box Theatre in 2016. This show within a show makes the original creators of Shuffle Along characters and portrays their struggles to put on and tour their all-Black production. Audra McDonald played Lottie Gee, the leading lady of the show within the show. The production was nominated for ten Tony Awards and won four Drama Desk Awards.

This musical, written by Lanie Robertson, zooms in on one of Billie Holiday’s final performances before her death and important moments in her life. It features many of her most popular songs like “Strange Fruit.” Audra McDonald played Billie Holiday in the 2014 production directed by Lonny Price at the Circle in the Square Theatre. She took home the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play, making her the first performer to win a Tony Award in all four categories of performance. Her performance was preserved in a filmed version by HBO that took place at Cafe Brasil in New Orleans with a live audience in 2016.

Suzan-Lori Parks and Diedre L. Murray adapted the 1935 Gershwin operetta, Porgy and Bess which had its revival on the Broadway stage in 2012. The production was directed by Diane Paulus with choreography by Ronald K. Brown. The story focuses on Catfish Row, an African-American section of Charleston, South Carolina and the people who live there including Porgy and Bess. Audra McDonald played Bess opposite Norm Lewis as Porgy, and she won the Tony Award for Best Performance by an Actress in Leading Role in a Musical. Overall, the revival received ten Tony Award nominations, winning Best Revival of a Musical.

This 1963 musical with music by Harvey Schmidt, lyrics by Tom Jones, and a book by N. Richard Nash is set in the Old West. It is based on Nash’s play The Rainmaker and tells the story of a single woman, Lizzie Curry, who finds herself torn between the local sheriff and the charming con man who claims he can end their drought. The revival directed by Lonny Price opened at Studio 54 on Broadway in 2007, starring Audra McDonald as Lizzie Curry. The revival was nominated for five Tony Awards, including a nomination for Audra McDonald for Best Actress in a Musical. She and John Cullum performed “Raunchy” from the show at the 2007 Tony Awards.

A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry first debuted in 1959 and won Best Play of that year by the New York Drama Critics’ Circle. The plot is largely inspired by the lawsuit Hansberry v. Lee which involved the playwright’s father, and the title of the play comes from Langston Hughes’ poem “Harlem” also known as “A Dream Deferred.” The story follows an African-American family who strives to improve their financial situation in the South Side of Chicago. The family of five are faced with obstacles of racial discrimination, poverty, and assimilation. The 2004 revival directed by Kenny Leon won two Tony Awards, including Best Featured Actress in a Play awarded to Audra McDonald for her portrayal of Ruth Younger.

Dramaturg and adapter Dakin Matthews condensed William Shakespeare’s Henry IV Part 1 and Henry IV Part II into one four hour play for a Lincoln Center production directed by Jack O’Brien which debuted in the Vivian Beaumont Theater in 2003. Henry IV comes after Shakespeare’s Richard II and follows the familial and royal struggles faced by the new king, played by Kevin Kline. Audra McDonald was featured as Lady Percy, a strong-willed woman deeply involved in her husband Hotspur's military and political affairs. This role was notable for great actress because it was one of the first straight plays she performed in at a large scale theater and marked her first performance in a classic on Broadway.

This musical with music, lyrics, and book by Michael John LaChiusa opened on Broadway at the Lincoln Center in the Vivian Beaumont Theater in 1999. It is loosely based on the Greek myth of Medea and set in New Orleans during the 1890s before jumping forward five years to continue in Chicago. The plot begins with Audra McDonald’s character, a mixed race woman by the name of Marie Christine who is in prison to be executed without a trial and then flashes back to her meeting a white sailor, Dante Keyes who was played by Anthony Crivello and introduces the audience to her family including her mother who practices voodoo. Audra McDonald was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical for her performance in the starring role.

Based on the novel by E.L. Doctorow by the same name, Ragtime is a Broadway musical with a book by Terrence McNally, music by Lynn Ahrens, and lyrics by Stephen Flaherty. It is set at the turn of the twentieth century in New York featuring the voices of historic figures like Henry Ford, Harry Houdini, Emma Goldman, J.P. Morgan, Booker T. Washington, and Evelyn Nesbit. The story centralizes around the intertwining of characters who belong to three different social groups: a white upper-class family, a Jewish immigrant father and his daughter, and inhabitants of Harlem including an African-American ragtime musician. The original 1998 Broadway production ran at the Ford Center for the Performing Arts (now the Lyric Theatre) and featured Audra McDonald as Sarah who played opposite Brian Stokes Mitchell as Coalhouse Walker Jr., the ragtime musician. The Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical went to Audra McDonald for this role.

This play by Terrence McNally follows a series of fictional master classes led by the opera diva, Maria Callas. She is equally appalled and enthralled by the students who come before her, including Sharon who was originally played by Audra McDonald in the 1995 Broadway production at the John Golden Theatre. Throughout the play Callas reflects on her own experiences as a young opera singer and the sacrifices that led her to the glory she had at one point achieved. The role of the opera diva was originally played by Zoe Caldwell and eventually Patti LuPone replaced her. Audra McDonald received the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play, although her singing voice was of course featured in her operatic character.

Carousel was iconic musical duo Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein’s second Broadway musical, which debuted on Broadway in 1945. It was a hit at the time and has since been revived several times both on Broadway and the West End. It follows two concurrent storylines of two couples, carousel barker Billy Bigelow & millworker Julie Jordan and millworker Carrie Pipperidge & fisherman Enoch Snow. A few of the most famous songs in the show are “If I Loved You,” “June Is Bustin’ Out All Over,” and “You’ll Never Walk Alone” all of which Audra McDonald performed in a medley at the 2000 A Capitol Fourth Concert. She won her first Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical for her role as Carrie Pepperidge in the 1994 revival directed by Jack O’Brien in the Vivian Beaumont Theater of the Lincoln Center.

Audra McDonald made her Broadway debut in 1992 when she replaced Patricia Phillips as Ayah in The Secret Garden at the St. James Theatre in a production directed by Susan H. Schulman. The musical with music by Lucy Simon and book and lyrics by Marsha Norman is based on the 1911 classic novel with the same title by Frances Hodgson Burnett. The story revolves around Mary Lennox, a spoiled young girl, who is orphaned by the cholera epidemic in India and forced to live with her widowed uncle and sickly cousin in England. She and her cousin form an unlikely friendship and bring back to life her passed aunt’s garden, finding healing and redemption for herself in the process.