Review: A Luminous Audra McDonald Returns to Boston's Symphony Hall

Audra McDonald at Boston's Symphony Hall, February 27, 2024 Source: Robert Torres/Celebrity Series of Boston

Audra McDonald prefaced her Celebrity Series of Boston concert at Symphony Hall on Tuesday by explaining that she had a head cold. She needn't had bothered. No one would have known. Over the course of the following 100 minutes, her sumptuous soprano showed little sign of strain. It remains as full-bodied as it was when she first came to the hall 25 years ago to sing with the Boston Pops, just a bit mellowed with age.

Even at that point in her career, McDonald was a force to be reckoned with: She had already won three Tony Awards – two for Best Featured Actress in a Musical, for "Carousel" and "Ragtime," and one for Best Featured Actress in a Play for "Master Class." Her ability to combine her superb vocal skills with her considerable acting chops made her a unique talent, which has led to three subsequent Tony Award wins: A second Best Featured Actress in a Play for "Raisin in the Sun," a Best Actress in a Play for "Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill," and a Best Actress in a Musical for "Porgy and Bess." That remarkable synergy translates to her concert performances where every song feels like a one-act play.

But while dressed as a diva (in a luxurious, blue-green velvet gown), McDonald is far from being one. Another constant throughout her career is her down-to-earth manner, which is filled with self-effacing humor, and warm, between-the-songs banter, whether it was talking about living with her four children during the pandemic or her own teenage blunders. For instance, when introducing "Cornet Man," the jazzy, little-heard "Funny Girl" number, she explained that she won a vocal contest at 14 by singing the song, despite a judge asking her how, at that age, she could interpret the lyric "And he's the one who makes my coffee percolate." At the time, she recalled, she shrugged her shoulders and thought: "I know. I drink coffee." But now, nearly four decades later, she jokingly sees his point, and she sang the song with all its cheeky, sexual double entendres intact.

McDonald's theme was to celebrate the Great American Musical Theater Songbook, which included numerous standards such as "I Could Have Danced All Night" (sung with a nod to the 96-year-old soprano Leontyne Price) and two walloping Jerry Herman tunes: "I Am What I Am" (which opened the evening) and "Before a Parade Passes By," performed with such gusto that it left you wondering if there's a Dolly Levi in her future. (There are already rumors of a Mama Rose sometime soon.) One of the more ingenious (and touching) song combinations came when she put Oscar Hammerstein's "Carefully Taught" with Stephen Sondheim's "Children Will Listen," a songs that not only tell the same cautionary tale, but allude to how Sondheim paid homage to Hammerstein, his great mentor. Leonard Bernstein was recognized with a poignant pairing of "Some Other Time" and "Somewhere." At one point she said she was singing to the statuary that line the rafters of Symphony Hall by belting "Summertime," and there was a nod to great Duke Ellington with "It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)," abetted with 'pick-up band' of some 50 local musicians who, under the direction of her musical director Andy Einhorn, really did swing.

For more pensive moments, McDonald sang with the instrumental trio that traveled with her (Glenn Zaleski, piano; Mark Vanderpoel, bass; and Gene Lewen, drums). This included a sweet version of a largely unknown 1940s song, "I Always Say Hello to a Flower," to acknowledge her new-found love of gardening, and "It Ain't Easy Being Green," where Lewen provided the subtle accompaniment on guitar. But the musical find was "I Love Today," a song she found on a TikTok video through the help of her daughter by an unknown singer/songwriter, Kim Kalesti, that, to McDonald, expresses "the essence of being alive." Upon hearing it, McDonald knew immediately she wanted to include it in concert. Upon reaching out to Kalesti, she received permission, and sang it like a lullaby, beautifully capturing the lyric's unbridled optimism and love of life.

She also acknowledged her reluctance in the past to sing songs from her celebrated performance as Billie Holiday in "Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill," and showed that she could with a startling "Crazy He Calls Me," in which she morphed into the jazz great with remarkable ease. For her final number, she chose a standard she never thought she would sing due to it being identified with other artists; but when Anna Wintour asked her to sing "Cabaret" at a Metropolitan Museum of Art benefit to honor New York City coming out of the pandemic, what else could she do but sing it? Her version was neither peppy or ironic; instead, she slowed the song down and turned it into a paean of hope in the future that also acknowledged the dangers that lurk there. It was a potent interpretation, and showed McDonald's ability to bring new meaning to the most familiar of songs.

For her encore, McDonald joined the animated Einhorn to pay honor to icons Barbra Streisand and Judy Garland with a recreation their "Happy Days Are Here Again"|"Get Happy" medley they sang on Garland's 1963 television program. Sung with much warmth and affection, it ended the evening on a resounding high and very gay note.

For upcoming events by the Celebrity Series of Boston, visit its website.

For more on Audra McDonald, visit her website.

Watch Audra McDonald sing "I Love Today" from an earlier concert appearance.