Audra McDonald
Was the role of Lizzie in 110 in the Shade one that you'd been itching to play?
Actually, I never had any experience with the show. I knew The Rainmaker somewhat, but I was not familiar with the musical at all. [Director] Lonny Price gave me the CD of the original cast.
What did you first think of the show?
I thought Inga Swenson [as Lizzie] was amazing, but the whole thing felt a little stylized and old-fashioned. When I first listened to the CD, it was the big, grand style of the show, not Inga Swenson per se, that I was not drawn to. I was not really looking at it in perspective with the script. Lonny kept saying, "Just read the script," and once I did, I realized how incredible it is.
Were you surprised at reactions to show's sexual politics?
Do you identify with Lizzie?
But she thinks he's a charlatan.
The musical adheres to the original play—big dialogue scenes, lyrics straight from the text. In some ways it's a play with music.
How does this compare with shows that you've done that were sung throughout?
Getting this show produced was a long process for you and Lonny Price.
Have Harvey Schmidt and Tom Jones been around? Tom Jones is performing in The Fantasticks right now.
Is it useful to be able to consult with the composer and lyricist?
Have you made some changes in the script?
When Lizzie's brother Noah makes his big speech about her being plain, it's devastating to watch you. It's like your spirit sinks into the basement of Studio 54 and then way down to Manhattan bedrock.
There's a real sense of closeness, particularly between you and John Cullum.
How does Lizzie compare to some of the other iconic women you have played? Do you like her?
You recently played another iconic character, Jenny, in Mahagonny at Los Angeles Opera in a production co-starring Patti LuPone. Jenny's a tough cookie.
You lost your father recently, which is difficult for anyone at any time. But this came when you were under a lot of pressure to open 110 in the Shade. Was it helpful to have a show to focus on, or was it a hindrance?
One distraction must be the Tony Awards. How do you feel about theatrical awards?
And in another sense?
Which of your four Tony Awards most surprised you?
Have you seen Christine Ebersole in Grey Gardens or any of the other women who are nominated in your category?
Your Tony history so far has been that you win for a musical and then a play, for a musical and then a play. Which makes this a musical year. Think you're due?
So you don't count on winning.
In addition to theater, you're very busy with your concert career. Which is scarier: appearing as a character in a show, or appearing as yourself and delivering a song?
Your version of Laura Nyro's song "Tom Cat Goodbye" is amazing.
Wait. Michael Tilson Thomas, the conductor who runs San Francisco Symphony, told you about a Laura Nyro song?
What drew you to such an unusual song?
Where do you find new material?
To get back to Zoe Caldwell for a second—because we always want to get back to Zoe Caldwell—didn't you name your daughter after her?
What's next after this show?
See Audra McDonald in 110 in the Shade at Studio 54.
Oh, the amazing journey this woman has on this one day. She starts out with little to no hope that she's ever going to find someone. And then she does. I think that's a journey anyone can identify with. What's been interesting is the reaction we've gotten from some people—they were offended, and wondered why a woman should have to have a man. Well, first of all, the show was written in 1963 about people in 1930. Secondly, it's not that Lizzie has to have a man, but that she wants one. Lizzie's brother says that she has all the basics—home and bed and board—and she should be fine, even grateful, but her father makes the more significant point: Does she have what will make her happy? Lizzie is a strong enough person that if she didn't want to get married, she wouldn't. But she wants that; she wants a relationship. So when people say they are offended by the storyline, I give that defense.
No. Nothing surprises me any more. Certainly not that.
Certainly. Maybe I'm an old-fashioned person. The way I identify with Lizzie has to do with how you feel about yourself on the inside, with how the perceptions of the outside world can affect your feelings about yourself. Lizzie does not feel feminine. She doesn't feel beautiful. So when Starbuck sees her for who she is and sees the beauty inside her, that's a huge transformation.
Well, yes. But Starbuck and Lizzie are surprisingly similar. Both are very lonely. Both are hiding, in a way. Early on, she's very untrusting and she really lets him have it. But in the end, Lizzie gives just as much to Starbuck as he gives to her. He finally confesses, "I'm a con man, a fake, a liar." And she qualifies that, basically saying, "No, it's just that you live in your dreams. You've got to connect to what's here on earth." Lizzie gives Starbuck a gift. When she sings "Suddenly I'm beautiful," she is telling him that he does have magic, he does have something special. He receives his gift at the end—with the rain.
N. Richard Nash wrote the book for the musical, and it's based on his play. If you look at The Rainmaker, it's so obvious where numbers should go. It's almost as if he wrote it in terms of a musical.
It doesn't feel that different than a musical like Marie Christine, where pretty much everything was sung. For me, whether I'm speaking the whole thing or singing the whole thing, it feels seamless. My mind doesn't differentiate a song from a scene or dialogue. One flows into each other.
Once I really understood the piece, we set about trying to do the first workshop to see if someone was interested in producing the show. At the intermission of the first reading, [Roundabout Artistic Director] Todd Haimes said, "We'll do it." Todd has always been incredibly supportive of Lonny. And Todd waited three years to produce the show on Broadway until I was available.
He is hilarious in that. He had me screaming.
It's incredibly useful—and inspiring. You can go right to the horse's mouth; you walk over to them and ask, "What did you want here?" It's like that scene from Annie Hall where someone is talking about Marshall McLuhan, and Woody Allen says, "Well, I happen to have Marshall McLuhan right here. Let's hear what he has to say."
A few. The order of certain songs in the second act was revised. Tom added some lines prior to "Old Maid" about how Lizzie wasn't beautiful. But Lizzie's issue isn't just the pretty-or-plain thing. She can sometimes be so honest that she hurts people without meaning to. She insults the men in her life; she more or less tells them that she is better than them. Lizzie has no filter. She calls File a fool right after he opens his heart to her. Lizzie's wrong to do that. She may be speaking the truth, but that's not the way to go about that. Not good.
I listen to the words. They will devastate you every time. Lizzie trusts her brother Noah to tell her the truth. And to be told by the person you trust the most that you're plain, that you'll never find someone to love… well, that's hard. So I sit there and I take in what he's saying.
It's our first time working together. John is just so easy to get along with. He's such a pro, so comfortable onstage, that you can't help but feel comfortable with him. It's a safe environment for an actor to explore.
Before we started rehearsing, we watched documentaries on the Dust Bowl era, which were very informative. The first day of rehearsal, we read through the play of The Rainmaker. Steve [Kazee, who plays Starbuck] and I did lots of improvisation without the script, trying out what our characters would say at certain points, working through the story, finding the beats in each scene.
Oh, I do. I love Lizzie. She is very similar to Ruth in Raisin in the Sun in that they can only speak the truth, regardless of whether it's what people want to hear. Those two women don't have a filter. In Raisin in the Sun, Walter begs Ruth to talk to his mother, to give his side of things. She can't do it. I even loved Marie Christine. Marie Christine wasn't quite a woman, and she wasn't a girl anymore, either. She was misguided and deeply in love and completely abandoned by her man. She dealt with her situation the only way she knew how.
That was fun. I finished Mahagonny on March 4 and started rehearsals for 110 in the Shade on March 6. Talk about a 180-degree switch! But it was great to jump from one to the other. I learned a lot from Mahagonny because Jenny was so out there, so sexual, so completely free. Plus, I've never had so little on in terms of costumes in my life. I found a sense of abandon that I probably had not truly discovered onstage before. I have never had to go so far in a direction of something that's not me. I'm not one to dress lasciviously. But Mahagonny was about finding freedom onstage in front of all those people. Lizzie's sense of freedom comes in terms of her mouth. She thinks something and out it comes.
[Pause] It's been helpful. I think there is a part of me that is still very much in shock. Having the show gives me a sense of normalcy, which is what your mind desperately needs in dealing with a horrific tragedy like that. Plus, there were all the news reports, all the footage of the crash site, so it was very public. The show actually has been a safety net, a place I can go and… I don't want to say forget about what happened, but where you can put a lot of energy and focus on something else for two and a half hours. There are many father-daughter scenes in the show, which can bring things up. It's all very raw for me right now. But I'm getting through it with an incredible group to support me. I'm getting through it.
You know, they are a part of the theater. What I love about this time of year, when all the awards are announced, is that you get to spend time with your fellow actors at events like the Drama League lunch. Michael Cerveris and I have been trying to have lunch for a year, and now we know that we'll see each other tomorrow at some event. In that sense they are a wonderful thing.
The hard part is what you try to ignore: all the noise about who might win. We have no control over that. The more you can put it out of your mind and enjoy the time, the better off and the smarter you will be. Hell, you can't even vote for yourself.
[Laughs] All of them! The one that was the most surprising was for Ragtime, because I wasn't even nominated for one of the awards leading up to the Tonys and I lost another one, so I wasn't expecting a Tony at all. When my name was read, my husband had to push me to get up. Then again, I wasn't expecting anything for Master Class either. I remember Zoe [Caldwell] saying to me before the Tonys [deep drop in voice], "Darling, remember: It doesn't matter. You probably won't win—and it doesn't matter. You've got years ahead of you." I was up against such incredible ladies that year that winning was a real surprise. This year, I'm especially aware of how great everybody is.
I've been so busy that I've been out of town the entire year. Since 110 in the Shade is a limited engagement, I'll be catching all the shows come August.
[Laughs] How funny.
Being nominated means that I get to wear another pretty dress and maybe get a gift bag and some free drinks. After that, we'll see.
Just going out as yourself is the scariest because you don't have a script, you don't have a costume and you don't have a character. But if it scares me, then I should do it.
You do known works, and you get the inevitable comparison, "You don't sing it like that person." Well, I'm not that person. I'm me. With new works, you're introducing things that audiences are not used to or haven't heard before. Sometimes it's not as easy to be open. But you know what? It's all worth it as far as I'm concerned.
Thank you. Michael Tilson Thomas introduced the song to me.
Yes. I sang with him and the symphony, and the next morning he picked me up and we went someplace to have a bite to eat. He had some music on in the car and then he played me Laura Nyro songs. I asked him to pull over in a Shell gas station and made him play "Tom Cat Goodbye" a bunch of times.
It's kind of like "Old Maid" [in 110 in the Shade] or Bill's "Soliloquy" [in Carousel] in that it's a stream of consciousness. It's not standard song form, not A, B, A. Instead, it's "This happened and this happened and now all I can do is scream." The song can seem like a gun-shot modulation both emotionally and vocally. But it's perfectly sensible for someone in that state. I wanted to explore it from an acting standpoint.
My music director, Ted Sperling, brings me a lot stuff. Ted is my second husband; it's well known that I have two husbands [laughs]. Ted listens to stuff, and there are people in my life like Lonny whose musical tastes I trust and respect and admire. They come up with an idea and know me well enough to understand what might work.
Yes, after Zoe and after Madeline Kahn. I wanted to honor them. Zoe has been a mentor since we've met. Mother, mentor, sister, friend, everything. She's been so supportive over the years, and I wanted to honor her. I love her relationship with my daughter: They are Big Zoe and Little Zoe. My daughter will say, "I want to visit Big Zoe" or "I want to give this to Big Zoe." Which is funny cause "Big" Zoe is so tiny.
I will be doing John Adams' Doctor Atomic at the Metropolitan Opera in 2008. Otherwise, there are some offers and we're waiting on a few things. Let's just say that negotiations are in the works.