When Did You Fall In Love With Audra McDonald?

[quizking101]

Posted: 4/26/14 at 7:09pm

I've been reading a lot of the LADY DAY threads and it seems this is the show where a lot of people fall in love with Audra McDonald (as a performer) after having seen her in performance. Granted, I haven't seen her live (I'm seeing Lady Day on 5/14), but I fell in love with her after I saw her performance of "Climb Ev'ry Mountain" on SOML! last year after not being the biggest fan.

I'm wondering when everyone else who is an Audra fan became one? (What performance?)

Updated On: 4/26/14 at 07:09 PM

[JBroadway]

Posted: 4/26/14 at 7:24pm

I didn't fall in love with her as a performer until I saw her in Porgy and Bess. I, of course, appreciated her from the cast recordings i had heard her on: Ragtime, 110 in the Shade, Carousel, etc.) But I never truly realized how amazing she was until I saw her live for the first time.

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 4/26/14 at 7:24pm

Sorry but I have never been nor am I now "in love" with any performer. Hero worship or adulation is not my thing.

[JBroadway]

Posted: 4/26/14 at 7:28pm

^I agree, which is why I used the words "in love with her as a performer" which is what I think the OP meant

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 4/26/14 at 7:29pm

It had to be Ragtime. I think that was the first cast recording I owned with her on it.

[wickedfan11]

Posted: 4/26/14 at 7:37pm

Lady Day

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 4/26/14 at 7:51pm

I loved her in Carousel but, oddly enough, it was in the tv production of Wit, where I think my heart got gone for good. It was in Ruth's exclamation in joy in Raisin in the Sun about leaving the apt. when my heart went into overtime.

Updated On: 4/27/14 at 07:51 PM

[pushdabutton]

Posted: 4/26/14 at 8:17pm

When I saw her in Ragtime.

[CurtainPullDowner]

Posted: 4/26/14 at 8:26pm

"Which night, what day?
When did I first begin to feel this way?"

[uncageg]

Posted: 4/26/14 at 8:37pm

My favorite Broadway: The Leading Ladies concert. Lloyd Webber love trio.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 4/26/14 at 8:43pm

She was the best Carrie in Carousel. All the other Carrie's I've seen played her airheaded all the way through. Audra was the first one I saw where Carrie ended up a shrew with the passing of time.

In Act 2, her husband Enoch says "You'd think a woman with nine children would have more sense."

Carrie responds: "If I had more sense I wouldn't have nine children." All the previous Carrie's said that line with an airheaded laugh. Audra delivered it with a shrewish bitterness.

I knew that if Audra could play a shrewish anti-heroine in her first high profile role, she was destined for stardom.

[blacktie]

Posted: 4/27/14 at 1:36am

A Raisin in the Sun. She created a new Ruth (much in the way Phylicia Rashad reimagined Lena Younger), adding layers between every line reading and reaction.

[TheActr97J]

Posted: 4/27/14 at 1:50am

When I saw her perform an intimate set at the 150-seat Sculler's Jazz Club in Cambridge, MA. Breathtaking.

[carolineorchange21]

Posted: 4/27/14 at 3:22am

My Man's Gone Now - heart shredded and eyes wet. She's just so versatile a performer and perfect at everything.

[Blockhead24]

Posted: 4/27/14 at 3:31am

A Raisin in the Sun

[Musical Director 109]

Posted: 4/27/14 at 6:25am

"Carousel". Her Carrie was brilliant.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 4/27/14 at 8:02am

When did I fall in love? What night? Which day?
When did I first begin to feel this way?...

It doesn't when, or why, or how.
As long as I love her now.



EDIT: Sorry, CurtainPullDowner--I didn't see that you had already quoted the song! Well, here's the performance:


'When Did I Fall In Love?' Audra McDonald

Updated On: 4/27/14 at 08:02 AM

[ShakinBaconGirl]

Posted: 4/27/14 at 8:12am

Definitely Ragtime.

[darreyl102]

Posted: 4/27/14 at 9:35am

Annie.

[luvcaroline]

Posted: 4/27/14 at 9:46am

The first time I finally got to see her live, in Porgy and Bess

[east side story]

Posted: 4/27/14 at 11:07am

Upon hearing her rendition of "Mr. Snow." I did not get to see her live in action until 110 in the Shade, but have since seen her in concert at Carnegie Hall, Porgy and Bess, and Lady Day.

[CurtainPullDowner]

Posted: 4/27/14 at 11:47am

Thanks for posting that Pal Joey, God, how I love that song, and Audra.

[trentsketch]

Posted: 4/27/14 at 11:58am

Marie Christine. That voice. I actually haven't seen her onstage since.

[Enjolras77]

Posted: 4/27/14 at 1:34pm

I was a fan dating back to Carousel and especially Ragtime, but became a devoted follower in the summer of 1998 when she came and did a special cabaret show at my university, Appalachian State. The show was on a Monday night off from Ragtime, and took place in what was then a coffee shop in the student union. She performed a lot of songs that would be on her soon-to-be-released "Way Back to Paradise" album - so in addition to hearing Audra's glorious voice that was also the night I was introduced to the music of Jason Robert Brown, Adam Guettel, and Michael John LaChiusa among others.

[Wilmingtom]

Posted: 4/27/14 at 1:35pm

When she fainted during her final callback for Carousel.