By Jason Hagey and Alisha Hagey
Utah Symphony has brought a goddess to Salt Lake City. Audra McDonald is a goddess. There. I’ve said it. It would be sacrilege to say anything else. We supped at the table of one of the greatest Broadway – nay, film, television, and theatre – performers of all time this evening. She filled our souls with her powerful expression and our hearts were penetrated by her songs. This was an experience of laughs, cries, and profundity. Audra is a human being of some of the greatest divinity, with her every note being perfect and her humanity being beautiful. She is a reminder of all that is good in the world, through song and personality, through storytelling and love. Tonight she sang at Abravanel Hall in Salt Lake City, Utah with the incomparable Utah Symphony.
Though subtle, her stories were not only in the songs and in between songs, but there was an arc throughout the evening’s performance. She began with an anthem, singing Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick’s “Gorgeous” from The Apple Tree. It begins with the lyric, “I am gorgeous” proudly proclaimed. Her comment afterward was that she decided to “start with confidence.” We all laughed at the self-effacing remark, but as the night continued on, it became clear why she – the powerhouse that she is – would need confidence. She sang an evening of demanding pieces that were both vocally challenging and emotionally draining.
She said that the evening would be a repertoire of the “Great American Musical Songbook,” but the mundane, even banal introduction was far from explanatory for the journey she would take us on. She explained that she’s 47 years old with a 17-year- old daughter and a 17-month-old daughter. She didn’t say as much, but she was implying that she’s at the threshold of two very different parts of life: letting a child leave the nest while inviting another in. In life, we cannot escape paradox, and Audra’s song selection emphasizes this principle. With her being between two ‘rites of passage’ as a mother, she pulls us into the world ‘in between,’ where things can be bittersweet and tragedy can mix with hope.
I would be remiss not to talk about the Utah Symphony. They truly are a superb group. Audra herself stopped multiple times to praise their talent. Tonight the symphony was conducted by Andy Einhorn, a Broadway music director and conductor. If you will excuse the comparison, there was a moment during “Pure Imagination” when he was just as much a joy to watch as Audra was to listen to. His motions, specifically his use of shoulders and his full body roll to bring in the cellos, reminded me of watching Leonard Bernstein conduct the Los Angeles Philharmonic. I was only eight, but he was as much the performance as the incredible musicians he led. Tonight was no different. Einhorn is subtle when he needs to be and sweeping when he is taken in by the moment. It was also a pleasure to watch Concertmaster Madeline Adkins play the violin. Her bowing becomes almost an extension of her physical body. Performances are colored by the contexts in which we have lived. I grew up surrounded by classical music and old records of the American Bandstand. Concerts like this one with musicians as talented (and as beautiful – as Audra noted) are rare. I found myself taken in from the first instant the conductor brought down his baton.
Jason Robert Brown’s “Stars and the Moon” from Songs for a New World is about a woman who is offered stars and the moon, a life of adventure based on the thrill of love, but she wants the thrill of money and the lavish lifestyle of yachts and champagne. At the end of the song, she realizes that she got what she wanted by marrying a wealthy man but in the end, she also realizes that she could have had the moon. Though the beats in the song at first give emphasis to the humor, by the end there is a yearning for that which could have been: regret. Audra’s singing is immaculate and cannot be adequately explained, but it is her acting through song that gives the real magic of her performance. The lyrics are powerful with irony, but it is Audra’s acting that gives the emotional punch. There’s a reason that she’s won six Tony’s. She’s brilliant. She is able to bridge the ironic and bittersweet within the same breath. You could feel her beats and her emotional journey. It wasn’t just that the song is sung well, which it is, or that the acting is solid, which it is as well. But it is a merging of the two that gives this piece so much magnitude and weight.
Later, Audra goes from bittersweet to tragic. In Jeff Blumenkrantz, Annie Kessler and Libby Saines’ The Other Franklin song, “I Won’t Mind,” Audra embodies the character of a family friend singing a lullaby to the family’s daughter. At first, the song is simple and sweet but by the end, you feel the anguish of this woman who has no children saying she doesn’t mind if the baby accidentally calls her ‘Mommy.’ The effect is heartbreaking and Audra captivates throughout.
To finish the first act of the evening’s performance, Audra gives us a trio of songs that brings out hope before intermission: “Vanilla Ice Cream,” from Harnick and Bock’s She Loves Me, “Simple Little Things” from N. Richard Nash, Tom Jones, and Harvey Schmidt’s 110 in the Shade, and “I Could Have Danced All Night,” from Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe’s My Fair Lady. Though the usual standout is “I Could Have Danced All Night,” which Audra brilliantly created into a sing-a-long, confessing that it was just too popular a song not to, it is “Simple Little Things” that tugs at the heartstrings.
For each song, Audra creates a new character. For “Simple Little Things” she takes on the role of a spinster. Audra crafts the story with delight, helping us to know the background of the moment she will inhabit. When she does, she is breathtaking. Despite being positively beautiful, Audra is the plain spinster who does not yearn for big dreams but has dreams of someday being married and having children. Her performance is mesmerizing, giving each of us hope that someday we too will achieve our dreams, no matter what they are.
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In the second act, singing Stephen Sondheim’s “Being Alive,” our hopes begin to soar. Audra breaks open the doors and lets the audience into a place of hope. She affirms two things with this song. First, life’s a struggle. Second, that struggle is worth it.
Up until this point, I knew each of the songs, and “Being Alive” is one of my favorites, but then we were introduced to a real treat: Adam Gwon’s “I’ll Be Here” from the musical Ordinary Days. Gwon is a recipient of the Fred Ebb Award (a prize giving money to composers so they can worry about creating art and not about the worry of paying the bills). The award was well-earned as evidenced by “I’ll Be Here.” This pivotal song in the life of the character is also pivotal to Audra’s arc of the evening. I will admit that this reviewer wept like a baby. The song takes us on an emotional journey of joy and loss and ultimately hope.
I would wager to say that the entire audience was holding back strong emotions, or like myself and the gentleman next to me, openly wiping our eyes dry. But Audra gave us a moment to find our composure before she moved on. She talked about the sorrows that seem to be plaguing our lives and our country – not just terror from overseas but because of people here, as she put it, “terrorizing each other.”
Then she introduced the next song by saying that this was what she uses to remember what is important in life. “This is what matters. This is what life is all about,” she said. When she began to sing, she went back to the original source material of Jule Styne, Betty Comden, Adolph Green, and Garson Kanin’s Do Re Mi, singing lyrics that are often left out of other versions. Words about the sound of applause being delicious and what makes a life complete. “Make Someone Happy” is a song I most often associate with Jimmy Durante (because of Sleepless in Seattle) but Audra makes it her own and provides the antidote to all of the hardships and sorrows of life. Her reminder is that love is the answer. With her voice and her very presence, Audra envelopes us, the audience, with her love and her hope for a brighter tomorrow.
There is one more performance of this concert. There is one more chance to be a part of this glorious evening of song and music. Truly go. Go and feel connected to those around you. Go and be taken in by the music of our American past and present. I rarely give standing ovations. To me, this is the ultimate sign of respect and gratitude. It implies that the artists did even more than a great show – that it touched and inspired. I will admit that I have only stood once before for a performance that even now, twenty years later, gives me the chills and causes me some of the greatest joys that I have ever experienced in a theatre to reflect upon. Tonight was the second standing ovation I have given. If I could keep giving it, I would. Because as Audra reminded us, quoting Lin-Manuel Miranda, “We rise and fall and light from dying embers, remembrances that hope and love last longer. And love is love is love is love is love is love is love is love cannot be killed or swept aside.” The entire evening was a generous gift from those talented musicians on stage and I am grateful.
Audra McDonald with the Utah Symphony
Abravanel Hall, 123 W South Temple, Salt Lake City, UT 84101
March 23-24 7:30 PM
Tickets: Regular – $52.00 – $103.00, Student/Under 30 (show ID) – $20.00, Wheelchair – $72.00
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