Charleston Gaillard Center Presents

An Evening with Audra McDonald
Performing her trademark mix of songs from Broadway, the Great American Songbook, and beyond

No upcoming perfomances found for this event.

“To suggest that McDonald is exceptional in concert is to understate the case.”

New York Stage Review, December 2020

Sample repertoire including*:

  • “Climb Every Mountain”
  • “Cabaret”
  • “Summertime”
  • “I Could Have Danced All Night”
  • “Make Someone Happy”
  • “Stars and the Moon”

*These songs are not guaranteed to be performed the night of this performance. This is a representation of the types of songs Audra MCDonald might perform.

Audra McDonald is unparalleled in the breadth and versatility of her artistry as both a singer and an actor. The winner of a record-breaking six Tony Awards, two Grammy Awards and an Emmy, in 2015 she was named one of Time magazine’s 100 most influential people and received a National Medal of Arts—America’s highest honor for achievement in the field—from President Barack Obama.

In addition to her Tony-winning performances in Carousel, Master Class, Ragtime, A Raisin in the Sun, The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess and Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill—the role that also served as the vehicle for her Olivier Award-nominated 2017 debut in London’s West End—she has appeared on Broadway in The Secret Garden; Marie Christine (Tony nomination); Henry IV; 110 in the Shade (Tony nomination); Shuffle Along, or, The Making of the Musical Sensation of 1921 and All That Followed and Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune (Tony nomination). A Juilliard-trained soprano, her opera credits include La voix humaine and Send at Houston Grand Opera, and Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny at Los Angeles Opera, where the resulting recording earned her two Grammy Awards. On television, she was seen by millions as the Mother Abbess in NBC’s The Sound of Music Live! and played Dr. Naomi Bennett on ABC’s Private Practice. She won an Emmy Award for her role as host of PBS’s Live From Lincoln Center and has received nominations for Wit, A Raisin in the Sun and Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill. Having first appeared as Liz Lawrence on CBS’s The Good Wife, she can now be seen in The Good Fight on Paramount+ as well as in Spectrum’s pandemic-themed drama The Bite. On film, she has appeared in Seven Servants, The Object of My Affection, Cradle Will Rock, It Runs in the Family, The Best Thief in the World, She Got Problems, Rampart, Ricki and the Flash, Disney’s live-action Beauty and the Beast,the movie-musical Hello Again, and MGM’s Aretha Franklin biopic, Respect.

McDonald has released five solo albums on the Nonesuch label as well as Sing Happy, with the New York Philharmonic, on Decca Gold. She also maintains a major career as a concert artist, regularly appearing on the great stages of the world and with leading international orchestras. A founding member of Black Theatre United, board member of Covenant House International, and prominent advocate for LGBTQAI+ rights, her favorite roles are those performed offstage, as an activist, wife to actor Will Swenson, and mother.