Audra McDonald is one of the true legends of musical theatre. With six Tony Awards, two Grammys and an Emmy Award it was a true gift to Australian audiences that someone as accomplished as McDonald chose to include us in the middle of her US tour. McDonald has done it all and was welcomed onto stage by a rousing reception from a nearly sold-out audience in the Sydney Opera House’s Concert Hall.

McDonald began with her version of “I Am What I Am” from “La Cage Aux Folles” which she performed for the powerful message it conveyed. It was a superb rendition, with the perfect blend of power and control that the audience became accustomed to throughout the set. 

McDonald promised a journey through the classic American Songbook, with songs spanning from pre-Golden Age to the 2020s, showing her versatility as an artist. What became immediately apparent was that this was a performer who knew every intricacy about her craft and performed with such thought and skill that very few performers could match. 

Even McDonald’s setlist was considered and perfectly curated, interspersed with thematic anecdotes that drew the audience into the songs. There was an example of this early in the setlist when McDonald spoke to her love of gardening as a means of contextualising a relatively obscure song “I Always Say Hello to a Flower.” On its own, it might have felt out of place but McDonald gave it just the right amount of background which allowed her to put her own spin on a song that the audience may not have been as familiar with. 

In her setlist, there were a lot of nuggets that the extremely knowledgeable theatre audience could feast on, with some non-standard numbers that McDonald allowed to shine. Jason Robert Brown’s “Stars and the Moon” was one of these numbers which showed off McDonald’s penchant for storytelling as well as her incredibly clear and crisp diction, which was a hallmark of the show. Many of the numbers she performed were some of the hardest in the theatre canon but McDonald performed them with such poise and grace that their difficulty was not apparent from her delivery, the hallmark of a top-class performer.

McDonald suggested throughout the show that she tends to avoid performing the most popular songs and while there was perhaps an argument that a few more classic hits would have been welcome in a setlist full of little-known or revived numbers, it meant that when McDonald did perform the biggest Broadway hits, they really shone. Her rendition of “Climb Every Mountain” to close the first part of her set, was chill-inducing, as McDonald harnessed all of her skill and ability to generate emotion in order to connect with every member of the audience in some way. This, of course, led to a mid-show standing ovation which was richly deserved. An unamplified version of “Summertime” also left the audience spell-bound, as it allowed the richness of McDonald’s voice to reverberate through the beautiful theatre.

Her second act featured a number of more tender songs, with a particular highlight being her rendition of Kim Kalesti’s “I Love Today,” a song she heard on TikTok and introduced into her setlist. Interspersed were stories about Sondheim and Anna Wintour which reminded the audience just what a big deal McDonald is. But ultimately, it was the music that left the crowd in awe, with McDonald a step above the rest in every facet of her craft. It was a privilege to see one of Broadway’s best on an Australian stage, nine years since she last came to our shores and given the calibre of her set, one can only hope that we are not waiting nearly as long for her return. 

Rating: ★★★★1/2

Audra McDonald – Sydney Opera House – Saturday 11^th May, 2024