Audra McDonald Joins Seth Rudetsky's Concert Lineup on the Cape

Producer Mark Cortale has announced that historic six-time Tony Award Winner Audra McDonald will return to Cape Cod with Sirius XM Radio star Seth Rudetsky as music director and host, on Labor Day Weekend, Sunday, September 1 for Broadway @ Town Hall series in Provincetown and on Monday, September 2 for Broadway @ Cotuit Center for the Arts. The show comes direct from their critically acclaimed performances at Town Hall in New York City this past November and the Herbst Theatre in San Francisco this past January. The unique format of this show that differentiates it from any other is a seamless mix of intimate behind-the-scenes stories prompted by Rudetsky's insightful, funny and revealing questions - and the music from McDonald's legendary career. The Broadway @ Town Hall series in Provincetown will be raising funds this year for Sandy Hook Promise.

In a four-star review of this show's recent November 12 series premiere at New York City's famed Town Hall theatre, New York Stage Review said: "Each and every song was beyond wonderful; I mean, McDonald turned 'Cornet Man'-a minor song from Funny Girl-into a veritable art song."

For Provincetown Town Hall Tickets and information, visit www.ptownarthouse.com or call 800-838-3006, and for Cotuit Center for the Arts tickets please visit artsonthecape.org or call 508-428-0669.

The Broadway @ Cotuit Center for Arts series will begin on Tuesday, July 23rd this season with Tony Nominee Melissa Errico in her critically acclaimed Sondheim Sublime show featuring Tedd Firth at the piano. The series continues on August 27th with legendary cabaret singer Marilyn Maye with Billy Stritch at the piano and culminates with McDonald and Rudetsky on September 2nd.

Audra McDonald, who currently stars on-Broadway with Michael Shannon in the revival of Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune (NY TIMES CRITICS PICK), holds the record for more Tony Best Performance wins than any other actor in history, and is the only person to win all four acting categories. She became a three-time Tony Award winner by the age of 28 for her performances in Carousel, Master Class, and Ragtime, placing her alongside Shirley Booth, Gwen Verdon and Zero Mostel by accomplishing this feat within five years. She won her fourth in 2004 for her role in A Raisin in the Sun, a role she reprised for a 2008 television adaptation, earning her a second Emmy Award nomination. On June 10, 2012, McDonald scored her fifth Tony Award win for her portrayal of Bess in Broadway's The Gershwin's Porgy and Bess thus tying a record held by Angela Lansbury and Julie Harris for most Tony Awards won by an actor. In the 2014 Broadway season, she made history by winning her sixth Tony Award for her role as Billie Holiday in Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill. She also maintains her ties to classical repertoire with an active concert and recording career, performing song cycles and operas as well as concerts throughout the US. Audra's many television appearances include four seasons as Naomi Bennett in Private Practice, as well as Homicide: Life on the Street, Law & Order: SVU, Having Our Say, Mister Sterling, The Bedford Diaries, Kidnapped, the TV remake of the musical Annie, and HBO's Wit with Emma Thompson and more recently as a cast member of The Good Wife. In December 2013 Audra won critical acclaim for her performance as the Mother Abbess in NBC's live telecast of The Sound of Music with Carrie Underwood. As the host of the PBS series Live From Lincoln Center, she won her first Primetime Emmy Award in 2015. That same year she was named one of Time magazine's 100 most influential people of 2015 and received a 2015 National Medal of Arts - America's highest honor for achievement in the arts - from President Barack Obama. In 2018, she joined the cast of The Good Fight for the second season of the CBS All Access original drama series. Her film roles include Cradle Will Rock, Object of My Affection, It Runs in the Family, Best Thief in the World, and Seven Servants. Ms. McDonald returned to the Broadway stage in 2016 with director George C. Wolfe and dancer/choreographer Savion Glover in the musical Shuffle Along, Or, The Making of the Musical Sensation of 1921 and All That Followed, a new retelling of an original musical by Eubie Blake and Noble Sissle, for which she was nominated for a Tony Award. On the concert stage, she has sung with virtually every major American orchestra, and internationally with Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, as well as with the London Symphony Orchestra and Berlin Philharmonic. Of Audra McDonald's many roles, she notes that her favorites are the ones performed offstage: passionate advocate for equal rights and homeless youth, wife to actor Will Swenson, and mother to her children.

Photo Credit: Linda Lenzi