Broadway sensation Audra McDonald is London bound in 2022. The Emmy, Grammy and six-time Tony Award winning star will perform at the London Palladium on Sunday 25 September 2022 at 7.00pm.
Alongside Andy Einhorn and the forty-piece London Musical Theatre Orchestra, Audra will take audience members through the Great American Songbook and Broadway’s greatest hits.
“London is one of my favourite cities on the planet—I love it so much. There was a time when I was working and performing in London at least once a year. I’ve missed it so very much so the fact I’m getting the chance to return in this way is a joy for me. Come on out because I can’t wait to see you all. It’s been a while and I can’t wait to be in a theatre with you again.” said Audra McDonald.
Audra McDonald is unparalleled in the breadth and versatility 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 humaineand 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, Audra has been 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 issued 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.
The London Musical Theatre Orchestra is the world’s only professional orchestra dedicated solely to musical theatre. Since LMTO’s launch in June 2016, the orchestra has performed to over 60,000 people at venues including the Royal Albert Hall, the London Palladium and the Dominion Theatre, and the orchestra’s recordings have nearly half a million streams.
Audra McDonald live at the London Palladium is produced by Darren Bell, Dan Looney, Adam Paulden and Jason Haigh-Ellery for Fourth Wall Live. Tickets are now on sale.
