If she had more time in Tucson, Broadway superstar Audra McDonald would find a quiet place where the sun shines the brightest and plop down on the ground.
She could use the change from the East Coast’s recent blizzardy conditions.
“We’re staring down the barrel of yet our next storm tomorrow,” she said Monday afternoon during a phone call from her home in New York. “I would lay down outside and soak up as much sun as I could.”
But, alas, McDonald, 47, knows the routine: She’ll fly into town a few hours before her UA Presents show at Centennial Hall on Tuesday, March 20, then out on the first flight to Utah Wednesday morning.
The only time she’ll spend in the sun will be when she walks to and from the car that gets her from the airport to the University of Arizona campus.
Such is the life of Broadway’s most decorated singer/actress — she has a record six Tony Awards. She also dabbles in TV — the two-time Emmy winner is on the second season of CBS’ “The Good Wife” legal-eagles spinoff “The Good Fight” — and has a busy concert schedule.
“I’m creatively a very curious person, which is why I think I keep going back and forth between all these different genres like television, and doing concerts and doing Broadway shows. I’m constantly interested in improving myself as an actress and a performer,” said McDonald, making her first Tucson appearance since fall 2015. “So I keep jumping back and forth to challenge myself. I don’t know that I’ve figured out a way to do it all, but I just put one foot in front of the other and say, ‘OK, I got past that minute. How do I do the next one?’”
She’s also raising two daughters — a teen and a baby who isn’t quite 18 months old. During our conversation Monday, we talked about Broadway, Hollywood and motherhood.
How is round two of motherhood?
“Oh, my goodness, it’s interesting. I don’t have quite the amount of energy that I had for round one of motherhood, but I do have a 17-year-old who is very helpful. I’ve got sort of what you call built-in babysitting, and that helps. You know, I think in some ways I’m less stressed-out about motherhood this time and I’m trying to cherish each moment because now, watching my 17-year-old get ready to basically leave the nest, I realize how quickly it all goes. I’m very aware of trying to stay as much in the moment as I can now and cherish it. Before it was like, you don’t know what you’re doing and it was like ‘Oh, God! Oh, God! Oh, God! Will they ever sleep? Will they stop sucking their thumb? Will they ever get out of a diaper?’”
So being on stage must feel a lot like your alone-time moments.
“Yeah, actually ... and this comes with age, too. I think I’m finding it’s all great and I’m fulfilled very much by the work I do on stage or the concert stage. But I think I’m taking life less seriously. Does that make sense? I’m just trying to enjoy every moment now and not be as worried anymore. There are bigger and more important things to worry about. Getting on stage and all that, I’m going to settle in and center myself and speak my truth in the way I am supposed to do whether it’s through a character or through a song or whatever and not stress out about the little things. I don’t stress out so much about auditioning for things now. Getting parts and not getting parts. If we kinda mess up on a song on stage, it’s like, ‘Oh, I messed up. Alright, I’ll try again; I’ll do my best’.”
What are the songs you really like to sing live?
“All of it. It also depends on what happens to me that day, or what’s happening in the world that particular minute. I’m not a performer who can leave what’s happened to them in their life off stage. It comes onstage with me, and how you choose to channel it is how you choose to channel it, but it does come onstage with me. Different songs will resonate in different ways. We were singing a lullaby a couple of weeks ago and the night before, my daughter had woken up every 20 minutes from 12 to 5 in the morning, and the car picking me up to go to the airport was coming at 5:30 in the morning. I literally had no sleep. Singing a lullaby was very interesting.”
Your setlist pulls from some giants in the Great American Songbook and wonderful Broadway classics. But you also have been known to slip in Australian singer-songwriter Kate Miller-Heidke’s pop gem “The Facebook Song.”
“Yeah. That song is written by a very talented Australian woman who is an operatic soprano in addition to a singer-songwriter. It’s a very emotional, raw, really truthful song that she wrote, and I was taken by it. I don’t do it every venue, but I will definitely do it in Arizona.”
What else is going on in your professional life?
“I’m always working to see what the next thing that’s coming on Broadway. I can’t mention it just yet, but yes, there will be something very soon that will bring me back on Broadway.”
So are we going to be excited? New show? Classic revival?
“I can’t. I can’t. I can’t. I don’t want to get in trouble until something’s been announced, but it’s something I’m very excited about doing. ... I don’t like to stay away from Broadway too long.”
