Audra McDonald: The Power of Taking On Work That Scares You (2022)

The Great Creators with Guy Raz

Audra McDonald (Master Class, Ragtime, Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill) has won six Tony Awards--more performance wins than any other theater actor. (She's also won two Grammys and one Emmy along the way.) Still, each new role she takes scares her. In this episode from the fall of 2022, Audra told Guy why that fear is actually essential to her work, about her never-ending quest to know her characters better, and how it felt to have her friend and mentor Stephen Sondheim publicly pan one of her shows.

Links from the show:

• Excerpts of Audra and Zoe Caldwell in Master Class
• Audra singing "Summertime" from her role as Bess in The Gershwin's Porgy and Bess
• Audra performing Billie Holiday's "God Bless the Child" from Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill
• Audra performing the song "Say No to This" from Hamilton in the voice of Billie Holiday
• Playbill pick of 13 Audra performances on the occasion of her birthday
• 2020 New Yorker interview with Audra
• More on Audra's role in Ohio State Murders

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.