Audra McDonald introduced a song that she has made her daily mantra, and even thought it doesn’t always work out, she keeps trying to “make someone happy, make just one someone happy ...”
On Monday night at the Byham Theater, she make a lot of someones very happy, several who jumped out of their seats to applaud song after nearly every song. The owner of six Tony Awards and one of Broadway’s most renowned sopranos, Ms. McDonald was here for a make-up concert for the Hill House Association — she had canceled a previous engagement last month “to go to London and be our guest” while filming the live-action “Beauty and the Beast” for Disney.
When she got a standing ovation before singing a note, she said, “I better be good.” And that she was.
The concert, part of the “Live From the Hill” series, moved Downtown because the regular venue couldn’t contain the enthusiasm for Ms. McDonald, who just a week ago was giving New York audiences similar reasons to cheer at Carnegie Hall.
The Byham show was a mix of cabaret and classics, stories and history, and a wide range of obscure tunes, some by well-known songwriters and some newcomers who the star has made it her business to champion. After opening with “Sing Me a Happy Song,” she explained that it was from a 1965 Kander and Ebb show, “Flora the Red Menace,” that lasted just a few weeks but gave Liza Minnelli her first Broadway role.
“You can tell I like it eclectic,” said the singer, clad in a black sleeveless gown, leaving her toned arms free to aid in her lively performance.
Each song was a mini drama or comedy — the latter something you might not expect from a singer who made her mark on such heavy musicals as “Carousel,” “Ragtime” and “The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess.” One lighter moment was sprung on us, when the Juilliard-trained singer said she was going to use her schooling to go classical and sing a couple of lieders — poems set to music — by a new talent, Gabriel Kahane. Then she raised her lovely voice for “Craigslistlieder,” which opens with the line, “You looked sexy even though you were having a seizure/It was in the hair-care section of the Vancouver Walgreens ...”
The songwriters all were given their due by the diva. She urged audiences to go see “Bridges of Madison County” when the tour arrives here, then sang “Stars and the Moon” from another Jason Robert Brown musical, “Songs for a New World.” That story-song, about a woman who has regrets after marrying for money, and the heartbreaking “I’ll Be Here,” about a 9/11 widow finding love anew, were highlights.
Ms. McDonald didn’t deliver only the lesser-known songs in her repertoire, although she said, “I’m impressed, Pittsburgh,” when she asked the audience to call out who first sang “Hurry! It’s Lovely Up Here!” from “On a Clear Day” (Barbara Harris on stage; Barbra Streisand in the film). “You’re better than Long Island was the other night,” she said.
A couple of songs need no introduction; for example, “Summertime,” perfectly timed for a hot spring night. Immediately afterward, she welcomed the audience into her rarified world, saying, “Since we are in soprano land now ...,” and invited a sing-along to “I Could Have Danced All Night.” She heard a strong soprano from the front seats and after engaging the patron/singer, the diva took back the night. “It was getting a little crowded on soprano isle,” she said.
Among the many stories she shared, Ms. McDonald said her Stephen Sondheim selection for the evening came directly from the composer, after she asked what he thought she should add to her touring repertoire. He chose “Moments in the Woods” from “Into the Woods.” There’s no saying no to Sondheim, and it was a perfect choice.
Her music director Andy Einhorn, the accompanist for the night on piano, joined the fun a few times, including lending a voice on the fast-singing “Can’t Stop Talking.” Although it was just the two onstage, we were introduced to many people in her life, including the elderly man in Cambridge, Mass., who blocked “the door to my office — Chipotle,” and was singing, “My Buddy,” a song she had loved as a little girl and one she shared on Monday, “in the key he sang it in.”
She closed with the song that truly showed off her soprano pipes, one that she sang for NBC’s “The Sound of Music Live!” The African-American singer said she never thought she would get to sing a song like “Climb Ev’ry Mountain,” and that “I was the darkest Mother Abbess ever.” She was pleased that NBC was bringing live theater to millions of people, she said, but one of her fans helped her keep things in perspective.
“I was texting with me daughter and she said things were going great,” Ms. McDonald said. “Then, right after I sang that song, I got a text from her that said, ‘Where are the dryer sheets? I need to do laundry.’ ”
Ms. McDonald said that would be her last song, “a benediction to go out into the night,” but she came back for one more song and one more story on a night benefiting the Hill House Association, an organization that provides services and activities for individuals and families in the Hill District.
When she came back for an encore, Ms. McDonald began by explaining her strong advocacy for same-sex marriage rights as something she sees as a duty,especially for someone who has benefited from the civil rights movement. She then made a connection between her activism and her admiration for the late Judy Garland, telling a story about the day of the singer’s funeral, when gay fans were meeting at a bar to raise a glass to Ms. Garland and the club was raided by police for the umpteenth time. The patrons fought back that day — a beginning of a movement, she said.
Then she sang a touching version of “Over the Rainbow,” and this time, after another standing ovation, sent quite a few happy someones out into the Pittsburgh night.
Sharon Eberson: seberson@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1960. SEberson_pg.
First Published: May 12, 2015, 3:39 a.m.