Michael Shulman

Audrey McDonald on stage at the New Yorker Festival, and she's starring in the revival of Gypsy, which is opening on Broadway. She spoke with the New Yorker's Michael Schulman.

This is The New Yorker Radio Hour. I'm David Remnick. The show Gypsy, an early work by Stephen Sondheim, is sometimes called the greatest of American musicals. A new production on Broadway is a real event. all the more so when a star like Audra McDonald is in the lead role of Rose, a complicated stage mother with outsized ambitions for her daughters.

That's the New Yorker Radio Hour for today. I'm David Remnick. Thanks for listening. See you next time.

Rose has been called, and I think it's only half-joking, the King Lear of musical theater. Audra McDonald has won six Tonys as an actor in plays as well as musicals, and she joined us at the New Yorker Festival in October as the cast of Gypsy was getting ready for previews. Here's staff writer Michael Shulman.

We'll continue in a moment. This is The New Yorker Radio Hour.

This is the New Yorker Radio Hour. I'm David Remnick. Recently at the New Yorker Festival, the celebrated actress and singer Audra McDonald talked with our staff writer, Michael Shulman. We'll return to that conversation now. Here's Michael Shulman.