The New Yorker Radio Hour
Audra McDonald on Stephen Sondheim, “Gypsy,” and Being Black on Broadway
Mon, 9 Dec 2024
“Gypsy,” a work by Stephen Sondheim, Jule Styne, and Arthur Laurents, is often called the greatest of American musicals; a new production on Broadway is a noteworthy event, especially when a star like Audra McDonald is cast in the lead role of Rose. McDonald has won six Tonys for her acting, in both plays and musicals. In the repertoire of musicals, race in casting is still very much an issue, and one columnist criticized her portrayal of Rose because of her race. “I have dealt with this my entire career,” McDonald tells Michael Schulman, recalling that in her breakout performance, in “Carousel,” some audiences “were upset with me that I was playing Carrie, saying, ‘She wouldn’t have been Black.’ There’s a man who comes down from heaven with a star in his hand!” In a wide-ranging interview onstage at The New Yorker Festival, McDonald discusses how when she was a child theatre was initially intended to be a type of therapy for her, and the roles her parents wouldn’t let her take. “Gypsy” is currently in previews on Broadway.
Chapter 1: What is the significance of Audra McDonald playing Rose in Gypsy?
So then once you talked to Stephen Sondheim about it, what was that conversation like? Was it like you needed his blessing? How does that work?
Sondheim another one that I miss terribly he's always been an incredible teacher and supporter very supportive my career has always sort of like offered suggestions and ideas and he would come to all my shows and just be supportive and whenever I was in any sort of performance involving his music, he was there and had his thoughts. And I just felt very supported by him.
And so when it was brought up to him, he thought it was a great idea. And he said, I think that's terrific. And actually there was another show of his too that, you know, he kind of wanted me to be a part of as well. And I was like, well, is it okay if we do this one first? He's like, whichever one you want to do first, that's fine with me. What's the other one? A little night music.
Maybe some of that.
We'll be there.
Let me get this one out of the way.
You know, one thing that's always struck me about Gypsy is that she's lived this whole life before the show starts, and we don't know a ton about it. Like, she mentions that she's been married three times. Obviously, she has two kids. And Presumably she had some kind of like dreams that were thwarted because she's ranting and raving about them at the end.
But like, do you, as part of this process, create a backstory for her? Is that important to you? Or is it just like, you know, curtain up and she's a moving train?
Oh, no, no, no. You have to, you know, I mean, the great thing about Gypsy is, is while it's based on, you know, the real life story of Gypsy Rose Lee, it is very specifically about
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Chapter 2: How did Audra McDonald prepare for the role of Rose?
And my parents thought, no, we don't want to, I'm not judging anybody who does do it. And my parents weren't either. They just said, we don't think that's right for our girl. But they knew that I liked to sing. And they had gone to see a show at this dinner theater and said, why don't you go and audition for that? And that lit me up.
And I believe there was a role that they actually told you not to take when you were little.
Yeah. Um, so the dinner theater had their main stage where they would have the musicals and then they had a smaller stage where they would do plays called the second space. And, um, They were doing The Miracle Worker, and I auditioned and got cast as sort of the servant black girl, slave girl. I don't think she's a slave, but she's a servant girl in The Miracle Worker.
And I guess I just went and auditioned without telling my parents whatever. And when I got cast, they said, you will absolutely not be playing that role. Absolutely not. And I was upset. And they said, you'll understand when you're older, but we don't want you doing that. And so they put their foot down. And I understand it. I understand why they did that. You know, my parents were educators.
My dad ended up being associate superintendent of schools in Fresno, California before he retired. And my mom worked at California State University. for years, and, like, I remember trying to watch Little Rascals, and they were like, no, no, no, no, no, you're not watching that.
You know, they, you know, pride in who I was and pride in being a black person and not demeaning myself in a society that, you know, sought to demean and separate and other black people was something they were very... very adamant about making sure that I had pride in myself in that way. And so, no, I remember trying to thinking about trying to audition for showboat as well.
And they were like, you ain't doing that. You can do it. Not that. I mean, again, wonderful musical, but my parents were like, there's other, you don't need to do that.
There's a Sondheim song that you've kind of claimed over the years. Uh, the glamorous life on the night music, uh,
ordinary mothers lead ordinary lives keep the house and sweep the parlor mend the clothes and tend the children ordinary mothers like ordinary wives make the beds and bake the pies
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Chapter 3: What challenges does Audra face in her portrayal of Rose?
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