Audra Mcdonald

Inspiration was the name of the game at the Kennedy Center Concert Hall on Tuesday night. See Audra McDonald, be a better person. The Broadway star (41, four Tony Awards) was a natural advocate during her alternately casual and thrilling 90-minute concert. She promoted new composers. She humbly invoked the legacy of black American trailblazers (Lena Horne, James Baldwin). She nodded to her favorite cause, marriage equality. As she exited to a prolonged standing ovation, she leaned down and generously handed the bouquet of...

On TV A sampling of fine arts on television for the week of May 19-25 Sunday, May 19 Smithsonian Channel, 7-8 a.m. "Smithsonian Spotlight: 100 years of Natural History" looks at the fine art, dinosaurs and millions of specimens housed at the museum over its lifetime. MPT2, 11-11:30 a.m. "Invitation to World Literature" explores the Popol Vuh, the Mayan book of creation, with commentary from archaeologist Richard Hanson, humorist Mo Rocca and Guatemalan artist Shuni Giron.

Broadway darling Audra McDonald won three Tony Awards before she turned 30, and a fourth for "A Raisin in the Sun" with Sean Combs in 2004. So how could she have strayed into Stephen Sondheim's firing line? McDonald is currently headlining the revised 1935 George Gershwin-Dubose Heyward-Ira Gershwin opera "Porgy and Bess," about an addicted woman and her crippled lover. Sondheim, the revered and intimidating composer of "Follies" and "Sweeney Todd," adores "Porgy. " He penned a scathing public letter criticizing the...

At age 70, R&B legend Aretha Franklin remains a musical force — still touring and working with director Taylor Hackford on her upcoming biopic. Although there have been recent questions about her health, the Queen of Soul says she's "stepping right along" and "feeling fabulous. " The following are excerpts from a telephone interview on the eve of her scheduled performance Saturday at DAR Constitution Hall. Q: Will you sing again at the inauguration, as you did in 2009 when you sang "My Country...

Nominations for the 2012 American Theatre Wing's Tony Awards, announced Tuesday, include: Best play: "Clybourne Park," "Other Desert Cities," "Peter and the Starcatcher," "Venus in Fur. " Best musical: "Leap of Faith," "Newsies," "Nice Work If You Can Get It," "Once. " Best book of a musical: "Lysistrata Jones," "Newsies," "Nice Work If You Can Get It," "Once. " Best original score (music and/or lyrics) written for the theater: "Bonnie & Clyde," "Newsies," "One Man, Two Guvnors," "Peter and the Starcatcher.

On TV A sampling of fine arts on television for the week of May 19-25 Sunday, May 19 Smithsonian Channel, 7-8 a.m. "Smithsonian Spotlight: 100 years of Natural History" looks at the fine art, dinosaurs and millions of specimens housed at the museum over its lifetime. MPT2, 11-11:30 a.m. "Invitation to World Literature" explores the Popol Vuh, the Mayan book of creation, with commentary from archaeologist Richard Hanson, humorist Mo Rocca and Guatemalan artist Shuni Giron.

"America's Election HQ" (Fox News Channel at 5) is a new afternoon series hosted by Bill Hemmer and Megyn Kelly examining the issues in the 2008 presidential race. "A Raisin in the Sun" (Channel 7 at 8) is a TV adaptation of the recent Broadway revival of Lorraine Hansberry's classic play. It stars Sean Combs, Phylicia Rashad and Audra McDonald in the story of a struggling family on Chicago's South Side in the 1950s. Hurting for money, the "Medium" (Channel 4 at 10)

As President Obama and the first lady sat front-row center, a gaggle of stars paid stirring tribute last night to the legacy of Abraham Lincoln and to two Americans -- "Star Wars" director George Lucas and barrier-breaking actor Sidney Poitier -- who were awarded Lincoln Medals for holding to the ideals of the 16th president. The occasion was both Ford's Theatre's celebration of the bicentennial of Lincoln's birth and a coming-out black-tie party for the newly refurbished playhouse, which underwent an 18-month, $25 million renovation.

The Kennedy Center has had to scrap the centerpiece theater event of its 2011-12 season — a major, reworked revival of the 1940 Rodgers and Hart musical "Pal Joey" — after its director, Christopher Ashley, abruptly pulled out of the production. Into the show's June 8 to July 1 slot will go "First You Dream: The Music of Kander and Ebb," a revue directed by Eric Schaeffer that had its world premiere at Schaeffer's Signature Theatre in September 2009. The prolific Schaeffer staged the center's...

At age 70, R&B legend Aretha Franklin remains a musical force — still touring and working with director Taylor Hackford on her upcoming biopic. Although there have been recent questions about her health, the Queen of Soul says she's "stepping right along" and "feeling fabulous. " The following are excerpts from a telephone interview on the eve of her scheduled performance Saturday at DAR Constitution Hall. Q: Will you sing again at the inauguration, as you did in 2009 when you sang...

Nominations for the 2012 American Theatre Wing's Tony Awards, announced Tuesday, include: Best play: "Clybourne Park," "Other Desert Cities," "Peter and the Starcatcher," "Venus in Fur. " Best musical: "Leap of Faith," "Newsies," "Nice Work If You Can Get It," "Once. " Best book of a musical: "Lysistrata Jones," "Newsies," "Nice Work If You Can Get It," "Once. " Best original score (music and/or lyrics) written for the theater: "Bonnie & Clyde," "Newsies," "One Man, Two Guvnors," "Peter and the Starcatcher.

The Kennedy Center has had to scrap the centerpiece theater event of its 2011-12 season — a major, reworked revival of the 1940 Rodgers and Hart musical "Pal Joey" — after its director, Christopher Ashley, abruptly pulled out of the production. Into the show's June 8 to July 1 slot will go "First You Dream: The Music of Kander and Ebb," a revue directed by Eric Schaeffer that had its world premiere at Schaeffer's Signature Theatre in September 2009. The prolific Schaeffer staged the center's well-received "Follies,"...

Inspiration was the name of the game at the Kennedy Center Concert Hall on Tuesday night. See Audra McDonald, be a better person. The Broadway star (41, four Tony Awards) was a natural advocate during her alternately casual and thrilling 90-minute concert. She promoted new composers. She humbly invoked the legacy of black American trailblazers (Lena Horne, James Baldwin). She nodded to her favorite cause, marriage equality. As she exited to a prolonged standing ovation, she leaned down and generously handed the...

Broadway darling Audra McDonald won three Tony Awards before she turned 30, and a fourth for "A Raisin in the Sun" with Sean Combs in 2004. So how could she have strayed into Stephen Sondheim's firing line? McDonald is currently headlining the revised 1935 George Gershwin-Dubose Heyward-Ira Gershwin opera "Porgy and Bess," about an addicted woman and her crippled lover. Sondheim, the revered and intimidating composer of "Follies" and "Sweeney Todd," adores "Porgy. " He penned a scathing public letter...

For some time, Michael Kahn has wrestled with the script of a rarely performed drama by a playwright so revered that, over his career, he was rewarded with four Pulitzer Prizes. But it's not an interpretive issue with which Kahn is struggling as much as a practical one. At a length of more than five hours and filled with rambling soliloquies, Eugene O'Neill's 1928 psychological study, "Strange Interlude," is considered by many to be virtually unplayable. So, with the permission of O'Neill's estate,...

In its glorious opening tableau, "Ragtime" finds its purest, most exhilarating expression. To the Scott Joplin-style syncopation of the title song, the characters who compose the musical's three intertwining ethnic groups -- white Anglo-Saxons, blacks and immigrant Jews -- converge onstage to lay out the evening's conceptual thrust: the revolutionary changes coming to America circa 1906. "The music," as the characters put it, "of something beginning. " For the Kennedy Center's stirringly intelligent revival of...

In its glorious opening tableau, "Ragtime" finds its purest, most exhilarating expression. To the Scott Joplin-style syncopation of the title song, the characters who compose the musical's three intertwining ethnic groups -- white Anglo-Saxons, blacks and immigrant Jews -- converge onstage to lay out the evening's conceptual thrust: the revolutionary changes coming to America circa 1906. "The music," as the characters put it, "of something beginning. " For the Kennedy Center's stirringly intelligent revival of the 1998 show,...

For some time, Michael Kahn has wrestled with the script of a rarely performed drama by a playwright so revered that, over his career, he was rewarded with four Pulitzer Prizes. But it's not an interpretive issue with which Kahn is struggling as much as a practical one. At a length of more than five hours and filled with rambling soliloquies, Eugene O'Neill's 1928 psychological study, "Strange Interlude," is considered by many to be virtually unplayable. So, with the permission of O'Neill's estate, Kahn,...

As President Obama and the first lady sat front-row center, a gaggle of stars paid stirring tribute last night to the legacy of Abraham Lincoln and to two Americans -- "Star Wars" director George Lucas and barrier-breaking actor Sidney Poitier -- who were awarded Lincoln Medals for holding to the ideals of the 16th president. The occasion was both Ford's Theatre's celebration of the bicentennial of Lincoln's birth and a coming-out black-tie party for the newly refurbished playhouse, which underwent an 18-month, $25 million renovation.

"America's Election HQ" (Fox News Channel at 5) is a new afternoon series hosted by Bill Hemmer and Megyn Kelly examining the issues in the 2008 presidential race. "A Raisin in the Sun" (Channel 7 at 8) is a TV adaptation of the recent Broadway revival of Lorraine Hansberry's classic play. It stars Sean Combs, Phylicia Rashad and Audra McDonald in the story of a struggling family on Chicago's South Side in the 1950s. Hurting for money, the "Medium" (Channel 4 at 10)