Six-time Tony Award winner Audra McDonald is one of, if not my favorite actress. A Broadway veteran, McDonald has also starred as Naomi Bennett in the Grey’s Anatomy spin-off Private Practice, Mother Abbess in The Sound of Music Live!, and also guest starred on many other television shows. There is not a single song that I’ve heard Audra McDonald sing that I didn’t like, but here are, in no particular order, ten of my favorite songs I've heard Audra McDonald sing.
1. “Stars & the Moon” Songs for a New World
A song by the famous Broadway composer Jason Robert Brown, this is one of my favorite songs I’ve heard Audra McDonald sing. I’d listened to this song on her album Way Back To Paradise, but I fell even more in love with this song when I had the pleasure of hearing her sing it in concert at The Peace Center in October of last year.
2. “I Could Have Danced All Night” My Fair Lady
A rendition of the classic My Fair Lady song, I also had the pleasure of hearing McDonald sing this song at her concert last October. I’ve heard many, many people sing this song, but Audra McDonald's rendition remains my favorite.
3. “Rainbow High” Evita
This is one of my favorite Audra McDonald videos. McDonald, who played the role of Eva Peron at age 16, sang this song at a performance at Carnegie Hall in April of 2015. I loved this song to begin with, but I absolutely love watching this video of Audra McDonald singing the song.
4. “Baltimore” Zina Goldrich and Marcy Heisler.
A song on her album Go Back Home, this comedic song says one shouldn’t fall in love with men from Baltimore, Maryland.
5. “Maybe This Time” Cabaret
A song from the Kander and Ebb musical Cabaret, “Maybe This Time” is now one of my favorite musical theatre songs, but this performance was the first time I’d heard of the song. I’ve listened to many other renditions of “Maybe This Time,” but those don’t hold a candle to the perfection that is Audra McDonald singing this song.
6. “The Glamorous Life” A Little Night Music
A song on her album Go Back Home, I first heard this song at McDonald’s concert last October, and it is now one of the most frequently played songs on my phone.
7. “Down With Love” Hooray for What!
This was one of the first videos of Audra McDonald singing that I ever watched, and even though it’s been several years since I first saw this video, it remains one of my favorites.
8. “Your Daddy’s Son” Ragtime
This is one of the many beautiful songs from the 1998 Broadway musical Ragtime.
9. “Mister Snow” Carousel
McDonald sang this song when she played Carrie Pipperidge in the 1994 revival of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical Carousel.
10. “Climb Ev’ry Mountain” The Sound of Music
When I first learned that McDonald would be playing Mother Abbess in NBC’s Sound of Music Live! I had no doubts whatsoever that McDonald would be phenomenal in the production. Out of all of the songs in The Sound of Music, “Climb Ev’ry Mountain” is definitely my favorite.
