Audra McDonald Sings Broadway

A great performer should be able to sing a song you've heard thousands of times before and still be able to open it up to show you the beating heart behind it. So it was with Broadway leading lady Audra McDonald closing her current world tour with three nights at the Sydney Opera House.

Only a performer of McDonald's calibre could bring the curtain down on a worldwide tour with a stunning rendition of Over The Rainbow, complete with rainbow colours lighting up the Concert Hall's grand organ in tribute to marriage equality. Before that the Saturday night crowd was treated to an illuminating mix of show tunes. While the classics, Kander and Ebb belter Maybe This Time, Rodgers and Hammerstein's Climb Ev'ry Mountain, and Gershwin and Heywood's breakout hit Summertime, sung sans mic, were dispensed with with aplomb, the night's thrills came from lesser known numbers and the heartfelt commentary that introduced them, Kander and Ebb's Go Back Home, new Broadway composer Adam Gwon's tribute to a relationship interrupted by 9/11, I'll Be Here, and Jason Robert Brown's gorgeous Stars And The Moon. McDonald's warm and engaging personality only enhanced the effect her sparkling voice had on her captive audience.