Frank Lesser, Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart, Richard Hammerstein, George and Ira Gershwin, Stephen Sondheim, Jule Styne … they just doesn’t make Broadway tunesmiths like that any more: so witty, so lyrically agile, so capable of communicating a character’s state of mind with a single phrase or rhyme.
Fortunately they do still make Broadway interpreters who can rise to the demands of this elite cadre and even continue to plumb their work for fresh insights and expressions.
Like Audra McDonald, for example.
McDonald — who is three-quarters of the way to joining entertainment’s elite EGOT club, with an Emmy Award, two Grammys and six Tonys for her acclaimed work in television, in the recording studio and on the stage — returns to Jackson Hole on Sunday to present some of the most exalted songs from the Great White Way as part of a special command performance to support the Grand Teton Music Festival.
Her longtime music director Andy Einhorn will bring a tried-and-true jazz trio with him and also will conduct the much-lauded Festival Orchestra to support McDonald with lush and luscious colors and dimensions.
“I’m beyond excited to be conducting this group,” Einhorn said of his third visit with the festival. “It includes so many distinguished colleagues who I get to see throughout the year. … A really fun part of the experience is teaching the musicians the whole repertoire, 24 songs, with just one rehearsal and then we go. It’s such a rush of adrenaline.”
