Audra McDonald with the Utah Symphony

Last night I spent an incredible evening with Audra McDonald and the Utah Symphony (and my friend Angela) at a concert featuring lots of Broadway classics and standards from the great American songbook.  I loved every minute of it!  The orchestra began with "Carousel Waltz" from the Rodgers & Hammerstein musical Carousel and then the incomparable Audra McDonald took the stage with a powerful performance of "I Am What I Am" from La Cage aux Folles.  She continued with "Pure Imagination" from the movie Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (which I've heard her sing before) and she told a hilarious story about performing her next song, "Cornet Man" from Funny Girl, in a competition as a 14 year old girl and being criticized for not picking a more appropriate song!  Next came "It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)" by Duke Ellington, a sultry rendition of "Summertime" from Porgy and Bess, and then a spirited version of "I Could Have Danced All Night" from My Fair Lady (a song she has always been hesitant to sing because it is such a standard for all sopranos).  She talked about her hobby of gardening (very badly) which led her to add the song "I Always Say Hello to a Flower" to her repertoire and I thought her performance was really fun!  She ended her first set with "Home" from The Wiz and she just about blew the roof off Abravanel Hall with her powerful vocals!  After the intermission, she returned to the stage with "Before the Parade Passes By" from Hello, Dolly!  Next, she performed a lovely arrangement of "Bein' Green" accompanied by a guitar and a beautiful mashup of "You've Got to Be Carefully Taught" from South Pacific and "Children Will Listen" from Into the Woods (I loved this so much).  She continued with "Can't Stop Talking" from the movie Let's Dance and then an amazing rendition of "Somewhere" from West Side Story.  She told the crowd that she found her next song, "I Love Today," on singer-songwriter Emily King's social media (it was written by King's mother Kim Kalesti) and reached out to her to ask if she could sing it.  It is a beautiful song about living in the moment and living life to the fullest and I loved it!  She concluded her main set with a really cool arrangement of "Life is a Cabaret" from the musical Cabaret.  For the encore, she sang a mashup of "Happy Days Are Here Again" and "Get Happy" with her music director Andy Einhorn and the crowd exploded into an appreciative standing ovation!  Both Angela and I have seen her perform before and both of us agreed that McDonald's vocals were especially powerful last night and we both found her to be even more loquacious than usual with lots of funny anecdotes to introduce every song.  It was an amazing night and, if you are a fan of Broadway, I highly recommend getting a ticket to tonight's concert (go here).