ANDY DRACHENBERG: How did you first hear about The Gershwins’ Porgy & Bess, and what captivated you about it?
AUDRA McDONALD: Diane Paulus and I were both at an event in London some years ago and she made mention of it then. I’d been hearing about a lot of productions of Porgy and Bess for a long time, so I was happy to talk about. Maybe a year later, she came back to me in earnest and said it looked like it was going to happen and they were hoping I’d be interested in being a part of it. I liked her ideas, and when she told me that Suzan-Lori Parks had been brought aboard, I thought that was a wonderful thing as well. From there I just kind of made the leap of faith!
I used to say “I can’t do opera, but maybe I’ll be able to do Bess someday.” People would say Bess can be a voice killer. “When you’re ready. When you’re old enough.” It’s a very difficult role, even though she’s one of the only characters who doesn’t have her own solo.
I think it’s come around at the right time. I feel like I’m old enough. I’ve certainly lived enough of life, and seen enough and suffered enough. I’m finally the right age to do it.
AD: What was your knowledge of the show before then?
AM: I’ve known the score for a very long time. I grew up with records in my house of Leontyne Price, and I remember that cover very vividly of Leontyne in red, looking away.
When I was at Julliard, a production in Glyndebourne had just come out with Simon Rattle conducting – that was the full opera. I was searching for myself and for my voice and that show gave me a lot of relief for some reason. I would listen to it a lot in the music library. I’d memorized the entire opera from the first note to the last. That’s when I really fell in love with it.
AD: What is the significance of this story?
AM: When the original DuBose Heyward Porgy novel came out, it was revolutionary in that it wasn’t a stereotypical look at black life. And it wasn’t black life seen through the fuzzy lens of Caucasian life with a little glimpse of black servants coming in and out. We were actually in their homes.
Also, the music has been such a part of its staying power. The music is so beautiful. For most Americans, when they think Porgy and Bess, they think “Summertime,” and “It Ain’t Necessarily So.”
AD: Tell me a little about your character, Bess.
AM: Bess is a character that’s a bit mysterious. You don’t know that much about her and there’s not that much background given about her. What you do know you glean from what other characters say. She’s a “liquor-guzzlin slut” is what Serena thinks of her. Crown says “you and me pools together, we been together for five years, you can be with whoever you want to be with when I’m not around, but when I’m around, you’re Crown’s Bess.” Sporting Life says “your men friends come and they go.” But we also know that Bess does not necessarily see herself as a prostitute, even though she is a woman that goes from man to man and lives off of men, giving herself to them sexually so that she can survive.
What I’ve learned about Bess is that even though there is a lot of pride, there’s very little self-esteem — if those two can actually be opposing forces in one person. I think they can. And, she’s a “happy dust” addict. She’s someone that has given up on any kind of a future for herself, until she meets Porgy. Then, the battle is within herself to see if she can continue to hold onto this idea of who Porgy sees her to be: if she can hold onto that and rise to become that person. It’s her own demons that keep her down, as she’s reaching to be this fully-realized beautiful version of herself instead of this down-trodden, used-up, wasted version of herself that Crown sees her as.
AD: How did you first begin to understand and find Bess. What were your influences, inspirations, keys into who she is?
AM: Seeing as how I was a prostitute… just kidding. My journey into finding similarities between myself and that which I can recognize within Bess explores self-doubt, which is something that everyone lives with. Becoming the best version of yourself is a big struggle for everybody, and there are lots of things that get in the way of that. That’s something that I can understand and live through Bess’ version of that – her feeling like she is very much not a part of this community and struggling with wanting to be a part of the community, I can empathize with.
The hardest thing about Bess is not judging her. Sometimes when you play characters in roles that are not necessarily the nicest people, it’s difficult as the actor to reserve judgment. That’s very important, otherwise you can’t play their objective. I had that problem when I did the musical version of Medea some years ago. I was judging her. A great mentor of mine, Zoe Caldwell, said “You shouldn’t be out there saying ‘Is it ok that I’m doing this? Is it ok that I’m behaving this way?’ You just need to do it and let the audience understand. Don’t go out there and ask their permission. Stop judging her.” That’s the one thing that I’m learning earlier with Bess: let her find her way. And for me, as Audra, not to look down on her as she’s finding her way.
AD: How does music play a part in her story / describe this show’s musicality?
AM: The tricky thing with this version is that we are adding some dialogue and putting some stuff that normally was recitative into actual speaking. What Diane and Suzan-Lori have been very careful about and aware of is, within the recitative, singing when it gets heightened and we absolutely have to. This is what happens in musicals anyway, you sing when speaking is no longer enough. They are holding true to that. It’s always being precipitated by the drama, which is important by the story. That’s what makes for better storytelling. Something as simple as in the beginning crap game, when Crown first asks for “happy dust” from Sporting Life, I just start with saying “don’t give him that stuff, Sporting Life.” But the next line I sing, “he’s ugly drunk already” because that’s the more important thing. She can speak this and realize she’s not getting through, and then it goes into singing.
AD: What are you hoping the audience experiences with this show?
AM: The story is what’s most important for us – putting the story out there, the situation, these characters… then, hoping the audience emotionally attaches to them and goes on this journey.
AD: Can you tell us about the rehearsal experience – working with everybody?
AM: Diana Paulus is incredibly collaborative – she doesn’t care who the idea comes from. If it’s a good idea, let’s do it. We improvise and she takes from what we are improvising and then shapes it, but she makes sure that it comes from us. Suzan-Lori Parks is very similar. She goes home and works on the dialogue, and we’ll sit and talk about it. If it starts to feel funny or if I say “I feel like she’s thinking this…,” the next day she may come in with a line that’ll support that. Everybody’s collaborating. We’re all heading toward the same goal. Everybody has checked their egos at the door. And it’s the same thing with the cast. We all come from such different walks of life within the performing arts community. You’ve got David Alan Grier who’s mainly an actor and a comedian, you have Norm and myself who come from the Broadway community, Philip Boykin and a lot of the ensemble members are opera singers. There’s an incredible wealth of knowledge and talent within that pool, so we’re all just taking the best of everybody’s organic collaborative contributions and putting them all together to create this piece.
AD: Bonus Question: Now that your fans have you back in a musical… it’s been a few years since your last album came out. Any hopes for another one on the way?
AM: I’ve been kicking ass and saving lives in Private Practice for the past four years. Because of that, it’s been very difficult for me to get an album out spending so much of my time on the West Coast. But I amworking on one now and hopefully it’ll be out soon!
Audra McDonald (Bess)Carousel (Tony Award), Master Class (Tony Award), Ragtime (Tony Award), A Raisin in the Sun (Tony Award), Marie Christine(Tony nomination), 110 in the Shade (Tony nomination, Drama Desk Award for Best Actress in a Musical), Henry IV, The Secret Garden. Opera: Francis Poulenc’s La Voix Humaine and the world premiere of Michael John LaChiusa’s Send (who are you? I love you), Houston Grand Opera; Kurt Weill’s Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny, Los Angeles Opera. Television: “Private Practice” (Dr. Naomi Bennett) on ABC, “A Raisin in the Sun” (Emmy nomination), “Wit” (Emmy nomination), “Homicide: Life on the Street,” “Law & Order: SVU,” “Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters’ First 100 Years,” “The Bedford Diaries,” and “Kidnapped,” and the 1999 television remake of “Annie” (Miss Farrell). Films: She Got Problems, Best Thief in the World, It Runs in the Family, The Object of My Affection, Seven Servants and Rampart (upcoming, starring Woody Harrelson). McDonald has recorded four solo albums for Nonesuch Records, including “Way Back to Paradise,” “How Glory Goes,” “Happy Songs” and “Build a Bridge,” and won two 2009 Grammy Awards for “The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny.” She maintains an active concert career, appearing with her own ensemble and with major orchestras and conductors across the U.S. and abroad. In the fall of 2011, she opened the season of Celebrity Series of Boston at Symphony Hall and embarked on a coast-to-coast North American concert tour. Training: The Juilliard School. Favorite role: Mommy to Zoe Madeline.