Audra McDonald

Broadway time is coming, on PBS and CBS

For TV viewers, the Broadway season is coming up.
Well, maybe it’s a mini-season – five busy weeks, when Broadway-type shows get the focus. That starts May 10 with “Hamlet” on PBS … continues with three Friday concerts … then wraps up June 16, with the Tony Awards, which have just announced their nominations. And it includes some interesting crossovers:
— “Purlie Victorious” will be on PBS on May 24, three weeks before its shot at a Tony for best play revival.
— Audra McDonald (shown here), the all-time Tony champ, will be in two of the PBS specials. She has a solo concert May 17, then joins others May 31 for “Rodgers & Hammerstein’s 80th Anniversary.” McDonald is the only person to win six Tonys in competetive acting categories; Angela Lansbury and Julie Harris each won five plus an honorary one. Read more…

Songs soar from PBS on New Year’s Eve

For good and bad, PBS keeps surprising us.
We don’t expect it to be involved with New Year’s Eve, a holiday that includes confetti, inebriation and silly hats. Arbor Day is more its style.
And we do expect it to be consistent. But now comes a surprise: A music special Thursday (New Year’s Eve) is beautifully crafted … in many of the same ways that a recent PBS one was badly botched.
The new special (8 p.m. Thursday, rerunning at 9:30, checks local listings) has such potent talents as Josh Groban (shown here in a previous concert) and bears the lofty title, “United in Song: Celebrating the Resilience of America.” And somehow, it lives up to that billing. Read more…