A recording of six-time Tony winner Audra McDonald's September 2022 concert at the London Palladium is set to premiere on PBS May 17 at 9 PM ET, as part of the channel's Great Performances series. Ahead of the airing, see McDonald perform "I Could Have Danced All Night" from My Fair Lady in the video above, and "Will He Like Me?" from She Loves Me in the video below.
Check local listings to watch Audra McDonald at the London Palladium, or access the broadcast online here or on the PBS app. Backed by the 40-piece London Musical Theatre Orchestra, conducted by musical director Andy Einhorn, McDonald's selections include "I Am What I Am," "Cornet Man," "Summertime," and more.
The concert film will not be McDonald's first. The stage and screen star has led several concert broadcasts through the Live From Lincoln Center series on PBS, including Audra McDonald and Friends: Build a Bridge and Audra McDonald Sings the Movies in 2006, and Audra McDonald: Go Back Home in 2013. A 2000 concert at London's Donmar Warehouse was also filmed for PBS broadcast and later released on home video.
Every Friday in May, PBS will broadcast a theatre-related program. On May 10 at 9 PM ET, The Public Theater's Free Shakespeare in the Park production of Hamlet will air. It stars Ato Blankson-Wood as the conflicted prince. Directed by Tony winner Kenny Leon, the production took the stage at Central Park's Delacorte Theater in the summer of 2023. It also starred Brandon Gill as Guildenstern, Tyrone Mitchell Henderson as Osric/Priest, Greg Hildreth as Gravedigger, Colby Lewis as First Player, Warner Miller as Horatio, Daniel Pearce as Polonius, Solea Pfeiffer as Ophelia, Nick Rehberger as Laertes, John Douglas Thompson as Claudius, Lorraine Toussaint as Gertrude, and Mitchell Winter as Rosencrantz.
Following that will be the Broadway revival of Purlie Victorious starring Leslie Odom, Jr. and Kara Young on May 24. The work follows a traveling preacher, Purlie, who returns to his Georgia hometown to save the local church and the cotton pickers working on Ol' Cap'n Cotchiepee's plantation. The film captures the revival's full original cast, including Heather Alicia Simms as Missy Judson, Billy Eugene Jones as Gitlow Judson, Noah Robbins as Charlie Cotchipee, Vanessa Bell Calloway as Idella Landy, Jay O. Sanders as Ol' Cap'n Cotchipee, Bill Timoney as The Sheriff, and Noah Pyzik as The Deputy. Directed by Tony winner Kenny Leon, the production officially opened September 27, 2023, and closed February 4, following 23 previews and 151 regular performances.
Then the last premiere of the month is Rodgers & Hammerstein 80th Anniversary Celebration, which premieres May 31 at 9 PM ET. Filmed at Theatre Royal Drury Lane in December 2023, the all-star concert features performers including McDonald, Marisha Wallace, Daniel Dae Kim, Patrick Wilson, Aaron Tveit, Julian Ovenden, Maria Friedman, Michael Ball, Lucy St. Louis, Joanna Ampil, and more.
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