Audra McDonald Tours Behind ‘Go Back Home’

Audra McDonald recently released Go Back Home, her first solo album in seven years, and now she has revealed concert tour dates to support the record.

She has a slew of dates sprinkled between now and December, beginning with a June 8 show at the Midland Center for the Arts in Midland, Michigan. Her final solo show comes on November 23 at the Staller Center for the Arts in Stony Brook, New York, though she will also perform with the Phoenix Symphony at the Mesa Arts Center in Mesa, Arizona on December 21. Though the interim tour dates are fairly sporadic, she will visit most regions of the U.S. in her travels, including stops in Calistoga, California; San Francisco; Ann Arbor, Michigan; Houston; Conway, Arkansas and Princeton, New Jersey

Go Back Home is McDonald’s fifth studio album, and was released May 21 on Nonesuch Records. The record takes its title from the John Kander and Fred Ebb song from “The Scottsboro Boys.” While the album features songs from other celebrated songwriters, including Stephen Sondheim’s “The Glamorous Life” and “Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “Edelweiss” and “First You Dream”, McDonald also included interpretations of younger, less known writers. These include Zina Goldrich and Marcy Heisler, Adam Gwon and Michael John LaChiusa. On the album, she is accompanied by a 33-piece orchestra.

Since her last album — 2006’s Build a Bridge — McDonald spent most of her performance time between two productions: television’s Private Practice and on Broadway for The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess. She won her fifth Tony Award for her role in the latter. She also has been recognized with Tonys for her work in Ragtime, Master Class, Carousel and A Raisin in the Sun.

She also has been seen on stage in 110 in the Shade, Marie Christine and Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny.