Audra McDonald's first solo album, targeted for release Sept. 22 on Nonesuch Records, will concentrate on the work of four rising composers: Adam Guettel (Floyd Collins, Saturn Returns), Ricky Ian Gordon (Stonewall: Night Variations), Michael John LaChiusa (Hello, Again, The Petrified Prince), and Jason Robert Brown (Parade). The self-titled recording is the three-time Tony winner's first solo effort, according to Peter Clancy, Vice President of Marketing for Atlantic Records, which distributes Nonesuch titles.
One cut will feature a song from LaChiusa's forthcoming Broadway musical Marie Christine.
McDonald is currently starring in the Broadway musical Ragtime, for which she won her most recent Tony. Her other Tony-winning performances were in the Broadway revival of Rodgers & Hammerstein's Carousel and in Master Class. Playwright Terrence McNally, who wrote Master Class and the book to Ragtime, penned the album's liner notes.
The song list for the new album is as follows:
"Dream Variations," Gordon, from Only Heaven
"Way Back to Paradise," LaChiusa, from Mary Christine
"Come to Jesus," Guettel, from Saturn Returns
"You Don't Know This Man," Brown, from Parade
"Tom," La Chiusa, from Hello, Again
"A Tragic Story," Guettel (text by William Makepeace Thackeray)
"Song for a Dark Girl," Gordon (text by Langston Hughes), from Only Heaven
"Baby Moon," Guettel
"The Allure of Silence," Guettel
"Stars and the Moon," Brown, from Songs of the New World
"I Follow," Jenny Giering
"Mistress of the Senator," La Chiusa, from Hello, Again
"A Lullaby," Gordon (text by James Agee)
"Daybreak in Alabama, Gordon (text by Langston Hughes), from Only Heaven As for the original cast recording of Saturn Returns, Nonesuch spokesperson Debbie Ferraro-Smith said the album would not see stores this year. The studio process has begun, but the creators are still deciding which singers to employ. The cast at the Public included Vivan Cherry, Lawrence Clayton, Annie Golden, Jose Llana, Theresa McCarthy and Bob Stillman.
Guettel, who is son of Mary Rodgers and grandson of Richard Rodgers, received an Obie Award for the 1996 Playwrights Horizons production of Floyd Collins. The Nonesuch recording of that show was released in 1997.
