14

SUNDAY

When director Nicholas Hytner revived Carousel on Broadway in 1994, his production—which emphasized the musical’s seedier elements, including spousal abuse and suicide—darkened and deepened what had become an overly sentimentalized staple of community theater. More important, it heralded the arrival of a new star in the grand tradition of Patti (LuPone), Bernadette (Peters), and Liza (Minnelli): Audra (McDonald), who won a Tony Award for her performance as Carrie Pipperidge. Post-Carousel, McDonald faced off against Zoe Caldwell’s Maria Callas in Master Class (her second Tony), somehow held the overblown, overproduced Ragtime together (her third), and was the only reason to see Marie Christine (composer Michael John LaChiusa’s voodoo retelling of Medea). In concert, alternating between classic ballads and songs by the new generation of musical-theater whiz kids, Audra is every man’s—gay or straight—fantasy come true: a smart, sexy siren with a mezzo soprano to die for. She performs at 7 p.m. at George Washington University’s Lisner Auditorium, 730 21st St. NW. $26-$38. (202) 785-9727. (Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa)