NEW YORK — Six-time Tony Award-winner Audra McDonald is heading back to Broadway to be a waitress — but not in “Waitress.” McDonald, along with Michael Shannon, will star in a revival of the Terrence McNally romance “Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune,” starting in May.
The play is about the love affair between a cook and a waitress who meet in a New York restaurant. Al Pacino and Michele Pfeiffer starred in a movie version.
Last on Broadway in 2016
McDonald won a Tony in 2014 playing Billie Holiday in “Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill.” She also won Tonys for “Carousel,” “‘Master Class,” “‘Ragtime,” “‘A Raisin in the Sun,” and “The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess.” She was last on Broadway in “Shuffle Along” in 2016.
The Fresno Connection
McDonald grew up in Fresno, performed with the Good Company Players and graduated from Roosevelt High School.
Last year, the block of M Street lined with the Saroyan Theatre, Valdez Hall, and Selland Arena was renamed Audra McDonald Way. In addition, Roosevelt High renamed its school theater in her honor.
In 2016, President Barack Obama awarded McDonald the National Medal of Arts.
