Sunday Night Sondheim: Audra McDonald!

Gotta love Audra McDonald!  Here’s “The Glamorous Life”, written especially for the film version A Little Night Music, starring Elizabeth Taylor, Lesley-Anne Down, and Diana Rigg:

Since you can never get enough Audra (at least I can’t), here’s a really fun performance of the very obscure song “10,432 Sheep” from the just-as-obscure 1950 musical comedy film West Point Story, starring James Cagney, Virginia Mayo and Doris Day:

Sunday Night Sondheim – Audra McDonald sings “The Glamorous LIfe”, From ‘A Little Night Music’

Have you seen Tony and Grammy-Award winner Audra McDonald on the ABC television series “Family Practice“?  Her character on the show is fairly one-dimensional, but still, I’m sure she’s getting paid much more than she ever did for any of her Broadway roles.

Back on track – here’s Ms. McDonald performing “The Glamorous Life” from A Little Night Music:

 

Interestingly, this is the version of the song used for the unsuccessful (but still intriguing to watch) 1978 film version (starring Elizabeth Taylor, Lesley-Anne Down, and Diana Rigg). 

A few YouTube comments:

Even though it is only in the film version, I think this may be my favorite thing to come out of A Little Night Music (the plot of which I don’t care for), and one of my favorite Sondheim songs. And who better to sing it than Audra? She seems to have a special connection with songs about children – see also “I Won’t Mind” – and of course her singing is just fantastic.

also:

I agree, the stage version gives a more ironically comedic look at it, but the film version is, as you said, heartbreaking. She pretends that she’s proud of her mother not being ‘ordinary’ when all she wants is to be with her.
But Audra still brings it home.

More comments here.

Enjoy.