Way Back to Paradise

Audra McDonald

Product Details

• Audio CD (September 22, 1998)
• Original Release Date: September 22, 1998
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Nonesuch
• ASIN: B00000AEE1
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (75 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #16,284 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

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  Music > Opera & Vocal > Divas > McDonald, Audra

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

A more explanatory title might be "Sons of Sondheim" since this disc is the first anthology of the young, brainy, literate, hip songwriters who are influenced by Stephen Sondheim and just might turn Broadway's artistic compass several degrees away from Disneyland. Musically, they break most unwritten precepts by freely modulating into distant keys and throwing traditional notions about form and symmetry to the wind when dramatic content dictates it. Adam Guettel is the master storyteller in "Come to Jesus" (about abortion) and "Baby Moon" (about pregnancy). Michael John La Chiusa writes great character sketches: his "Mistress of the Senator" might as well be a tour through the mind of Monica Lewinsky. Ricky Ian Gordon is the most subtle, poetic, and abstract, exploring interior states of being, using the words of Langston Hughes and others. McDonald is ideal throughout, deploying her lustrous soprano with the dramatic relish that has won her three Tony Awards. This could be a watershed release. --David Patrick Stearns

USA Today

On her first solo CD, the Tony Award-winning actress not once, but four times, delivers a new song that you know is a masterpiece.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Don't Let the "Unknown" Songs Fool You, March 10, 2000

By	Matt Howe "outloud98" (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I've been eyeing this CD for months. The thing that kept me from buying it was the fact that I didn't recognize a single one of the songs!

Then I saw Audra perform on the "Broadway's Leading Ladies" concert (a fabulous, defiant version of DOWN WITH LOVE) and knew I must dive into her recordings. I ordered this CD and Audra's new album HOW GLORY GOES. After listening to both (new songwriters versus standards), I keep coming back to this one -- the one with no recognizable songs!

Audra McDonald possesses a glorious instrument and an actor's instinct -- a great combination. Hear her roar through "Way Back To Paradise" (my favorite cut on the album -- so exciting! And a great arrangement). "Stars and the Moon" is a great, solid song with good singing. "Mistress of the Senator" is a fun, sexy number. "Dream Variations" sets the mood as the album's first track and contains some beautiful singing and some funky piano playing.

I really like these songs! I find them very listenable and catchy. I am so glad I got this album. I am definitely an Audra McDonald fan now.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Buy it., January 5, 2000

By	Matthew Neil (Minneapolis, MN United States) - See all my reviews

A co-worker handed me this CD knowing that I am a performer of musical theater and opera. I was familiar with Ricky Ian Gordon, but the other composer's names were only vaguely familiar. I was familiar with Audra, and was not disappointed by this performance. Audra's artistry is astounding. She brings exciting, moving performances to each of these songs. This is not Rogers & Hammerstein, nor is it Sondheim. However, this is a wonderful sampling of young composers and lyricists. "Stars and the Moon" from Jason Robert Brown's SONGS FOR A NEW WORLD is exciting and thought provoking. I listened to it eight times in one work day. It's a shame Warner Brothers discontinued publication of this music in 10/99. Guettel's "Come to Jesus" is a haunting look at abortion. "I Follow" is stunning. Despite other reviews that this music is a-tonal and unmelodic, I have had multiple melodies ringing clearly in my mind after listening to this cd. As for Audra's choice of material, I must agree with a comment in the cd liner that her choice of music makes us listen to the music, not her. As a fellow performer, I commend Audra for allowing herself to be a vehicle to highlight music and text, instead of getting caught up in letting the music be a vehicle to highlight her. For me, this is a sign of a true artist.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Time Travel, July 7, 2000

By	John Connors (Succasunna, NJ) - See all my reviews

If you look hard, I'm sure you can find CD's out there devoted to the best of early theatre music, songs from the 30's and 40's by such old hands as Gershwin, Porter and Kern. Nonesuch has been trying hard to disguise it, but the fact is, this disc is just such a disc - a disc from the 2060's somehow transported back in time documenting the best theatre music of the end of the 20th Century. And it was recorded by an angel, who are apparantly common recording artists in the future, for surely no human could make such sounds.

Audra MCDonalds debut album is one of two CD's I've purchased in the past 2 years that never leave my CD player for more than a week or so. For anyone interested in either wonderful, throughly enchanting and transporting singing or the future of theatre music, this disc truly fits the cliche of "required listening." Right from the opening the marriage of singer and song is glorious; Ms. McDonald wraps her bright and sweet soprano around an uplifting melody and the ears take notice. Other highlights include "Way Back to Paradise," a wonderfully sprightly feminist duet with operatic soprano Dawn Upshaw (and the blend between the two stars of opera and Broadway is a delight), "Come to Jesus," a moving and plaintive story of abortion, "You Don't Know this Man," a starkly simple song of condemnation, "Tom," a beautiful song about the ache of adultery, and - wait, I'm just listing the songs. Suffice it to say that each and everyone is a highlight, each and every one displays a almost mystical marriage of song and singer, and that each and every one of the people reading this should click above and get this disc now.