Segerstrom Center for the Arts Presents AN EVENING WITH AUDRA MCDONALD

Tony, Grammy and Emmy winning star Audra McDonald returns to Segerstrom Center for the Arts for an up close and personal concert on Friday, May 11, 2018 in the Rene?e and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall. Accompanied by her trio, McDonald will bring her vivacious personality and artistry to hit show tunes, classic film songs and selections written expressly for her by many of today's leading composers. The New York Times wrote of her Carnegie Hall concert, "That sense of excitement, in which she tugs a song forward emotionally, is inherent in the quickness and tang of her vibrato, as though feelings are pouring out of her almost faster than they can be reined in."

Audra McDonald's concert was added to the Center's 2017-18 Cabaret Series, replacing Chris Mann: A Night with the Phantom (originally set for March 1 - 3, 2018) due to scheduling conflicts. Subscribers and current ticket holders will be contacted by the Center Box Office with details on exchanging tickets. Singles tickets to Audra McDonald's concert start at $39 and go on sale Sunday, September 24 at 10 a.m. and will be available online at SCFTA.org, by calling (714) 556-2787 and at the Box Office at 600 Town Center Drive in Costa Mesa. For inquiries about group ticket savings for 10 or more, please call the

Group Services office at (714) 755-0236. Tickets are now available as part of the Cabaret Series season ticket package.

Audra McDonald is unparalleled in the breadth and versatility of her artistry, as both a singer and an actress. The winner of a record-breaking six Tony Awards®, two Grammy® Awards and an Emmy Award, she was named one of Time magazine's 100 most influential people of 2015 and received a 2015 National Medal of Arts - America's highest honor for achievement in the arts - from President Barack Obama. Blessed with a luminous soprano and an incomparable gift for dramatic truth-telling, she is as much at home on Broadway and opera stages as she is in roles on film and television. In addition to her theatrical work, she maintains a major career as a concert and recording artist, regularly appearing on the great stages of the world.

Born into a musical family, McDonald grew up in Fresno, California, and received her classical vocal training at the Juilliard School. By the age of 30, she had received an unprecedented total of three Tony Awards. A year after graduating, she won her first Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical for Carousel at Lincoln Center Theater. She received two additional Tony Awards in the featured actress category over the next four years for her performances in the Broadway premieres of Terrence McNally's Master Class (1996) and Ragtime (1998). In 2004, she won her fourth Tony, starring alongside Sean "Diddy" Combs in A Raisin in the Sun, and in 2012 she won her fifth - and her first in the leading actress category - for her role in The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess.

In 2014, McDonald made Broadway history when she became the Tony Awards' most decorated performer, winning her sixth award for her portrayal of Billie Holiday in Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill. It was the same vehicle for her 2017 debut on London's West End. In addition to holding the record for most competitive wins by an actor, she is also the first person to receive awards in all four acting categories. McDonald's other theater credits include The Secret Garden (1993), Marie Christine (1999), Henry IV (2004), 110 in the Shade (2007), her Public Theater Shakespeare in the Park debut in Twelfth Night (2009), and Shuffle Along, Or, The Making of the Musical Sensation of 1921 and All That Followed (2016).

Segerstrom Center for the Arts applauds its corporate partners including Kia Motors America, Official Automotive Partner; United Airlines, Official Airline; and Omaha Steaks International, Official Fine Food Retailer.

Segerstrom Center for the Arts is an acclaimed arts institution as well as a beautiful multi-disciplinary cultural campus. It is committed to supporting artistic excellence, offering unsurpassed experiences and to engaging the entire community in new and exciting ways through the unique power of live performance and a diverse array of inspiring arts-based education and community engagement programs.

Previously called the Orange County Performing Arts Center, Segerstrom Center is Orange County's

largest non-profit arts organization. In addition to its six performance venues, Segerstrom Center is also home to the American Ballet Theatre William J. Gillespie School.

The Center presents a broad range of programming for audiences of all ages, including international ballet and dance, national tours of top Broadway shows, jazz and cabaret, contemporary artists, classical music performed by renowned chamber orchestras and ensembles, family-friendly programming, free performances open to the public from outdoor movie screenings to dancing on the plaza and many other special events.

Segerstrom Center is a leader among the nation's performing arts centers for providing education programs designed to inspire young people through the arts. The Center's programs reach hundreds of thousands of students each year in five Southern California counties. Community engagement programs developed through the Center for Dance and Innovation and Center Without Boundaries also connect the Center more comprehensively with Orange County's many diverse communities. The CDI supports flagship artistic programming and a wide range of projects that celebrate innovation, nurture creativity and engage audiences of the future. It is home to the ABT Gillespie School and the School of Dance and Music for Children with Disabilities. The Center Without Boundaries develops partnerships with non- cultural organizations to help them in their own efforts to respond the ever-changing needs of the community.

Segerstrom Center for the Arts is also proud to serve as the artistic home to three of the region's major performing arts organizations: Pacific Symphony, Philharmonic Society of Orange County and Pacific Chorale, who contribute greatly to the artistic life of the region with annual seasons performed at Segerstrom Center for the Arts.

In addition to Segerstrom Center for the Arts as a presenting and producing institution, it also identifies the beautiful 14-acre campus that embraces the Center's own facilities as well as two independently acclaimed organizations: Tony Award®-winning South Coast Repertory and a site designated as the future home of the Orange County Museum of Art.

Tickets - Start at $39; tickets on sale September 24

In person - The Box Office

600 Town Center Drive Costa Mesa, CA 92626

Open 10 a.m. - 6 p.m. daily

Online - SCFTA.org

Phone - (714) 556-2787

Segerstrom Center's 2017 - 2018 Cabaret Series includes Amanda McBroom and Ann Hampton Callaway (October 5-7, 2017), The Broadway Princess Party with Laura Osnes, Adrienne Warren and Courtney Reed (December 14-16, 2017), One Hand One Heart: 100 Years of Bernstein (January 18-20, 2018) and An Evening with Audra McDonald (May 11, 2018).

Information provided is accurate at the time of printing, but is subject to change. Segerstrom Center for the Arts is a private, non-profit organization. "Segerstrom Center for the Arts" is a registered trademark.

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