Audra McDonald Movies

Sean Combs, Phylicia Rashad, Audra McDonald, Sanaa Lathan, and John Stamos all return to reprise the roles they originally played on Broadway in this made for television take on Lorraine Hansbury's timeless play about a 1950s-era Chicago family longing for a better life. Walter Lee has died, and now his widow Lena Younger (Rashad) is about to receive a $10,000 check from her late-husband's insurance company. Everyone in the family dreams about the ways their lives will be changed with the arrival of the money, family matriarch Lena - who longs to retire from her job as a domestic servant for a wealthy white family - in particular. Having lived in a one room tenement apartment ever since she and her late husband originally married, Lena is eager to purchase a house of her own and provide her family with a real home. Lena's son Walter Lee, Jr. (Combs), currently employed as a chauffer, and has recently become taken with the idea of purchasing a liquor store as a means of solving his family's financial woes. Like her mother-in-law, Walter's wife Ruth (McDonald) is also a domestic servant for a white family, and dreams of the day she can walk away from her job. While Walter's sister Beneatha (Lathan) strives to become a medical professional, tuition is expensive and she is currently being pursued by two men - wealthy but superficial George Murchison (Sean Patrick Thomas) and intellectual classmate Joseph Asagai (David Oyelowo). Much to everyone's surprise, Lena uses the lion's share of the money to purchase a home in the all-white residential neighborhood of Cllaybourne, splitting the remainder between Walter (for his entrepreneurial endeavor) and Beneatha (for tuition). Around the same time Walter loses his share of the inheritance to a smooth talking con man who claimed he could help finance the liquor store, the Claybourne "home improvement" association makes the discovery that the Youngers are black and sends emissary Mr. Lindner (John Stamos) to try prevent their neighborhood from becoming integrated by buying the house back. Now faced with the prospect of losing it all, Walter considers making a deal with Mr. Lindner in order to recover his losses. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

The Los Angeles Opera mounted this stage production of Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht's opera Rise and Fall of the City of Mahoganny (AKA Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny), translated by Michael Feingold and starring Patti LuPone, Audra McDonald, Anthony Dean Griffey and Robert Wörle. John Doyle directs; the Orchestra and Chorus of the Los Angeles Opera, under the leadership of maestro James Conlon, provide musical accompaniment. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi

Six of the world's most gifted vocalists of Broadway show tunes, with a plethora of Tony and Grammy awards between them -- Mandy Patinkin, Audra McDonald, Dawn Upshaw, Donna Murphy, Judy Blazer, and Richard Muenz -- pay homage to legendary tunesmith and conductor Leonard Bernstein in the concert film Leonard Bernstein's New York. Each of three segments features the cast members singing selections from one of Leonard Bernstein's Manhattan-themed shows, filmed live in the locations where the original scenes are set. The first, with extracts from the composer's late 1944 musical On the Town, has the ensemble singing "New York, New York"; Murphy, Blazer, and Patinkin singing "Ya Got Me"; Patinkin and Blazer singing "Come Up to My Place"; Upshaw singing "Lonely Town"; Patinkin singing "Some Other Time"; and Murphy singing "Ain't Got No Tears Left." The second segment, with musical extracts from Bernstein's 1953 musical Wonderful Town, has Muenz, Upshaw, and Murphy singing "What a Waste"; Muenz singing "A Quiet Girl"; Patinkin singing "Wrong Note Rag"; Blazer singing "Story of My Life"; and McDonald singing "A Little Bit in Love." The third, with musical extracts from Bernstein's 1957 West Side Story, has Upshaw and Muenz singing "One Hand, One Heart," and McDonald and Patinkin singing "Tonight." ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi

Created by West Wing writer Lawrence O'Donnell Jr., the weekly, 60-minute political drama Mister Sterling was a Mr. Smith Goes to Washington for the 21st century. Josh Brolin starred as William Sterling Jr., the idealistic young "reformist" son of a popular retired California governor (James Whitmore). Selected by his state's political machine to fill out the term of a dead Democratic senator, Mister Sterling arrived in the nation's capitol with a naïvely altruistic agenda -- and with no party ties, since he was a registered Independent (though in West Wing tradition, he tended to veer toward the left). Doing their best to educate Sterling to the facts of life about Washington, and sometimes expressing amazement at how much smarter he was than the "established" politicos, were his chief of staff, Jackie Brock (Audra McDonald); his legislative director, Tommy Doyle (William Russ); and resident techno-geek Leon (David Noroña). Mister Sterling was elected to office on January 10, 2003. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

A family takes on the difficult task of learning how to get along with one another in this emotional comedy drama. Alex Gromberg (Michael Douglas) is a middle-aged man who feels caught in the middle of his familial obligations as he muddles he way through a midlife crisis. While a successful businessman, Alex sometimes still feels as if he's under the shadow of his father, Mitchell Gromberg (Kirk Douglas), a successful attorney whose skills in the courtroom outstripped his gifts as a parent. Elderly Mitchell has recently survived a stroke, and Alex and Mitchell want to mend their relationship while there's still time, but making it so proves difficult, even with Alex getting advice from his wife, psychologist Rebecca (Bernadette Peters), and Mitchell being prodded by his long-suffering wife, Evelyn (Diana Douglas). Alex is also trying to reach out to his two sons, who are as different as night and day; college student Asher (Cameron Douglas) is an aspiring club DJ who seems to be styling himself to bear no resemblance to his father, while 11-year-old Eli (Rory Culkin) is an overly serious lad who is having trouble navigating the first steps of adolescence. It Runs in the Family marked the first time Kirk Douglas acted in a film with his son Michael Douglas; adding to the family atmosphere was Michael's son Cameron Douglas, working with his family for the first time, and Diana Douglas, Kirk's former wife and Michael's mother. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

The fine line between reporters objectively covering a political campaign and attempting to sway its outcome is explored in this made-for-cable drama based on the novel by noted television journalist Jim Lehrer. Newspaper columnist Mike Howley (James Garner) is asked to moderate a nationally televised debate between two presidential candidates. In collusion with fellow newspeople and debate panelists Barbara Manning (Audra McDonald), Henry Ramirez (Marco Sanchez), and Joan Naylor (Donna Murphy), Howley formulates a plan to boost the campaign of the Democratic candidate, whom they favor. They ask the Republican nominee a number of pointed questions about unsubstantiated charges that he has a propensity for violence, eventually prompting the candidate to leave the stage in a huff after throwing a microphone. Several weeks later, the Democrat carries the election. While the debate served the goals of the reporters, and boosted their public image, some observers have serious questions about what went on, and investigative reporter Tom Chapman (Peter Gallagher) is determined to bring the public the truth. A number of noted journalists and political figures served as consultants for The Last Debate and appear in cameo roles. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Based on the best-selling book by Sarah L. Delany and A. Elizabeth Delany with Amy Hill Hearth, which was later adapted into a Broadway play, Having Our Say tells the true story of the Delany Sisters, two African-American women who were fathered by a former slave, went on to attend college, and witnessed the slow but steady advance of civil rights in America before a reporter for The New York Times sat down with them to record their story. In the film version, 103-year-old Sadie (Diahann Carroll) is a polite and soft-spoken woman who deals cheerfully with the questions of journalist Amy Hill Hearth (Amy Madigan). Sadie's considerably more feisty 101-year-old sister (and housemate) Bessie (Ruby Dee) grumbles about "white people who ask you to explain the obvious to them," but soon adds her own stories as the Delanys discuss their quietly remarkable lives as career women and racial pioneers who not only survived Jim Crow laws, they outlived Jim Crow, as well. Produced for CBS Television, Having Our Say was first aired April 18, 1999. Incidentally, Bessie Delany died in 1995 at age 104, while Sadie, at 110, passed on in 1999, only a few months before this was first aired. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

A very strange dream about a wealthy man preparing for death inspired director Daryush Shokof to make this off-beat and highly esoteric art film. Archie (Anthony Quinn) receives inner peace by being touched by people of four different racial groups. The film shows the five of them conducting daily activities as Quinn endures having their fingers in his nose and ears constantly for 10 days. Archie invites two old friends of his to be present at his death and reveals his secret for inner peace to them. The man goes off in a huff, but the woman stays around and finds her own enjoyment in the situation. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi