Audra McDonald gave a stellar performance of standards and songs by today's finest music theater composers at Tanglewood's Seiji Ozawa Hall in Lenox, Massachusetts, last night, in a program titled A New American Songbook. Recommending the event, the Albany Times Union exclaimed: "Audra McDonald is, to put it simply, the bomb. Nobody sings modern-day show tunes like McDonald. Her voice is a magical instrument, but she brings an actress' instinct to every phrase, which makes her performances even more subtle, expressive and expansive." This evening, McDonald brings that magic to Washington, DC, to perform before a very special audience—President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama—in A Broadway Celebration at the White House.

The latest in the White House music series created to honor the arts and demonstrate the importance of arts education, A Broadway Celebration features performances from such Broadway favorites as Nathan Lane, Elaine Stritch (currently performing on Broadway in Stephen Sondheim's A Little Night Music), Idina Menzel, and Marvin Hamlisch under the direction of George C. Wolfe. This evening’s event is the sixth in the series hosted by the President and First Lady, which has previously showcased jazz, country, Latin, classical, and the music of the Civil Rights Movement.

As part of the celebration, dance students from the local Duke Ellington School of the Arts and the Joy of Motion Dance Center worked with choreographer Jerry Mitchell on a segment from the Broadway show Hairspray they then performed for the First Lady in a special dress rehearsal at the White House this afternoon.

Tune in to a live web stream of tonight's event starting at 7 PM EDT on whitehouse.gov. The show will be broadcast on PBS stations across the US starting October 20.

Earlier today, McDonald Tweeted from the Map Room of the White House; you can read what she has to say at twitter.com/AudraEqualityMc.