>> rose: welcome to the program. tonight, a look at the deadly tornado that struck oklahoma on monday. we begin with andrew revkin of pace university and brian walsh of "time" magazine explaining to us what tornados are all about. >> if you put too many false alarms out there, you actually erode the value of a warning when it really matters and that can have a negative impact. so you're caught in between -- you don't want to be the forecaster that cried wolf but at the same time you want to get people more time and they are doing that. they are getting more time and as we improve radar capabilities we should extend that out somewhat but the simple nature of these tornados will always make them more difficult to predict than almost any other kind of weather. >> rose: we continue with david paulison talking about fema and first responders in disaster relief. >> fema does not take over. fema is not in charge. they're simply there to help them get the job done, again, give them the resources. the state emergency manager

albert ashwood has been through this dozens of times, probably one of the best in the country just does an outstanding job for the state of oklahoma. fema will work through him, work through the local communities to make sure that whatever they need that they don't have that fema can bring it and provide for them. >> rose: we continue with peter baker of the "new york times" explaining the relationship between presidents and disaster relief. >> this has been a tough thing for president obama. it's not been his most natural form of communication over the last four or five years. he is not an emotive person like president clinton or warm fatherly figure as reagan off projected himself to be. but he has had a lot of practice at it and you can tell he's becoming more accustomed to it. that is to say look at the last five or six months. he's had to do it after hurricane sandy, after the school shootings in connecticut, the boston bombings, the fertilizer plant explosion in texas. so this is this has become an increasingly prevalent part of his presidency.

>> rose: finally, singer and actress audra mcdonald. her new album is called "go back home." >> because those moments are very, very, vir rare where you feel like i've never done it better. but what it does feel like is when you feel there's a synergy between the audience and the performer and where it feels effortless, what it feels like is that time slows down. time slows down and every moment becomes crystal line and clear and you feel like you're not really doing anything at all. that's really what it feels like. >> rose: the tragedy in oklahoma and the talent of audra mcdonald when we continue.

captioning sponsored by rose communications from our studios in new york city, this is charlie rose. >> rose: we begin this evening with the devastating tornado which hit oklahoma yesterday. much of the damage was concentrated in the suburb of oklahoma city called moore. oklahoma governor mary fallin said the storm was one of the most horrific storms and disasters that this state has

ever faced. she also said it was too early to confirm the number of casualties. the state medical examiner's office said 24 people were confirmed dead, including nine children. at this moment, emergency workers are continuing their search for survivors. the risk of tornados throughout the region remained high on tuesday. this tornado hit the same path as the storm which hit oklahoma in 1999, among the costliest in u.s. history. president obama spoke earlier today promising federal aid to victims and offering the nation prayers. >> the people in moore should know their country will remain on the ground there for them beside them as long as it takes. for there are homes and schools to rebuild, businesses and hospitals to reopen. there are parents to console, first responders to comfort and, of course, frightened children who will need our continued love and attention.

>> rose: here is scott pelley, the anchorman for cbs news on tonight's broadcast from moore, oklahoma. >> this evening, search teams are racing the clock, digging through the rubble, looking for anyone who may still be alive. rescue work continued throughout the day and into the evening, but only from the air can you see what the rescue workers are up against. the government says the tornado was on the ground for 50 minutes. the path of destruction is nearly a mile and a half wide and 17 miles long. it cuts through a dense suburban landscape of subdivisions, schools, shops, and a hospital. having seen the pictures, president obama declared a major disaster, opening the door to federal aid. >> we're a nation that stands with our fellow citizens as long as it takes. we've seen that spirit? f n joplin, in tuscaloosa, we saw this spirit in boston and

breezy point and that's what the people of oklahoma are going to need from us right now. >> rose: we continue our conversation with andrew revkin and brian walsh. revkin is a senior fellow at pace university and writes a blog for the "new york times." brian walsh is a senior writer for "time" magazine where he covers energy and the environment. i'm pleased to have both of them here. we'll begin with the obvious. exmine from me tornados. >> the atmosphere is turbulent and then sometimes when you have more heat and more cold air coming together in certain ways it gets really turbulent and it just -- >> rose: the swirling wind. >> the closest i've been to that effect was on a boat in the ocean when a waterspout was about 300 yards away and that's -- but that's tiny, microcosmic compared to this kind of thing and it's awe inspiring just to see that. i covered an ef-5 in maryland. >> rose: an ef-5? >> the strongest. >> rose: over 300 miles an hour. >> i covered one in maryland and it's just like the pictures you

see. there's nothing left. nothing left. trees are stripped. where there are trees things are in the oddest places. it's amazing. >> rose: the force of that kind of wind. >> yeah, but it's all turbulence. like a whirlpool in the ocean. it's the same thing. just the atmosphere. the atmosphere is fluid. >> rose: what would you add to that? >> i say the reason we know why it happens in places like oklahoma, that you have cold dry air coming down from the north and the west and the rockies needing warm moist air coming up from the gulf of mexico right in the middle of that part of the country and that's why you have all those tornados there. tornados are not a uniquely american phenomenon but they're here more than any other place in the world. >> rose: because of the canada -- >> because that particular area is a perfect location where where those two fronts can meet. >> rose: what else is unique to the midwest about this? >> i mentioned the flat land of it makes a difference as well. that gives it a place to land and create that kind of damage. and what made this particular tornado, i think, so destructive wasn't just that it was very

powerful, it's now been rated an ef-5, which is the highest scale. >> rose: it's now rated as an ef-5? >> yes, i think that's what i saw before i came here. but also it struck a fairly populated area. you know? the town of moore has about -- i think 60,000 people or so. oklahoma city, of course, is a large city as well and this is what happens when you have a tornado hit a fairly major urban area as opposed to hitting an isolated town out somewhere in farmland in the midwest fwlchlt and what's really -- the other thing that's happened out there is development. that area -- i went to the web site of the city of moore this morning when i was writing the piece and they have the history of the city of moore. it starts in 1889 with the land rush and it's troubled along until 1950 and then there were a few thousand people there. and from 1960 on t population exploded. they have this wording on their own city web site about the exploding population. >> rose: why is that? >> oil and gas activity, the economy. and also many other parts of tornado alley and this part of

the south that got hammered in 2011 had very sparse populations 40 or 50 years ago and zoom we're there and we have the people who've come there, the people who've developed and built houses just haven't built to the standards you would want in a zone where you have 250 miles an hour winds. >> rose: that would be the lesson learned, would it not? >> especially after 1999. but, you know, part of what i wrote today on dot earth was questions. you know, why -- especially schools. these two schools didn't have safe rooms or zones of safety when many other schools -- >> rose: what's a safe room? >> well, you can -- the texas tech is a great place. people can go to the web site there and see. a safe room is basically a room with walls designed to withstand a flying object going 200 miles an hour. which is what a tornado can do. >> rose: what's the difference between, say, an f-3, f-4 hand f-5. wind speed? >> well, it is a destruction -- it's destructive -- it's not just straight wind speed. >> one of the reasons why it

took them a while to rank this one is because they go to the site. you send investigators to figure out the damage and try to iner if as well how strong the tornado was from there. and it's not just for a second how long that wind. is that wind has to be sustained for at least a few seconds, a three-second gust and that's how you rank it. i think with the ef-5 it's above 200 miles per hour sustained for at least three seconds. >> rose: and this one lasted how long in -- >> this was on the ground i believe for 40 minutes. it was also a mile and a half wide so you're talking -- >> rose: is that wide? >> that's very wide. yeah, i mean, so you're talking about a very strong tornado on the ground for comparatively a long time also hitting a very wide swath of territory and that's -- that's a lot of damage. then you throw in a lot of people there. >> rose: if you're in your basement are you safe? >> you are -- you're safer, certainly. you're not perfectly safe, certainly. it's better knob a safe room or shelter that has reinforced concrete walls that are rated to withstand this kind of wind.

so that helps. but i think in oklahoma you have issues with the soil, it can be hard to create a well-reinforced basement so you don't see those that often. it costs a lot as well. >> rose: we see more tornados now than we've seen in recent times? >> well, this is one of the paradoxes. the last 50 years or so, since the 1950s when there's been a lot of radar, a lot of tracking, the number of tornados in these destructive categories, f-1 -- i mean f-2 and above has actually slightly declined. >> rose: why's that? >> well, you know, the why question. i have this e-mail string as long as you can count words between climate scientists today debating the aspects of this that we don't --. >> rose: what would you debate about? >> well observationalists look at the data and say you can't look at that and say there's a global warming signal because it's going in the other direction. maybe a warmer climate is moderating the hurricane -- the

tornado risk from these types of storms. and then -- >> rose: so warming may be reducing the amount of tornados? >> right. but the near tigss, the ones say "no, we're puting more water vapor in the atmosphere, more energy and it's hot sore that generates more turbulent hurricanes that should generate tornados." and what's really problematic with this is it's really a distraction to debate how much of any particular season or -- you know, we had a tornado drought and tornado outbreaks and that's a distraction from the vulnerability which is just there. >> rose: how do you feel about that? >> well, i feel very similar. we're actually looking here -- our cover story for "time" magazine this week is going to be on the tornado in moore. we're actually making it around the 16 minutes of warning that people have between when the tornado warning went out and when it touched down. it shows, it's so difficult to predict exactly where and when these things will strike early enough to give people warning. you can imagine how hard is it to model it put into the future

as we see how temperatures warm, how that might impact what that might do to tornados, how often they form, how strong they are. >> rose: was there any way to predict that this -- i would assume the answer was yes they would have done it. any try predict this tornado would hit moore at this time yesterday? >> i don't think it's -- that we knew it would hit exactly moore at exactly that time, no. there were sort of watches in effect, certainly. >> rose: a tornado watch? >> yes, exactly. they knew tornado conditions were ready. they knew it was definitely a possibility. they were ready for that. on time.com we have a picture of behind the scenes in norman, oklahoma on how these guys were responding to it. they were ready, tracking it, they knew it was going to be a bad day and no one was quite ready for a tornado of this magnitude but they responded. they sent the highest possible warning as it was about to hit the ground. but, you know, it's -- what are you going to do? for instance, even though there was a watch in effect, kids were

not kept home from school, you know? what are you going to do? you also worry -- forecasters very much worry that if you put too many false alarms out there you actually today are value of a warning when it really matters and that can have a negative impact. so you're caught in you don't want to be the forecaster that cried wolf but at the same time you want to give people more time. and they are doing that. they are getting more time now and as we improve our radar capabilities we should extend that out somewhat but the simple nature of the dord doze is going to make it more difficult to predict than any other kind of weather. >> rose: what kills you for the most part is flying objects? >> well, that's one risk. if you're talking about a storm of this magnitude, we saw what that did to houses. you can still be buried by rubble. >> rose: splinters. >> there's very little you can -- there's little you can do to keep a house from being destroyed when you're talking about 200 miles per hour winds so in that case you have to shelter in place and hope. but it's very interesting. it's tough. you get kind of warning, say,

you're -- you have children in school, you want to get them into a safe place, you want to make sure they're not in the open so you have to calculate, maybe i can get to a church that does have a basement but will i get there in time before the tornado actually hits me? >> rose: it is fact to say that most -- a tornado in 1999 in moore at 300 miles an hour was the biggest most powerful tornado ever recorded? >> well, just judging by what we've seen, there are people who track these things pretty carefully and say that, yeah. there could easily be a more powerful one but -- >> rose: we weren't recording it. yeah, i understand. but as far as we know in terms of today that that's the most -- the closest one that's been recorded. >> yeah, there have been astounding outbreaks of tornados through the history of the midwest. they're just mind-boggling. >> rose: i asked you about this this morning. what does it sound like? >> i've heard it sounds like a rushing train. i've heard it sounds like -- >> rose: you feel it coming.

>> you covered the f-5 in maryland but people say it's -- they sort of reach for metaphors bombs, they say it sounds like rushing wind in their ears. i can only imagine. we've sween this tornado i think perhaps more than any other we have more video that's been captured. we have smart phones everywhere which we didn't have ten years ago so we now have film of this storm in a way that we didn't have ever have before. so we can all experience it in some ways but for those right on top of it i can only imagine how incredibly flight ng it must have been. >> rose: this is from your blog. briarwood elementary and plaza tower elementary were a mile apart and in the path of the storm. as of this writing there are no fatalities at briarwood and many from plaza tower. how can that be? further down in the piece the expert who's -- kevin similar monos who studied has written a book on tornados and damage in the economy and he says that you

don't really know. you have to thoroughly deconstruct these things because it could have been luck, the tornado might have modulated its power briefly. it could that -- we know one school -- both of those s did not have shelter bus one may have had better protocols for betting the kids in some place of protections and those issues will only come out through the postmortem. and one of the things we were saying a few minutes sag what do you do. the social scientists of this stuff say the challenge with this kind of event is tornados are pinpricks on a map, unlike a hurricane. but you have to get people to respond. even if -- and you have to get them to not regret fit it was false for them. in other words, there has to be a normalization of the need to duck and cover to get serious, get off the roads, get under cover and not feel frustrated if it was a quote/unquote false alarm because the storm is there the risk is there and as long as people can sustain that kind of

culture or responsiveness -- because without that the best warnings are meaningless. then the final step is having a place to go and that's why i've been writing so much about building codes and why is an area that's fundamentally vulnerable to meg storms not requiring shelters or safe zones? they had -- the thing that really blew my mind today in reporting this was the state of oklahoma in the last two years has had a lottery where they'll gave $2,000 rebate to people for the cost of a safe room in their house. but it had to be a lottery because they only have a few -- i'm not sure how many to give out. why is that not normalized? can we not find the macroeconomic value in having some way to -- that's a subsidy to me that matters. >> rose: thank you, good to see you. thank you. back in a moment. stay with us. >> rose: joining me now from florida is chief david paulison former director of fema. he was appointed by george w.

bush in september, 2005, in the aftermath of hurricane katrina and some of the problems that fema had at that tragedy i'm pleased to have him on the program. let me begin with this question: what is it that fema does? >> fema is actually a coordinated resource that you saw work very quickly. what the president did was immediately declare a president declaration under the stafford act, deploy search-and-rescue teams, put management teams down and pretty much the full force of the federal government on the ground to give the local communities and the state the tools that-to-do their job. fema's not a first responder. that belongs to the local fire, law enforcement, emergency management team. but fema does back them up with resources to make sure they can do everything they can do to help the people that have been devastated by this horrible tragedy. >> rose: what kind of resources? >> right on the ground right now are three urban search-and-rescue teams. there's incident management teams, working with the red cross to help the staff shelters

make sure supreme a place to stay tonight and the next few nights until there's a place to stay. communications equipment, bringing in food and water, supplies. everything that they can possibly need to get these people as comfortable as possible. give the rescue people the tools to do the search-and-rescue part bring in dog teams. pretty much, again, helping the locals have the tools to do their job to make sure that they can do all the searches. you heard them very clearly say they've searched all the houses once, they're going to do it twice, they're going to do it a third time to make sure that anybody that can be saved is rescued. >> rose: so when fema goes in there, it simply coordinates and assists the local officials of fire and police and those kind of first responders and they coordinate. is one or the other in charge? >> the local community's in charge of that disaster and the state's in charge after that. fema does not take over. fema is not in charge.

they're similarly in to help them get the job done. again, give them the resources. the state emergency manager, albert ashwood, has been through this dozens of times, probably one of the best in the country. just does an outstanding job for the state of oklahoma. fema will work through him, work to the local communities to make sure that whatever they need that they don't have that fema can bring in and provide for them. >> rose: okay. and what are the problems of first responders? what are the issues? how do you coordinate? what's the driving necessity for handling something this severe? >> so it's kinded of a tiered response. the local community starts first then the state comes in and then the federal government right behind that. it all happened very quickly in this tornado. i'm very pleased with the response that i saw. we saw president obama immediately doing a disaster declaration without waiting for an assessment team. that tells me that the state was right on top of it. they have to get a letter to the president requesting that, a

letter to the fema administrator requesting that disaster declaration and they're able to get that through the governor's office on the president's desk within just a few hours after the tornado made landfall and caused this type of devastation. the president and his team were very quick to sign that declaration and that opens up the floodgates of the stafford act, the disaster response teams to move down there and make money available for this disaster. >> rose: the amazing thing about this. not only were there homes destroyed but also it hit schools and it hit hospitals. so a lot of the people that you think might be involved in another kind of tragedy are themselves impaired because their own facilities have been damaged. >> we see that time and time again. what we saw in the -- in katrina where we had police and firefighters who were supposed to be responding, their homes were destroyed also. we saw the same thing in hurricane andrew. i was a fire chief down here

then. 250 firefighters lost their homes. so people who are responding also r also impacted. that's why it requires a great amount of empathy by the leaders to make sure they understand that those people out there working have been damaged also. their homes have been damaged, their famiehaand to make sure te care of those people that are actually helping others to get out from under the rubble. >> rose: what are the needs of a community like moore, oklahoma, at this moment? >> well, what we saw in greensburg, kansas, where a similar type of tornado went through and simply just wiped out the entire town. they're going to need our support. they have lost everything. their homes are totally gone. there's really not much at all salvageable. but we're already seeing that spirit where they really want to get in there and clean up, they want to get started over again. we need to support them with our prayers, with our empathy but also with our money, too. we can donate money through the red cross, that's probably the best thing we can do.

making sure they have our support. it's going to be tough. and it's not going to be over in a couple months. it's taking greensburg, kansas, several years to get back up and running again. but we're going to see the same thing in this town and we just, you know -- they just need to know they've got all of our support out here and not to give up. we hope they rebuild. i know they will rebuild in that town. it was a beautiful place to live and it's just -- just make sure we don't turn our backs on them and walk away in two months because it doesn't seem like that's a -- the story du jour so to speak. >> rose: also in a tragedy like this, you don't know how many people were affected. i mean, how do you determine who's unaccounted for? >> it's going to take time. and you've already seen writ the body count was 51, now it's 24. that's going to go up and down. injuries are going to be the same type of thing. it will be a long time before we find out exactly how many people have been affected. first of all, some people whose

homes may not have been damaged but they've lost their job. and maybe the person who has lost his home, his job is still there. now they have to live in oklahoma city because there's nothing close. so how do they get that transportation back and forth? we see time and time again these types of disasters that the effect is not just on the immediate person who lost their home. it's much more widespread than that. and then there will also be an economic impact on the entire state. a lot of people are going to be out of jobs. are a lot of people are not going to be paying taxes. there's nothing to tax. there's no home there. so the economic impact, the emotional impact will go on for a long, long time. >> rose: david paulison, thank you so much. >> thank you, sir. >> rose: we'll be right back. stay with us. >> rose: joining me now from washington, peter baker, "new york times" white house correspondent. peter, tell me how -- you watched the president today. and some presidents in a sense

perform brilliantly during this kind of crisis. i'm thinking of bill clinton in oklahoma city. >> this has been a tough thing for president obama. it's not been his most natural form of communication over the last four or five years. he is not an emotive person like president clinton or warm fatherly figure as reagan often projected himself to be. but he has had a lot of practice at it and you can tell that he's becoming more accustomed to it, as sad as that is to say. look at the last five or six months. he had to do it after hurricane sandy, after the school shootings in connecticut, boston bombings, the fertilizer plant explosion in texas. so this has become an increasingly prevalent part of his presidency. >> rose: you got the impression that-- especially newtown-- had an impact on him. maybe because he has children but really cut to his own sense of outrage as well as pain. >> absolutely. there's no question about that. i talked with people in the

white house who were with him that day. i even talked to vice president biden about it once he said he asked one of president obama's aides "should i go out with him?" the aide said "no, he's in rough shape. it will only make it harder for him to keep his control." so this can be emotional. they're tragic events. you saw children killed in oklahoma yesterday and how anybody who has children or anybody else for that matter can't feel that in a personal way it would be astonishing. i think that presidents take that upon themselves because they feel a certain responsibility for the country, even if obviously they can't stop tornados or hurricanes. >> rose: it's an interesting question because it's sometimes defined as the president as healer in chief or comforter in chief and that requires certain kinds of personality traits on the part of the president to be able to do that. >> it does. and i remember going with president obama down to texas when the fort hood shootings happened. that was very early on in his tenure. to me it didn't feel like he managed to connect with that crowd in the way that president

clinton might have done or president george w. bush also had a facility for doing. and yet now three, four, five years later you see him doing this now often enough that he is -- i think he is projecting in a different way. he's -- he's managing to connect with the audiences in a way he didn't earlier on. >> rose: because most presidents seem to do what is required of them-- and there's some exceptions, we can talk about that-- they all simply say "we'll do everything that's necessary." >> of course. what else do you say. and every president certainly since katrina has understood that getting out quickly on an event like this, showing resolve showing commitment to mobilizing federal resources is vital. regardless of what's happening on the ground, even just the appearance of presidential leadership is significant for both the people who are expecting help as well as the rest of the country watching to see what's going on. >> rose: the president went to new jersey, for example, with governor christie after sandy.

there is also this earn shoe that comes up. you don't want to go too early because you don't want to get in the way. >> i thought that was -- the problem with president george w. bush with katrina was he flew over. you remember that famous photograph. in some ways i thought that was a bit of a tough break for him because he literally couldn't have put down in new orleans at that time. it would have been disastrous to have taken away the resources going to active rescue missions. in hindsight maybe he should have gone to baton rouge, he thinks or some of his people think. but at the time they didn't want to get in the way of the rescue effort but instead it projected an image he didn't want to which is one of literally flying over the problem rather than getting down to -- getting your hands dirty. >> rose: remember for me what the president did in oklahoma city that changed the perception of him. >> he was so down politically at that time. it was 1995. republicans had taken over both houses of congress and president

clinton was very publicly flailing around trying to figure out what his place in this new order really was and jousting with newt gingrich. he literally said just a day or so earlier that "the constitution gives me relevance" which seemed to a lot of people thought was his low point. then he showed up to n oklahoma to comfort the people and the country and his natural gifts far kind of an event really transformed the way people saw him. he was more of a president than a prime minister, less a partisan figure and more of a uniting figure. he had a very polarized presidency but it was a moment, anyway, when he managed to transcend that. >> rose: that's a moment in there we're all americans kind of speaking. >> absolutely. and it was an opportunity and responsibility for presidents in these types of moments to both get away from the very national partisan combat that they're in. here you have president obama in a very tough moment politically because he's being scrutinized for his handling of various controversies. so to be able to project this

presidential image at this moment as a matter of his own situation obviously is a useful one for him. >> rose: what's the risk to the second term now for the president? not only because he faces each of these controversies or scandals, whether it's i.r.s. or benghazi or a.p., the idea that if they are lingering always they're distractions from boldness that you need in order to have at least a big accomplishment in your second term. >> sure. here we are six months after his reelection. i think he had thisa that the second term would be a little different. that without a reelect in front of him some of the partisanship and polarization, some of the disagreements would melt a little bit and he's discovered that, a, that's not true, and, b these controversies and scandals have come along at a time to take away attention from any kind of proactive agenda. now, we may learn more from any of these scandals that will be

more troublesome to the public. but even if we don't they obviously are consuming attention and energy at a moment when he would rather be talking about immigration or perhaps gun control or some of these other issues. >> rose: peter, thank you, it's great to see you. >> thank you, great to see you. >> rose: peter baker of the "new york times" in washington. we'll be back. >> rose: audra mcdonald is here. she's a singer, an actress, she is much more. she's quickly making broadway history. she ties only angela lansbury and julia harris for having the most tony awards. mike wallace, the great mike wallace, highlighted her early success in a "60 minutes" profile in 1999. >> the year is 1979 and the song she's singing called "fame" forecast what's going to happen to her two decades later. ♪ remember my name i'm gonna live forever ♪ i'm gonna learn how to fly >> and the american theater wings tony award goes to-- okay,

doing this. audra mcdonald. audra mcdonald "master class." audra mcdonald! (cheers and applause) >> rose: at the age of 48 she's already won three tony awards. >> rose: she won her fifth tony last fall in the lead of "porgy and bess." ben brantley of the "new york times" described her as having "a god touched voice that turns suffering and ugliness into beauty." here's a look hat that performance. ♪ summertime and the living is easy ♪ fish are jumping ♪ and the cotton is high, oh,

your daddy's rich and your ma is good looking ♪ so hush, little baby, don't you cry ♪ >> rose: her new album is out on may 21. it is called "go back home." i am pleased to have audra mcdonald back at this table. welcome. >> thank you, charlie. >> rose: so good to have you here. >> thank you, it's great to be back. >> rose: wd&p's home for you? >> home is -- you know, my instinct right now is to go straight to the old adage "home is where the heart is." but -- and that's true. home for she where hi heart is which is with my family and on the stage and when i'm singing in the theater. that's -- that's really home. >> rose: when you are singing and the audience is almost

breathing with you and you know you have never done it better what does it feel like? >> that's so interesting because those moments are very, very, very rare where you feel like "i've never done it better." but what it does feel like when you feel like there's this incredible synergy between the audience and the performer where it feels effortless, what it feels like is that time slows down. time slows down and every moment becomes crystaline and clear and you feel like you're not really doing anything at all. that's really what it feels like. but i think for an audience and a performer it's this communion with each other. when it really hits, it's magical. but it's rare. (laughs) it's rare. >> rose: and why is that? other than the fact that that's what makes it special, its rare >> because you have your day, you go in, off tick until your throat, someone in the audience is playing with a candy wrapper

or your prop hasn't been set. >> rose: you notice those things? >> oh, we notice them much more than people think. >> rose: the other thing that's amazing to me is that people -- when it happens you don't know what made it happen. >> you don't, you don't. and it's luceive so then you're chasing it. you're chasing it. but sondheim has that great quote from "moments in the woods" from the show "into the woods" where he says "if life were only moments, even now and then a bad one, but if life were only moments then you'd never know you had one." and that's what makes it so special. >> rose: the great ed bradley of "60 minutes" used so say that when he died and went to heaven and god say "why do you deserve to be here, ed?" he would say "have you seen my lena horne interview?" >> (laughs) oh! >> rose: which was a wonderful thing and so -- insightful about ed. so if god said the same thing to you, would you say "have you seen my performance of --".

>> no. i would say "have you seen my child?" >> rose: would you really. this child is that -- >> remarkable. >> rose: -- remarkable? >> so i know she's going to get here. so i need to get in there because she'll be here at some point much later than i will. that's what i would say. >> rose: it's not a performance, it's a child. >> no, no. i think i would first say thank you to god. thank you for giving me the voice. >> rose: and talking to you. >> and thank you for letting me get up here but that's the thing that i am most proud of without a shadow of a doubt. >> rose: you've just given birth to something else here. a new album. >> yeah, i'm late with that one. it's been seven years. >> rose: why are you late? >> you know, i had this wonderful contract with none such records and i had done -- it's a contract for five albums and i h done four of them and i just -- life happened, you know? i -- i lost my father in a plane crash six years ago and then i

left town to do "private practice." i left the theater to go to l.a. to do this t.v. show. then i got a divorce and all these things happened and the album just fell by the wayside. then i also realized i didn't have anything to say. i was empty. i kind of didn't have anything to say so i kept thinking as soon as i have something to say i'll make an album. >> rose: what do you mean "something to say"? just lyrics or something else? >> something artisticly or emotionaly. i don't ever want to put out an album and just say "here's me singing this because why not?" i need to be connected to it in some way and i was really empty for a while. so life happened and life will fill you up in a minute. >> rose: so someone writing in the "new york times", you probably have heard of this, said of your departure from music when you were doing your acting thing -- >> rose: >> (laughs) sounds like my grandmother. doing your acting thing.

>> rose: he said "while ms. mcdonald is more than a capable actor, she is one of a kind musical supertalent whose temporary sabbatical robbed the world of her singular gift at a moment when her voice was in its prime. any dozens of actresses could have stepped into her television role, but as a singer she is simply an irreplaceable resource." now, did you think about that? >> well, i don't know that i've ever really heard that. it's a little bit of a back handed compliment. >> rose: it is. but at the same time it says -- >> yeah, i know, i understand it and quite honestly i will continue to do straight acting because i find it challenging and rewarding and i'll continue to do television as well as theater and all that. but i have to admit that i don't feel quite whole if i'm not singing and actually my husband a couple of days ago -- >> rose: this is the great --

>> yes, my husband the great will swenson, he -- i was singing a lot at the dinner table and he looked at me and i said "i've got to do that concert." because after a while i realized if i haven't beeninging for a minute i start to get antsy. so it really is a part of me. >> rose: how about this album "go back home"? why "go back home"? >> you know, the title -- it's the title track from a great musical by kahn dorr and eastbound called the scottsboro boys. the last musical fred ebb wrote before he passed away and it seemed like a song that meant so much to me and was obviously quite symbolic of all the ways that i've come back home. coming back home from l.a. and going back to theater and being back with my family and what not. and in the show, in "the scott borrow boys" in the show it's these poor young black men who have been jailed for a crime they didn't commit and sentenced

to death and in jail wishing they could go back home and be with their family and it's something that resonated to me. so it'med seemed like the right thing to do. a lot of that album is very personal. i've been saying if a broadway show were written about me, this would be the sound track. ♪ i wonder since i've been away ♪ i'm lonely, when i'm gonna go back home ♪ >> rose: "first you dream" is one of theirs. >> yes. i do two candor and ebb and that's from their musical "steel peer" which is not considered one of their big hits but it introduced the world to kristen chenoweth, that was her broadway debut. >> rose: edelweiss, that goes back to your childhood? >> yes. edelweiss, i had a music box that my uncle gave me a couple months after i was born that

played edelweiss. and we know it from "the sound of music" and when i auditioned for the dinner theater in fresno california, that started me on that path, that clip was me performing in a the dinner theater, a few short months before that clip was shot i auditioned far company and my parents said "what are you going to thing? " and we thought "well, edelweiss is the song i know" and we didn't know if there would be an accompanyist and my dad played the piano for me while i sang it so it's very personal to me. >> rose: what else? "baltimore." >> that's the song written by a varietal lented group, marcie hesser will and xe that goldbridge and it's a noel coward pass tesh type of song but it's basically about why one shouldn't date men from baltimore. and while i don't have issues with baltimore there's another city where that's the case for me. >> rose: there was a man in baltimore? >> well, i won't say that. just to continue this.

there's "married love" "i'll be here," "some days" edelweiss and "make someone happy" by jewels stein -- >> yes, it's a great old song and something that meant a lot to me lately realizing what's most important in life. this album is incredibly personal. in some ways it was easy to make and in other ways it was hard to make and it's hard to put it out there because i feel like it's -- my most autobiographical. >> rose: this is you at lincoln center. ♪ memories like the corners of my mind ♪ misty watercolored memories of the way we were ♪

>> rose: you're going back to do live at lincoln center a performance there that will be on pbs on may 24. >> yes. a gala concert live from lincoln center. >> and this whole year i've been the host of live from lincoln center. >> rose: how's that going? >> fantastic. when i first moved to new york, i went to the juilliard school and so i was at the juilliard school and then i lived in the residence hall that they built there, i lived at lincoln center and the first big break was "carousel" and then i swang the new york philharmonic and i sang with barbara cook on the met stage and i've done gal las. >> and beverly sills used they have to job, didn't she? >> and when they asked me to do it it felt so much like a -- it felt like a perfect fit. i'm enjoying the fact that we're bringing a new generation of younger people and for me that's very important. >> we talk about you on this

show. we do. here's a clip. you know who ree reynold levy, don't you? >> yes! our wonderful president at lincoln center. >> rose: here's what he said about you on this show. roll tape. is there one actor, performing art that you saw or heard that will stick in your mind forever? >> well, there's one person who does and that's audra mcdonald. >> rose: really. i like her. >> for me, audra is the quintessence of lincoln center. juilliard school graduate who's performed on every stage, a five time tony award win we are. now the personification of live from lincoln center. audra reflects from me so much that is just bond wonderful about our place. >> that's amazing that he set that. i think he's spectacular in everything that he's done for lincoln center. >> rose: lincoln center has been important. >> absolutely. it's still home. it's -- t one place in new york city that can consider my home.

>>. >> rose: why did you become a singer? >> i come from a musical family. my grandmothers will both piano teachers. my dad started out as a music teacher. he played the trombone and drums and piano and he had a jazz band in high school he was teaching is. my mom sings, all of my dad's sisters sing. i have one of the small efrs voices in my family actually. everybody thinks my voices really cute and sweet but it's nothing compared to the other voices in my family. it's just something i grew up with. but i was also hyperactive and overdramatic child who needed channeling. >> rose: that's a very interesting phrase. >> well, there were other ways that it was put when i was growing up for sure. "you need to do something with that girl" was another one. >> rose: or "girl you better straighten up." >> straight up or calm down. so instead of calling down

they're like let's put that energy into good use so putting me on the stage -- >> rose: it channeled things for you. >> it did calm me down in a way. >> was there something you obsessively wanted that you had to have without which you -- you would have considered your life a failure? >> i think it was more that it was something -- it was just a part of who i was. there was never going to be anything else. i don't know that there were going to be success on the level that i've had it but there was nothing else that i can do. this is it. it's true. it's this or nothing so i'm lucky this worked out. i really am! (laughs) >> rose: i understand. this is again another clip of people talking about you. mike wallace, the great mike wallace did this profile of you and zoe caldwell and frank rich were describing your talent because this was having to do with "master class" which w which you were one of the five students who excelled.

here it is. do you remember any one on broadway-- anyone-- who at the age of 28 showed as much promise for broadway stardom as audra mcdonald? >> the only person i ever saw at such a young age-- and she was a little younger-- is someone you profile misdemeanor years ago, streisand. >> number one, she's a great rising star. she is the sort of the talent that comes along very rarely >> ms. caldwell says she made that judgment after doing one swaen audra. >> i got down on my knees and i said "please, lord, let us have aud. a". >> rose: really. >> yeah. >> rose: but if you were to walk down on broadway today and talk to the first hundred people who came along ask who is audra mcdonald how many of them do you think would have any clue at all? >> at the moment, no. maybe. at the moment. but wait.

>> zoe is an amazing woman and i named my daughter after her. my daughter is naipled zoe for zoe caldwell and she's a big fan of yours. she came to the theater that night at master class and she said "i did charlie rose, i did his show today, he's sexy!" she loves you! she absolutely loves you. >> rose: i loved her here. you know what she did? she was one of the people who insisted in sitting in a different chair. i think she insisted in sitting in my chair. two people did that, she was one and i -- and ann bancroft, both of them said to me "we want to sit in your chair." and i had so much respect and love for them i said if it's good for you it's good for me. >> rose: you give up your chair for those two ladies. >> rose: porg give and bess, what difference did that make for you? >> well, "porgy and bess" has to

be the most difficult role i've ever encountered. >> rose: did you have any qualms about accepting it? >> no. i didn't. i didn't because i knew i needed to play this part. obviously with all the controversy that went on with it i'm still -- i would not have changed a single moment of that experience for anything because of the richness and the beauty and the depth of those characters and that story and that score was -- i was already obsessed with the show anyway, just a fan of the show. >> rose: the hardest role you ever played? >> without a doubt. vocally that role was not meant to be sung eight times a week and emotion play that woman goes through between being raped and taking drugs and being beaten and thrown around. it's just -- it's a grueling role. and i'm actually just now -- about six months, seven months out of having done that show i'm just now starting to get all my

health back from having done that. >> rose: your health back? >> yes, my knees went. i bruised everywhere. vocally it took a while for me to be healthy again because it was just such a grueling role. but i -- i would do it again a heart beat because of what i learned as an actress in working with that that company. >> rose: won a tony as i remember. >> yes. >> rose: and maybe that's what ben bradley when he made that quote when he said you can give even to -- you make suffering comprehensible. >> you know, it's -- especially a role like that there's something to -- zoe caldwell told me, there's a quote from a great songwriter and poet and she said "you have to be willing to go down to where the iguanas play." which is just down to the darkest parts of our soul and zoe caldwell taught me about

that. >> rose: and you had to do that? >> absolutely to play that character. >> rose: within your own life? >> within your own life and what you haven't experienced in your life you have to imagine and study it. i studied drug addiction. i studied cocaine addiction. i studied the lives of prostitutes and how they get into prostitution and what gets in there and what keeps them there and statistics and women at that time and what their choices were. all of that. you have to get in that and get inside that to understand. everybody used to call bess a good time girl. i'm like that's not a good time girl. there's a lot going on there. she's not happy with her life. and i wanted to understand what that is. >> rose: and some of it is a consequence of the pain. >> absolutely! it's all a mask. you sigh her come on in that first scene and she's the loudest, reddest, hottest thing up there she's covering up nothing but pain. >> rose: are you glad you did "private practice"? >> i'm absolutely glad i did it. i was so afraid of the camera before doing "private practice." i was very afraid of television

and having cameras in front of me. just -- i would just sort of shrink down and do nothing because i thought "well, you're not supposed to move, you can't do a lot." and so four years of doing that show, you know, starting at 7:00 in the morning and going all night really taught me to learn to get used to -- to make friends with the camera. when i walk into a theater, no matter where it is -- when i tour, i play theaters all over the country and i walk into a theater and i -- regardless of where it is i feel at home in a theater. but that was not the case when i'd walk o the set for -- >> rose: but now? >> now i do, yes. and now i'm comfortable walking on to a t.v. set or a film set. >> rose: you got this? >> uh-huh. >> rose: you got "live at lincoln center." >> uh-huh. >> rose: it's everything that you have dreamed. is there anything missing? is there anything that you have that you want to do, a mountain that you haven't climbd?

>> there are -- i just -- i feel like i've climbed mountains and there's just -- there's just more mountains. >> rose: higher mountains? >> higher mountains or maybe just different mountains, you know? i want to do more shakespeare. if the right opera comes along i might step back into that ring. it's -- i certainly feel a little more comfortable with that idea now having done bess. >> rose: was it fear? bess was on the stage. was it fear with opera on stage? >> yes, a fear of opera. i think reason i didn't go into opera because s because first of all i knew i wanted to be on broadway and i didn't discover that i had an operatic voice until i went to juilliard. i didn't know that i did and juilliard brought that voice out and -- but i don't think i -- i don't think i ever had the temperament for opera and so i was afraid of having to be so

technically proficient and perfect and i sort of felt like, well, with musical theater as long as it's a good sound and i've got the acting underneath it that's what's most important whereas in opera it's got to be a beautiful sound. but maybe now i'm a little bit less afraid than i was maybe a year ago. >> rose: for me you're perfect. thank you for coming. >> thank you, charlie, i appreciate it. >> rose: this album is called "go back home." audra mcdonald, thank you for joining us, see you next time. captioning sponsored by rose communications captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org

a kqed television production. >> i was like sort of old fisherman's wharf. maybe a little like -- with a -- >> the calories, the cholesterol and the heart attack you might have. >> like an adventure. put it out of your mind. >> oatmeal with a touch of dog. >> i did