Tracee Ellis Ross is stepping onto Broadway for the first time, and she is not starting with something easy. On July 7, Ross takes over the lead role in Every Brilliant Thing at the Hudson Theatre, succeeding Mariska Hargitay, who follows Daniel Radcliffe, who kicked off the run earlier this spring.
The Tony-nominated play, written by Duncan Macmillan and Jonny Donahoe, centers on a narrator who tries to cheer up their mother after a suicide attempt by building a list of things that make life worth living. The list grows as the narrator ages and faces their own joy and loneliness. Audience members are called upon to shout out items from the list as the play progresses, making the show a significant interactive challenge for any performer.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Ross has always wanted to do Broadway, and specifically a one-person show. After graduating from Brown University with a degree in theater, her career moved toward television, with leading roles in Girlfriends and Black-ish. But the pull toward the stage stayed with her. At 40, she rented a small theater and performed a one-person show she wrote herself for invited guests. This Broadway debut is the next step in that trajectory.
"I mean, true Tracee fashion, go for the gusto," Ross said.
She came into rehearsals with the 40-page monologue already memorized, but with only three weeks to prepare, the process has not been without pressure. Ross described a rehearsal experience that swings between confidence and doubt.
"I am feeling, I think, exactly where I'm supposed to be, which is that I have a day of rehearsal where I feel very confident, and then I have a day where I feel absolutely like I've lost the wind under myself, and I think that's just what it is," Ross said en route to rehearsal in late June. "I've been writing about the experience for myself. It's been such an exciting one. And yesterday: 'Uncomfortable, scary, awkward, unsteady, raw, weird and wobbly.'"
Ross said she was drawn to the play's subject matter, particularly the way it removes the stigma around talking about depression and suicide. She also responded to the tone of the piece, which moves between exuberance and sentimentality.
"There's a buoyancy to it that just moved me, like really moved me, and one of my tells when I read new material is if I start reading it out loud, I know it's something that I'm being called to do, and I was in my bed reading and doing it out loud and crying," Ross said.
Outside of theater, Ross also stars in a solo travel show and recently signed a development deal with Fox Entertainment Studios. Her Broadway debut arrives July 7.
