Audra McDonald to star in Broadway revival of Gypsy, directed by George C. Wolfe, at the newly renovated Majestic Theatre

(May 2024) — It was announced today that Audra McDonald, winner of a record-breaking six
Tony Awards, two Grammy Awards and an Emmy Award, named one of Time magazine’s 100
most influential people in 2015 and a recipient of the National Medal of Arts from President
Barack Obama, will star as Rose in a new Broadway production of Gypsy, taking on what is
widely regarded as the greatest role in musical theater. The upcoming revival will be directed by
legendary five-time Tony Award-winning director George C. Wolfe and choreographed by
four-time Tony Award nominee Camille A. Brown, with additional casting and creative team
members to be announced at a later date. Gypsy features a book by Tony Award winner Arthur
Laurents, music by Tony and Academy Award winner Jule Styne, and lyrics by Tony, Grammy,
Academy Award and Pulitzer Prize winner Stephen Sondheim. Producers are Tom Kirdahy,
Mara Isaacs, Kevin Ryan, Diane Scott Carter, Peter May, and Thomas M. Neff. Performances
will begin November 21, 2024 at Broadway’s newly renovated Majestic Theatre, with an
opening date of December 19, 2024. A teaser trailer for the production is available here. Tickets
go on sale May 30 via telecharge.com.

Producers Tom Kirdahy and Mara Isaacs commented:

“When we began this journey we had the specific dream of pairing Audra McDonald, our most
lauded stage actress, with legendary director George C. Wolfe in a musical deemed by many to be
the greatest. Sometimes the theater gods smile upon us. This is one such time. We could not be
more honored to bring this particular Gypsy to the Broadway stage and also include the singular
Camille A. Brown as part of our creative team.”

The New York Times declares that “Audra McDonald has become to the American theater what
Meryl Streep is to film – a star of unstinting polish and versatility. Ms. McDonald embosses any
production in which she appears with a good-value guarantee.” Gypsy reunites her with “titan of
the American theatre” (New Yorker) George C. Wolfe, after their collaboration on the 2016
Tony-nominated production of Shuffle Along, or, The Making of the Musical Sensation of 1921 and
All That Followed. The Tony Awards Administration Committee recently announced that in June of
this year, Wolfe will receive the 2024 Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in
Theatre.

Playing the role of Rose in Gypsy, McDonald joins an illustrious roster that includes some of the
greatest performers in Broadway history. Since Ethel Merman starred in the 1959 Broadway
premiere, the role has been played by Angela Lansbury in 1974, Tyne Daly in 1989, Bernadette
Peters in 2003, and Patti LuPone in 2008. After the premiere, Kenneth Tynan raved in the New
Yorker that the show “tapers off from perfection in the first act to mere brilliance in the second.”
In 1974, Clive Barnes wrote in the New York Times: “Everything about Gypsy is right. The Jule
Styne score has a lilt and a surprise to it. The music bounces out of the pit, assertive, confident,
and cocky, and has a love affair with Stephen Sondheim’s elegantly paced, daringly phrased lyrics.
And then there is the book by Arthur Laurents. Rose is possibly one of the few truly complex
characters in the American musical.” Frank Rich’s 1989 New York Times review, calling the show
“Broadway’s own brassy, unlikely answer to King Lear,” added: “It cannot be done without a
powerhouse performance in its marathon parental role.”

About Audra McDonald

Audra McDonald is unparalleled in the breadth and versatility of her artistry as both a singer and
an actor. The winner of a record-breaking six Tony Awards, two Grammy Awards and an Emmy, in
2015 she was named one of Time magazine’s 100 most influential people and received the
National Medal of Arts—America’s highest honor for achievement in the field—from President
Barack Obama. In addition to her Tony-winning performances in Carousel, Master Class, Ragtime,
A Raisin in the Sun, The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess and Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill – the role
that also served as the vehicle for her Olivier Award-nominated 2017 debut in London’s West End
– she has appeared on Broadway in The Secret Garden; Marie Christine (Tony nomination); Henry
IV; 110 in the Shade (Tony nomination); Shuffle Along, or, The Making of the Musical Sensation of
1921 and All That Followed; Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune (Tony nomination); and Ohio
State Murders (Tony nomination). On television, she was seen by millions as the Mother Abbess in
NBC’s “The Sound of Music Live!,” won an Emmy Award for her role as host of PBS’s “Live From
Lincoln Center,” and received Emmy nominations for Wit, A Raisin in the Sun and Lady Day at
Emerson’s Bar & Grill. Having played Dr. Naomi Bennett on Shonda Rhimes’s Private Practice
(ABC) and Liz Reddick (formerly Lawrence) on both The Good Wife (CBS) and The Good Fight
(Paramount+), she may now be seen as Dorothy Scott on Julian Fellowes’s The Gilded Age (HBO).
On film, she has appeared in Seven Servants, The Object of My Affection, Cradle Will Rock, It Runs in
the Family, The Best Thief in the World, She Got Problems, Rampart, Ricki and the Flash, Disney’s
live-action Beauty and the Beast, the movie-musical Hello Again, Cinergistik’s documentary
Whitney Houston in Focus, the Obamas’ Higher Ground Productions’ Rustin and MGM’s Aretha
Franklin biopic, Respect. McDonald is a Juilliard-trained soprano, whose opera credits include La
voix humaine and Send at Houston Grand Opera, and Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny at Los
Angeles Opera, where the resulting recording earned her two Grammy Awards. She has issued
five solo albums on the Nonesuch label as well as Sing Happy with the New York Philharmonic on
Decca Gold. She also maintains a major career as a concert artist, regularly appearing on the great
stages of the world and with leading international orchestras. She is a founding member of Black
Theatre United, board member of Covenant House International, and prominent advocate for
LGBTQIA+ rights, whose favorite roles are those performed offstage, as an activist, wife to actor
Will Swenson, and mother.

High-resolution photos can be downloaded here.

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