Tracee Ellis Ross had always dreamed of being on Broadway, and better yet, in a one-person show.
After graduating from Brown University with a degree in theater, Ross saw her career take off with television projects such as Girlfriends and Black-ish, but still felt that pull to the stage. At first, this materialized in Ross renting out a small theater for her 40th birthday and performing a one-person show that she penned for an audience of invited guests.
And now it has finally led to her Broadway debut in Every Brilliant Thing, where Ross, 53, takes over the role on July 7, succeeding Mariska Hargitay, who is currently in the role, and Daniel Radcliffe, who kicked off the run at the Hudson Theatre this spring. This show, with a 40-page monologue and a large degree of audience interaction, is a big leap for her first time on Broadway. But it’s also in keeping with Ross’s overall outlook on life.
“I mean, true Tracee fashion, go for the gusto,” says Ross, who also stars in a solo travel show and recently signed a development deal with Fox Entertainment Studios.
In the Tony-nominated play, written by Duncan Macmillan and Jonny Donahoe, a narrator details how they attempted to cheer up their mother, after a suicide attempt, by creating a list of things that make life worth living. The list, which includes specific, detailed items about the delights and routines of daily life, grows as the narrator ages and contends with their own joy and loneliness. Audience members are called upon to shout out items from the list as the play progresses.
Ross, who was approached about taking on the role, said she was drawn to the subject matter of the play, and the way in which it removes the stigma about talking about depression and suicide, as well as 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.
Knowing the show is a heavy lift, Ross came into rehearsals with the script already memorized. Still, with only three weeks to prepare for her debut, as well as the mountain of the script to tackle, there have been highs and lows in the rehearsal process, which she notes “asks everything of you.”
“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.”
“It’s absolutely normal. The hard moments are sometimes where the breakthrough can come through. So let it happen. It’s how you discover. That was what I wrote to myself yesterday,” Ross continued.
In keeping with that zen-like acceptance of the unknown, Ross has not seen Radcliffe or Hargitay perform in the show and doesn’t plan to before making her debut.
“I’m making a choice to not see it, and that’s just the way I am, always, as a person, not just as an actor. I like to find my own inspiration and not be guided by what I already know, so as much unknown as I can have, the better for me,” she said.
Similarly, while she has a plan in mind for what she wants to happen pre-show, she says she will adapt it if need be. About 30 mins before the show begins, Radcliffe was in the audience himself, running up and down the aisles and selecting the participants to participate, while Hargitay went into the audience to choose some participants, but also would stand back as a team selected others, due to the more intense parasocial relationship some fans have with the SVU star, according to The New York Times.
While she will be the only actor on stage, Ross says she’s comforted by the show’s element of audience participation, which also sees attendees stand in as her father figure, guidance counselor, love interest and more.
“The thing that’s amazing about this show, and about what my understanding, knowingness, and belief is about a solo journey, is that it’s not on your own, it’s done in participation. It just requires a different kind of leaning into other people, and that’s what the show is about,” Ross said. “It’s beautiful, and the intention is that the audience walk away remembering that we’re all in this life thing together, that you’re not alone in the experiences that you’re having, and the feelings that you’re having, and the thoughts that you might be having, that all of us are having too, and it would be strange if we weren’t, because life is a crazy roller coaster.”
Ross’s Broadway debut comes just ahead of the release of the second season of Solo Traveling with Tracee Ellis Ross July 20 on the Roku Channel.
The show sees Ross embark on dream vacations by herself, with the second season seeing Ross revisit her Swiss boarding school for the first time in about 40 years, and also learning to surf in Australia (which she notes may be her first and last time surfing). The first season was a breakout hit for the Roku Channel, as its most watched unscripted original.
The two projects coming out back to back has led to what Ross jokes is her “summer of solo.” But it’s also a moniker that Ross, who has been outspoken about bucking societal expectations and finding power in remaining single, happily takes on.
“I actually love it. I mean, it’s the truth of my experience right now in my life,” Ross said. “I know that people immediately associate solo traveler with somebody, or solo with somebody who’s single, but I really experience it as something different. I think that there’s all different kinds of solo traveling. The metaphor of solo travel is that it is a journey with self and that even people in relationships need to have a relationship with themselves. And so it’s something I have spent many years getting comfortable with. It’s been one of the richest experiences of my life, is coming to know, learn and love my myself and who I am, and becoming more of that person, and I think it makes me more available for relationships, friendships, family, romantic, all of it, because I have a sense of who I am, and I inhabit my skin, I embody who I am, and I love sharing that with people.”
“I think it’s something that we don’t often talk about. I think it’s a very revolutionary act, particularly for women and people of color, or anyone who colors outside the lines and who doesn’t necessarily live their life the standard or what the status quo is what I’m looking for. It sort of marches to their own drum,” she continued. “So I love sharing that with people, and I absolutely adore being associated with. It’s the truth of my experience.”
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