Tracee Ellis Ross on making a 'Brilliant' Broadway debut

The Emmy-nominated Black-ish and Girlfriends TV star leads the interactive solo play Every Brilliant Thing through August 9.

Summary

• Tracee Ellis Ross discusses making her Broadway debut in Every Brilliant Thing through August 9
• She leads the interactive solo play as a person who makes a lifelong list of small joys
• Ross discusses her history with theatre; memorable audience interactions; and what she hopes her fans get from the show

On her opening night in the solo play Every Brilliant Thing, Tracee Ellis Ross shared a simple answer for why she wanted to make her Broadway debut. "Broadway is the best of the best," she said. "I like doing things that are the best!"

The Emmy nominee and Golden Globe winner has certainly succeeded, having risen to fame on acclaimed TV shows like Girlfriends and Black-ish. But her roots with theatre also run deep. As a kid growing up in NYC, her mom, Diana Ross, took her and her siblings to a wide range of Broadway musicals: Sweeney Todd ("which was hilarious and kind of scary for a kid, but great"), Barnum, Cats, Starlight Express.

"I'm grateful and honored to now be part of that," Ross said.

Every Brilliant Thing felt "divine" and "like perfect timing" when it came across her desk, she added. In Duncan Macmillan and Jonny Donahoe's solo play, which previously starred Daniel Radcliffe and Mariska Hargitay, Ross plays a nameless narrator who, as a child, makes a list of small joys to buoy her depressed mother. As the narrator grows up, that list goes on to anchor her own life at key moments of both happiness and hardship.

"I don't know that I thought [my Broadway debut] was going to be somebody else's one-person show. I thought it was going to be mine!" Ross said. "But this has been even better."

She immediately took to the writing, which she said is the main thing that hooks her on any project. "One of my telltale signs is, when I read material for the first time, if I start saying it out loud," she said. "I was pulled in from the first moment that I picked up this play."

Ross also loved that Every Brilliant Thing "turned up" the shared experience of theatre by being interactive: Audience volunteers step into roles like the narrator's dad, veterinarian, teacher, and lover, performing on stage alongside Ross. It makes for some "glorious" and utterly unique moments, the actress said.

As the lover, one person "started singing a duet with me, and it was otherworldly. It was so beautiful and unexpected and everything the play is about," she said. "And then there's been some hilarious moments. I had a vet at the beginning that, instead of giving [an invisible] dog the shot, they shot me in the leg."

Ross hopes audience members — especially those newer to Broadway — "come with an open heart" and embrace that sense of unpredictability and community as much as she does. "We all are flourishing together. There's no mistakes," she said. "I'm in charge of telling the story. No one has to worry. They get to be there and be entertained. If they want to participate, they can. If they don't, they don't need to.

"People know there's audience participation, so they get nervous, and they're like, 'I don't want to be called on,'" she continued. "It's not a comedy show. We're not going to frighten you. It's only if you want to lean in. I want people to come with a sense of warmth and an openness to know that we're going to have a good time together."

Get Every Brilliant Thing tickets now.

Photo credit: Tracee Ellis Ross in Every Brilliant Thing on Broadway. (Photos by Matthew Murphy)