Audra McDonald to star in ‘Gypsy’ Broadway revival

The six-time Tony Award-winning actress will lead the Arthur Laurents, Stephen Sondheim, and Jule Styne musical’s first revival since 2008 in the fall.

Everything’s coming up roses for Audra! A new revival of Gypsy starring six-time Tony Award winner Audra McDonald is set to open on Broadway this fall, with performances beginning November 21 at the Majestic Theatre. Opening night is December 19.

McDonald is the most Tony Award-winning actress of all time with six competitive awards across her decades-long Broadway career. She last took the Broadway stage in 2022's Ohio State Murders, and her other best-known credits include Carousel, Ragtime, A Raisin in the Sun, Porgy and Bess, and Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill.

As first reported by the New York Post on January 4, McDonald will play Gypsy's starring role of Mama Rose, who pushes her daughters Louise and June into show business in the hopes of achieving glory herself.

George C. Wolfe, a 2024 recipient of the Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement, is set to direct, and four-time Tony Award nominee Camille A. Brown (Hell's Kitchen) will choreograph. Additional casting and creative team for Gypsy has yet to be announced.

“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," said producers Tom Kirdahy and Mara Isaacs in a statement. "Sometimes the theatre gods smile upon us. This is one such time."

Gypsy, adapted by Arthur Laurents from the memoirs of actress Gypsy Rose Lee, premiered on Broadway in 1959, starring Ethel Merman. Though the original production did not win any of its eight Tony Award nominations, it took home a Grammy for Best Musical Theater Album, featuring now-iconic songs by Jule Styne and Stephen Sondheim like “Everything’s Coming Up Roses,” “Rose’s Turn,” “Let Me Entertain You,” and “You Gotta Get a Gimmick.”

Gypsy has also since been called one of the greatest musicals of all time and spawned four previous Broadway revivals, most recently in 2008 with Patti LuPone as Rose.

Check back for information on Gypsy tickets on New York Theatre Guide.

Photo credit: Audra McDonald. (Photo by Autumn De Wilde)