Audra McDonald became the most Tony-nominated performer in history Thursday.
McDonald earned her 11th Tony nomination for her star role as Rose in Gypsy on Broadway. She had previously held the title in a tie with the late Julie Harris and Chita Rivera, who had 10 nominations each.
The actress is already the most-awarded performer in Tony history, with six Tony Award wins for her roles in 1994’s Carousel, 1996’s Master Class, 1998’s Ragtime, 2004’s A Raisin in the Sun, 2012’s Porgy and Bess and 2014’s Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill.
And yet, when McDonald was told by her husband, fellow actor Will Swenson, that she had been nominated and learned she had set a new record, she was in a state of disbelief.
“I’m so grateful, and that’s overwhelming to think about. I’m so lucky. The one thing I always wanted to do growing up, one thing that gave me joy and kind of gave me purpose and made me feel most like myself was to perform theater. And so to be at this point and to have that kind of recognition is just overwhelming. I’m grateful, and it doesn’t seem real, because I don’t know how to process that,” McDonald told The Hollywood Reporter Thursday morning.
The role of Rose, the ultimate stage mother who pushes for her younger daughter to become a star, but eventually sees the older daughter become the burlesque star Gypsy Rose Lee, had not been on McDonald’s radar until about eight years ago, when her friend, the late actor Gavin Creel, suggested that she take on the iconic part and portray it through a Black lens. Before this revival, Rose had been played by a number of marquee stars, including Ethel Merman, who originated the role in 1959, Angela Lansbury, Patti LuPone, and Bernadette Peters.
In total, this production, directed by George C. Wolfe, received five nominations, including for McDonald’s co-stars Joy Woods and Danny Burstein.
After the nominations were announced Thursday, McDonald said she DoorDashed an iced matcha latte with lavender foam and an apple fritter. Swenson also gave her a Tony the Tiger tshirt he had ready for the nomination.
“So that was my celebration, and now I’ve got to go back to work,” McDonald said.
She spoke with The Hollywood Reporter about her take on the role and what it feels like to play a “hurricane.”
What did you think when Gavin Creel initially said you should play this role?
I was “What? Huh?” And once he started saying it should be played by Black woman in the industry, I was like “Huh, Ok, yeah!” And then it just went from there. I certainly knew the role, and I’d seen a lot of incredible productions of it with incredible, iconic women playing that role. Up until that point, I hadn’t seen myself in their shoes, and Gavin helped me to see that.
What does it mean to be playing Rose as a Black woman?
This is a story about generational trauma. This is a story about lack. This is a story about dreams and ambition and being labeled in a certain way because of those dreams and ambition. This is a show about mothers and daughters. It’s a show about because of what you were born as, and when you were born, not being able to achieve certain things, and fighting against the system regardless. And so I think those are all things that have been experienced through a Black lens. Especially a Black woman’s place in society, you can see them experiencing these things. And so it made sense for me, for Rose, to be a Black woman.
Everything that Rose goes through in his story is something that a Black woman knows and understands and has experienced in some way, shape or form in her life.
How do you get into the character before each show?
I have certain rituals, but the main one is that Rose, you know, I describe her as a hurricane or a tornado, but she’s also a hurricane and a tornado of possibility. Where everyone else sees “No,” she sees a “Yes” or she will find a yes, or she will create the yes. So, believe it or not, even though it ends up kind of being a bit of a tragedy at the end of the show, and she experiences a lot of tragedy along the way, I start the show in a very positive, full of possibility and opportunity sort of mindset for Rose. That I’m going to go get this dream for my children and for myself.
Plus you barge into the theater with a dog and get to then pop a ballon held by a child (a competitor to your character’s daughters) on stage.
[Laughing] The dog doesn’t like it so much.
How does the difficulty of this role compare to prior roles you’ve played?
She vibrates on a very, very, very, very high level. I have to say, it is one of the most exhausting roles I’ve done. The moments in the show where she’s in a passive state are very few and far between. And when she is in that passive state, a huge explosion is about to happen. So it’s her reacting to something that’s just happened in her life that she didn’t see coming, that she didn’t want to have happen. And those moments happen, and she’s passive in those few leading seconds, and then her reaction to it becomes big. She’s not a passive participant in this story. And therefore that makes it exhausting. She’s like a protagonist’s protagonist.
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