Video: Audra McDonald Talks GYPSY on TODAY

Audra McDonald stopped by Today with Hoda and Jenna to discuss imposter syndrome, stage fright, and playing Mama Rose in the upcoming revival of GYPSY.

While she struggles with Imposter Syndrome, McDonald says she's not a perfectionist. "If I mess up, I mess up. Nothing's perfect, no one's perfect, and I've sort of let go of that pursuit of perfection a little bit, because you're never going to be able to achieve it anyway."

On playing Mama Rose, McDonald says: "It's a dream. It scares me to death."

Gypsy will be directed by the legendary five-time Tony Award-winning Director George C. Wolfe. 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.

The choreography will be by four-time Tony Award nominated Camille A. Brown.  Additional casting and creative team members will be announced at a later date.

Performances will begin Thursday, November 21, 2024, at Broadway’s newly renovated Majestic Theatre and will open on Thursday, December 19, 2024. The last show to play the Majestic Theatre was The Phantom of the Opera, which concluded its 35 year-run on April 16, 2023.

GYPSY reunites George C. Wolfe with Audra McDonald, 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 this June, George C. Wolfe will receive the 2024 Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in Theatre.

GYPSY has been lauded by critics and musical theatre fans alike as the greatest musical of all time, the ultimate back-stage tale of an ambitious stage mother fighting for her daughter’s success – while secretly yearning for her own.

Since GYPSY premiered on Broadway in 1959, starring Ethel Merman, many of the greatest performers in Broadway history have taken on the iconic role of “Rose”: Angela Lansbury in 1974, Tyne Daly in 1989, Bernadette Peters in 2003, and Patti LuPone in 2008. Now… it’s Audra’s turn.