Gypsy, Starring Audra McDonald as Momma Rose, to Reopen Broadway's Majestic Theatre

Gypsy, the musical by Jule Styne, Arthur Laurents and Stephen Sondheim, will be revived on Broadway with six-time Tony Award winner Audra McDonald starring as Momma Rose. The production will be directed by five-time Tony Award winner George C. Wolfe, who previously collaborated with McDonald in 2016's Shuffle Along, and choreographed by four-time Tony nominee Camille A. Brown (Hell's Kitchen). Performances will begin November 21 ahead of a December 19 opening at the Majestic Theatre. The show will be the first to take up residence at the Majestic since The Phantom of the Opera ended its 35-year run. The theater has been undergoing renovations since Phantom vacated last April.

“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 theater gods smile upon us. This is one such time. We could not be more honored to bring this particular Gypsy to the Broadway stage and also include the singular Camille A. Brown as part of our creative team." 

First produced on Broadway in 1959 with Ethel Merman in the lead role, Gypsy is loosely based on striptease artist Gypsy Rose Lee's 1957 autobiography. The musical focuses on her mother, Rose, whose character has come to define the quintessential stage parent. Since its Broadway premiere, Gypsy has been revived four times, with the role of Momma Rose performed by Angela Lansbury, Tyne Daly, Bernadette Peters and Patti LuPone. Lansbury, Daly and LuPone all won Tony Awards for their performances.  

McDonald has won Tony Awards in all four acting categories, earning trophies for her performances in Carousel, Master Class, Ragtime, A Raisin in the Sun, Porgy and Bess and Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill. She garnered additional nominations for her performances in Marie Christine, 110 in the Shade, Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune and Ohio State Murders. In 2015, she received a National Medal of Arts from President Barack Obama and was named one of Time magazine’s 100 most influential people. Her television credits include Private Practice, The Good Wife and its spinoff series, The Good Fight, also earning an Emmy Award for hosting PBS’s Live From Lincoln Center. Her film credits include Disney’s live-action Beauty and the Beast and the Aretha Franklin biopic Respect. 

Additional casting and creative team members will be announced at a later date.