Tracee Ellis Ross brings audience participation to Broadway debut

Tracee Ellis Ross stepped onto the Hudson Theatre stage Tuesday for her Broadway debut in Every Brilliant Thing, a 40-performance limited engagement that runs through August 9, 2026. The solo play centers on depression, but it gives the audience a direct role in the action, with volunteers reading lines, helping with props and taking part in scenes that shape the night in real time.

The production is built for improvisation and trust. Audience members are asked to read from the script, pretend to drive a car and even help act out parts of the narrator’s family life, which means Ross’s performance depends as much on quick rapport with the room as on memorization. The official framing for the Broadway run, “One Actor. One Audience. One million reasons,” captures the structure that has made the play work in more than 80 countries.

Ross arrives in a role that has already been reshaped by other performers. Daniel Radcliffe completed his Broadway run in the show on May 24, 2026, and Mariska Hargitay began performances on May 26 before Ross took over. That rotation matters because Every Brilliant Thing is designed to change with the person playing it: the list of “brilliant things” shifts to reflect the performer’s background and point of view, making each version feel personal rather than fixed.

The play itself has a long path to Broadway. Duncan Macmillan and Jonny Donahoe began it as a 15-minute monologue called Sleeve Notes in 2009. It expanded into a full-length production that debuted in 2013, broke out at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2014 and later played a four-month off-Broadway run at the Barrow Street Theatre. Broadway’s first staging brings that history into a larger commercial frame while keeping the show’s intimate structure intact.

Ross’s casting adds a new emotional charge to the material. She has spoken about becoming more aware of small pleasures, including the click of a curling iron and the taste of olives, a sensibility that fits a play built around the idea that minor details can anchor a life. In a season crowded with prestige titles, Ross chose a piece that asks her to wander the aisles, recruit volunteers and share space with strangers in a story about resilience, depression and the habits that make living feel possible. The show’s community-minded posture, including its connection to Project Healthy Minds, places mental-health storytelling at the center of one of Broadway’s most interactive nights.