Photo: Matthew Murphy Save Story Save this story Save Story Save this story It’s no surprise that Tracee Ellis Ross throws a great party. To celebrate her 40th birthday, the exuberant, Golden Globe-winning actress, producer, and entrepreneur didn’t settle for a nice seated dinner; instead, she invited her friends to watch her perform an original one-woman show. And she began that show by stripping off her clothes and standing onstage in her bra and underwear.
Ross remains clothed throughout her current solo production, Broadway’s Every Brilliant Thing , but she’s exposed in other ways. A 40-page monologue by Duncan Macmillan and Jonny Donahoe, the play refers in its title to a list that the Narrator started keeping as a child. After their depressed mother’s attempted suicide, they began chronicling reasons to live—beginning with ice cream, water fights, and staying up past your bedtime to watch TV. The practice continues as the Narrator goes to college, first falls in love, and has their own struggles with depression. Both the list and the play conclude with their millionth entry.
Every Brilliant Thing opened on Broadway in March 2026 with Daniel Radcliffe in the role of the Narrator. Both the play and Radcliffe earned Tony nominations, after which Law & Order: Special Victims Unit star Mariska Hargitay took Radcliffe’s place. Replacing Hargitay in turn, Ross is making her Broadway debut—a milestone a long time coming.
Photo: Matthew Murphy “My sisters were tortured growing up, because I was constantly playing Mrs. Hannigan and singing Annie all over the house,” Ross recalls. One-woman shows led by Whoopi Goldberg, Lily Tomlin, and Anna Deavere Smith would further stoke her passions before she studied theater at Brown.
“It kind of felt like flying with my feet on the ground,” Ross says of taking the stage at the Hudson Theatre for the first time on July 7, following three weeks of rehearsals. (Her run concludes on August 9.)
Arrow Macmillan and Donahoe first presented the show in its current form at the Ludlow and Edinburgh Fringe Festivals before Donahoe starred in an off-Broadway iteration at the Barrow Street Theatre in 2014. Hundreds of regional and international performances followed; as of 2024, the play has been translated into 66 languages and staged in 63 countries.
Ross credits the play’s reach to the universality of its themes. “Although it is not my story at all, it still feels like every feeling inside it is mine,” she says. “Even if the world weren’t the way it was, it is a human thing to experience that kind of hurt inside, whether there’s a reason or not. This play doesn’t lean into that, but leans into the idea that things can change, and there are brilliant things in life that make it worth living.”
Another notable element is its reliance on audience participation, including having attendees fill the roles of family members and teachers. With the United States currently in the throes of a mental health crisis , Ross revels in the chance to directly engage attendees in what she considers one big celebration of being alive.
“My job is really to be a conductor of sorts, and to fill the space with wonder and connection—really to set the tone that we are all there to flourish. There’s no doing it wrong, and there’s no mistakes,” Ross says. “One woman played the lecturer, and she said, ‘I’m nervous,’ and I said, ‘So am I. We can be nervous together.’ I feel so deeply grateful for the people that are willing to face t…