Broadway legend Audra McDonald is used to having people gush over and praise her performance onstage. But recently, a fan took things a bit too far and now she’s speaking out about it.
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As we previously told you, the Tony winning actress has been making waves on the Great White Way thanks to her performance as Mama Rose in the Broadway revival of “Gypsy.” It marked the first time in the show’s history that the central character was portrayed by a Black woman.
The beloved musical has been going on for most of the summer with McDonald garnering so much praise, she performed one of Rose’s pivotal songs during the 2025 Tony Awards–which only saw her receive further praise.
Now, having finally wrapped the last show over the weekend, it seems like some fans aren’t ready to see her make her exit, at least not without getting some sort of recognition from her first. Speaking in a lengthy video posted to Instagram, she detailed how a fan “snuck around and found” where she was leaving the theater and followed her all the way back to where she was staying until in an effort to get an autograph from her.
Per McdDonald: “[The fan] came into the building, and was uncomfortably close. And then when I finally got some security to help me, their response was, ‘Hey, I’ve come all the way,’ and named some town, some city that they came all the way from. That is crossing a big ol’ boundary. And just want to call that out. That’s a big no-no. That’s now messing with my safety. And it’s not right.”
She went on to express how sometimes actors don’t leave out through the stage doors so that they can preserve their energy and voice for the next upcoming show — and that means that they don’t interact with fans as much. McDonald also stressed that the decision to not do so is more personal and fans ought to leave them be if they’re trying to take a beat.
She later added, “Actors, as much as we would love to greet every single one of you after a show sometimes, we’re just exhausted and it’s hard…When you see an actor leave the stage door, if they don’t stop, leave them alone.”
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