Broadway superstar Audra McDonald shared a chilling story about an autograph seeker who gave her bad vibes during an encounter Friday, advising the public to respect the boundaries of performers they spot in public.
The six-time Tony Award-winning stage star detailed the uncomfortable encounter in an Instagram post Saturday, as she wraps up her latest successful Broadway musical run in Gypsy, for director George C. Wolfe.
McDonald, 55, explained that performers have different reasons for not leaving the theater through the stage door, where fans and autograph seekers traditionally wait after a show.
The Broadway staple said that she has not been using the stage door to exit the Majestic Theatre during Gypsy’s run, citing ‘a myriad of reasons’ centered around protecting her health and conserving her energy.
She said on Friday, one fan determined to get her to sign an item breached boundaries and rattled her, making her fear for her safety at one point.
‘Someone … snuck around and found me the way I had exited from the theater … and followed me all the way to where I was staying, came into the building – and was uncomfortably close,’ McDonald said.
Broadway superstar Audra McDonald, 55, shared a chilling story about an autograph seeker who gave her bad vibes during an encounter Friday
McDonald added of the autograph seeker: ‘I don’t even know if they did the stage door or not, but they snuck around and found me.’
The two-time Grammy winner said the autograph seeker made clear they felt entitled to her signature, since they had visited New York City from a far-flung locale just to watch her take the stage.
‘When I finally got some security to help me, [the autograph seeker’s] response was, “Well, hey, I’ve come all the way” – and they named some town, some city that they’ve come all the way from … and tell me that they deserve an autograph.’
McDonald said that the fan was ‘crossing a big boundary’ by following her off the premises and demanding she sign something for them.
‘I just want to call that out – that’s a big no-no, that’s now messing with my safety – and it’s not right,’ the Berlin, Germany-born entertainer said.
McDonald advised her 295,000-plus followers on the platform: ‘When you see an actor leave the stage door, if they don’t stop, leave it alone – there is a reason that they’re not stopping, and it has nothing to do with you.
‘It’s them protecting their space and peace, whatever that may be.’
McDonald said that if the performers ‘do stop – a wave, or take a picture with you or sign an autograph, great – but please respect the proper boundaries.’
The star said the autograph seeker ‘was uncomfortably close’ to her at one point
The two-time Grammy winner said the autograph seeker made clear they felt entitled to her signature since they had visited NYC from a far-flung locale just to watch her take the stage
McDonald’s friend and fellow Tony-winner, Kecia Lewis, added a supportive comment explaining what performers go through.
‘I hope people watch it and understand that after 2.5 hours of stage time, and an hour or more of prep before performing, and giving 200% of your whole body, soul and spirit to an audience, to then feel that you DESERVE more, is the devil’s work,’ Lewis said.
McDonald is the latest star involved in an awkward exchange with autograph seekers, some of whom sell the signed items for lucrative sums on eBay and other platforms, as confrontations caught on camera have involved actors, musicians and athletes.
McDonald is the first Black woman to play the vaunted role of Mama Rose on Broadway.
She told CBS earlier this summer about what type of interpretive wisdom she brought into the high-profile part, as the script was not altered a single word.
Wolfe ‘talks a lot about Rose’s obsession with the kids becoming stars is because being a star protects you in some way,’ McDonald said. ‘You got star money, you could eat. You got star money, maybe you won’t be lynched.
‘And so she as a single woman at this time, abandoned three times by her husbands, abandoned by her mother, not really treated all that well by her father, she’s trying to protect these babies.’
McDonald’s friend and fellow Tony-winner, Kecia Lewis, added a supportive comment explaining what performers go through
McDonald is the first Black woman to play the vaunted role of Mama Rose on Broadway. Pictured in December
The Broadway staple said that she has not been using the stage door to exit the Majestic Theatre during Gypsy’s run, citing ‘a myriad of reasons’ centered around protecting her health and conserving her energy
McDonald was in the headlines earlier this year after her colleague Patti LuPone publicly apologized to her after a series of controversial comments aimed at her and Lewis.
‘For as long as I have worked in the theatre, I have spoken my mind and never apologized,’ LuPone, 76, said in a statement in May. ‘That is changing today.
LuPone added, ‘I am deeply sorry for the words I used during The New Yorker interview, particularly about Kecia Lewis, which were demeaning and disrespectful.’
She continued, ‘I regret my flippant and emotional responses during this interview, which were inappropriate, and I am devastated that my behavior has offended others and has run counter to what we hold dear in this community.
‘I hope to have the chance to speak to Audra and Kecia personally to offer my sincere apologies.
McDonald was in the headlines earlier this year after her colleague Patti LuPone had to publicly apologize to her after a series of controversial comments aimed at her and fellow Tony-winner Kecia Lewis. Pictured April 27 in NYC
LuPone declared a interview with the New Yorker published Monday published Monday that fellow Broadway legend Audra McDonald is ‘not a friend.’ Pictured in 2011 in NYC
Audra McDonald and LuPone pictured during rehearsal of Mahagonny at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in LA on January 30, 2007
‘When I asked what she had thought of McDonald’s current production of Gypsy,’ the publication’s Michael Schulman wrote LuPone ‘stared at me, in silence, for fifteen seconds.
‘Then she turned to the window and sighed, “What a beautiful day.”‘
LuPone also questioned the experience of Lewis, six months after Tony-award winning actress called her out for remarks she found ‘offensive,’ also asking for an apology.
Lewis addressed LuPone in an open letter she posted to Instagram last fall.
LuPone told the magazine in reaction: ‘Oh, my God. Here’s the problem. She calls herself a veteran? Let’s find out how many Broadway shows Kecia Lewis has done, because she doesn’t know what the f*** she’s talking about.’
LuPone added, ‘She’s done seven. I’ve done thirty-one. Don’t call yourself a vet, b****.’ (The publication noted that Lewis has done 10 and LuPone 28.)
