Tracee Ellis Ross Says Taking on EVERY BRILLIANT THING ‘Felt Like Swallowing A Whale’

Tracee Ellis Ross sat down with TODAY to discuss her Broadway debut in the Tony Award-nominated solo play EVERY BRILLIANT THING.

Ross told the hosts that she got midway through the script for EVERY BRILLIANT THING before giving an immediate yes to her management. However, taking on the solo show began to intimidate her.

“I got scared. I’m good with scared but it felt like swallowing a whale at first. It’s a fourty page story. It’s just me on stage. It’s a solo show but it’s interactive with the audience. I was like ‘What have I signed up for?’ I had three weeks of rehearsal, I got to rehearsal off-book which was really helpful … I just kind of dove in.”

She then went on to describe the show’s unique and unpredictable format, with audience members playing key roles in the show.

“Even rehearsing it, you don’t know what it’s going to be until they bring an audience in. We cast in the pre-show, I’m in the audience when we open the doors and I cast with the associate directors, we cast the five roles that we need to help tell the story.”

A six-time Emmy Award nominee and Golden Globe winner, Ross is best known to television audiences for her work on BLACK-ISH. She began performances in EVERY BRILLIANT THING on July 7, 2026, taking over the role from Mariska Hargitay for the production’s final five-week extension at the Hudson Theatre, running through August 9, 2026. The interactive solo play follows a central character who looks back on life through a list of everything that makes it worth living.