\u201cToday was so magical,\u201d Tracee Ellis Ross said. \u201cI feel aflutter.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was a sweltering evening at Bar Pitti in Greenwich Village this month, and Ms. Ross had just finished her first onstage dress rehearsal for the play \u201cEvery Brilliant Thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the one-person, interactive Broadway show, a narrator compiles a list of delights \u2014 ice cream, hammocks, \u201ckind old people who aren\u2019t weird and don\u2019t smell unusual\u201d \u2014 to prove to her depressed mother that life is worth living.<\/p>\n
The show, which has been nominated for a Tony, is Ms. Ross\u2019s Broadway debut. She succeeded Mariska Hargitay and Daniel Radcliffe and is the final performer to lead the play at the Hudson Theater. Ms. Ross\u2019s first show was on Tuesday and the show is set to close August 9.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s so perfectly me,\u201d Ms. Ross, 53, said. \u201cIt\u2019s about something real and something important and told through the lens of sheer joy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Known for her leading roles in the television series \u201cGirlfriends\u201d and \u201cblack-ish,\u201d Ms. Ross said that it had been a dream of hers to be on Broadway. Instead of throwing a birthday party to celebrate turning 40, she rented stages in New York City and Los Angeles and invited her friends to watch her perform a one-woman show. She started by taking off her dress and standing in her bra and underwear.<\/p>\n
\u201cI haven\u2019t been trying to do Broadway,\u201d she said. \u201cMy goal is to do great things and to do material that makes my heart light up.\u201d<\/p>\n
To perform in \u201cEvery Brilliant Thing,\u201d Ms. Ross rented an apartment in Lower Manhattan for three months. She has lived in Los Angeles since 1999, but considers herself a New Yorker.<\/p>\n
As a child, Ms. Ross was enrolled by her mother, Diana Ross, at the Dalton School on the Upper East Side for eight years and at Riverdale Country School in the Bronx for three years. After graduating from Brown University, Ms. Ross worked in Manhattan as a fashion editor at Mirabella and New York Magazine.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen I jumped off the cliff and became an actor,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The executive editor of television at Variety, Michael Schneider, said that if Ms. Ross\u2019s only acting credit was \u201cGirlfriends,\u201d it would be enough to cement her status in Hollywood. \u201cBut then came \u2018black-ish,\u2019 which made her one of TV\u2019s top actresses and led to so many more opportunities, from hosting a night at the Democratic National Convention to now her new stint on Broadway,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
On her way into Bar Pitti, Ms. Ross ran into the owner Giovanni Tognozzi and gave him a hug.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat makes me so happy that he is here,\u201d Ms. Ross said. \u201cI used to come here three times a week with my best friend Samira. It was our kitchen, and for my 23rd birthday I took over the whole place.\u201d<\/p>\n
Samira is Samira Nasr, the editor in chief of Harper\u2019s Bazaar. Ms. Ross and Ms. Nasr are still close friends.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I first got here, my friends had a dinner, and I thought I was having dinner for Samira because she had just had a birthday,\u201d she said. \u201cThey were like: \u2018No, Tracee. This is your welcome back dinner.\u2019 I said, guys. I\u2019m not here. I\u2019m only here until September.\u201d<\/p>\n
To adjust to her new dwelling, Ms. Ross recreated the aspects of home life that are most important to her.<\/p>\n
One of those things is laundry.<\/p>\n