Audra McDonald says fan followed her home, demanded autograph after ‘Gypsy’

Some people.

Audra McDonald, 55, has revealed that a fan allegedly followed her home from the Majestic Theatre and demanded an autograph after one of her last “Gypsy” performances.

The singer and actress, who took her final bow in the hit Broadway play Sunday night, detailed the startling encounter in a lengthy Instagram video one day before her last show.

McDonald said that the determined theatergoer “snuck around and found” where she exited the venue and trailed her “all the way” to where she was staying.

She added that the fan “came into the building, and was uncomfortably close” and “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,” McDonald said. “That’s a big no-no. That’s now messing with my safety. And it’s not right.”

McDonald used the scary encounter to share a lesson about theater etiquette and to clarify that while some Broadway actors greet fans outside after a performance, others do not.

“There are a lot of reasons that performers don’t do the stage door,” the Tony winner explained. “There have been shows that I’ve done it and shows where I haven’t done it.”

“When you see an actor leave the stage door, if they don’t stop, leave them alone,” she added. “There is a reason that they’re not stopping, and it has nothing to do with you.”

Meanwhile, McDonald returned to Instagram on Monday to “say goodbye” to Mama Rose, whom she portrayed in “Gypsy” for an outstanding 28 previews and 261 regular performances.

The “Gilded Age” star, who first took on the role in 2024, became the first black actress to ever play Mama Rose on Broadway. It also earned her a 2025 Tony nomination for Best Actress in a Musical.

“I couldn’t have wished for a more brilliant, fierce, joyous, kind and loving group of souls with which to travel this road,” McDonald wrote after the show’s last performance. “I don’t even have the words to express how much I love them all.”

“My head is full of gorgeous memories, my body is tired, and my heart is full of nothing but gratitude and love,” she concluded.

Before McDonald’s final “Gypsy” performance, and before her startling encounter with a fan, the “Beauty and the Beast” star was targeted by fellow Broadway stalwart Patti LuPone.

Lupone, 76, had bashed both McDonald and Kecia Lewis in a scathing sit-down with The New Yorker in May.

After the “Agatha All Along” actress said that McDonald was “not a friend,” she called Lewis, 59, a “bitch” who “doesn’t know what the f–k she’s talking about.”

McDonald addressed LuPone’s vicious remarks during an interview with Gayle King on “CBS Mornings,” and she said that she was “surprised” by her colleague’s comments.

“I mean, if there’s a rift between us, I don’t know what it is,” McDonald said at the time. “That’s something you’d have to ask Patti about.”

“I haven’t seen her in about 11 years because I’ve been busy with life and stuff,” she added. “So, I don’t know what rift she’s talking about. You’d have to ask her.”

More than 500 Broadway artists then signed an open letter condemning LuPone over her comments against McDonald and Lewis.