"You need to figure out how you're going to do this," the six-time Tony winner recalls the late actor telling her Bruce Glikas/Getty; Unique Nicole/Getty is giving her late friend, . for inspiring . During an interview with , the six-time Tony winner, 54, revealed that Creel once told her that she needed to play Mama Rose in .
Now, the actress is set to portray the bossy stage mother in the forthcoming Broadway revival, which begins previews on Thursday, Nov. 21 at the Majestic Theatre in New York City ahead of its official opening on Thursday, Dec. 19.
In a preview of her conversation with host Paul Wontorek posted to on Monday, Oct. 28, McDonald revealed that she and husband — who costarred with Creel in the 2009 Broadway revival of — "had a Thanksgiving dinner about eight years ago." And one of the guests was Creel.
"We spent a lot of Thanksgivings together," she recalled. "He's a very close family member to us." Bruce Glikas/FilmMagic Related: McDonald continued by saying that "[Creel] dragged me into my garage after we had eaten, and he goes, ‘Hey, I want to talk to you about something.
You need to play Rose in . You need to do it. You need to do it.
It's just right. It should be a Black woman and honey, you need to do it.' " She said Creel insisted that she needed to take on the famed role that was previously portrayed by theater icons, such as Patti LuPone, Ethel Merman, and .
"You need to figure out how you're going to do this. You have to absolutely do this," s.
