Broadway star Josh Grisetti left the production of Legally Blonde: The Musical for “personal reasons” days before his suicide at the age of 44.
In his last Instagram post shared on Wednesday, Grisetti revealed that he had to step away from his directing job on the opening night of his show at Italy’s Trentino Music Festival.
Grisetti’s post included a photo of the cast holding up a statue of him on their phones and a video of them shouting “I love you, Josh!” on stage.
“When the cast and team go through something like this when I have to leave the production for personal reasons before the show’s release…🥹🥹😭,” Grisetti began the caption.
The actor said he “literally cried on the plane” when he was “heartbroken” and said the cast’s “little gestures” saved him.
“I love this group of misfits!!😍😍😍,” he wrote. “Happy opening day, Legally Blonde — @trentinomusicfestival!! I’m so proud of you all. Knock off your pink socks!!”
Grisetti’s friend and fellow Broadway star Rob McClure broke the tragic news of his death over the weekend.
McClure posted on Instagram, along with a photo of the two of them, “It is with a broken heart that we announce that the brilliant Josh Grisetti took his own life on Friday.”
McClure said he was “not even ready to try to understand” the tragedy and expressed support for Grisetti’s wife, Mackenzie, whom he married in February 2020.
“The community around the world will never be the same without him. We love Josh. Just a cataclysmic loss,” the “Good Fight” actor wrote.
At the end of his post, McClure said information about Grisetti’s memorial would be “in time.”
Grisetti was born in December 1981 in Washington, DC.
He made his Broadway debut in 2015 as Marty Kaufman in It Shoulda Been You, for which he won a Theater World Award and was nominated for a Drama Desk Award and an Outer Critics Circle Award.
Grisetti solidified his Broadway career with the role of Nigel Bottom in the hit musical “Something Rotten!”
On television, Grisetti was best known for playing Ralph Emerson in the final season of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel in 2023.
If you or someone you know is affected by any of the issues raised in this article, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-TALK (8255) or text the Crisis Text Line at 741741.
