Audra McDonald took her final bow in Broadway’s acclaimed revival of Gypsy on Sunday, Aug. 17 — but not before an unsettling fan encounter that left her fearing for her safety.

The six-time Tony Award winner detailed her experience in a video shared to her Instagram page on Saturday, Aug. 16, explaining that the night before, a theatergoer “snuck around and found” where she exited the building and followed her “all the way” to the place she was staying, demanding an autograph.

According to McDonald, the fan “came into the building, and was uncomfortably close. And then 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,” McDonald, 55, said. “And just want to call that out. That’s a big no-no. That’s now messing with my safety. And it’s not right.”

McDonald recounted the experience to illustrate a theater etiquette lesson, explaining in her “quick little PSA” that there are reasons why some actors greet fans outside a stage door following a performance, and others don’t.

“There’s a lot of reasons that performers don’t do the stage door,” The Gilded Age actress explained. “There have been shows that I’ve done it and shows where I haven’t done it.”

“Actors, as much as we would love to greet every single one of you after a show sometimes, we’re just exhausted and it’s hard,” she said. “Some people get anxiety about doing the stage door. Some people are in a rush to catch the train so they can get home. Some people avoid the stage door because of health reasons. And that’s perfectly fair.”

Though McDonald — over her three decades on the boards — has spent her fair share of time at the stage door in the past, she said that she chose not to during her months in Gypsy for “a myriad of reasons.”

“The main ones have been because of health and exhaustion and vocal health and trying to conserve what little vocal energy I have so I can get through the next show and the next show and the next show,” she said. “When I can, I’ll walk out and wave. And also I’ve got a kid that I’m trying to get home to.”

“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.”

At least two fans had a very different experience with McDonald on Sunday, Aug. 17: Oprah Winfrey and Gayle King.

The longtime pals were in the audience for McDonald’s final performance, greeting the actress onstage afterwards with hugs and words of affirmation.

“It felt so different tonight,” King, 70, told McDonald, in a video shared to the CBS Mornings host’s Instagram. “From the moment you walked out, you felt it too, right? Oprah said, ‘She’s on fire!’ “

” ‘Cause I knew that I didn’t have to do it again so I let it all go,” McDonald admitted.

Asked what she’s going to do next, the actress gave a swift answer. “Lie down!” she said, laughing. “I’m going to lie down. I’m going to lie down. I don’t know what I’m going to do.”