A rite of passage! Filming a movie or TV show is one thing, but taking the Broadway stage is quite another — no reshoots, no edits and a live audience.
Michelle Williams, who played Sally Bowles in a 2014 revival of Cabaret, caught the musical bug after playing Marilyn Monroe in the movie My Week With Marilyn.
“It wasn’t that I felt like I had a natural gift,” she told The New York Times in March 2014. “What I liked is that you can’t be in your head. You can’t sing and dance and think at the same time, and so there’s a joy to it. I don’t have enough joy in my life. Who does? And whenever I can get more of it, that’s where I want to go. I want more of that feeling.”
After making a name for himself in the Lord of the Rings and Pirates of the Caribbean franchises, Orlando Bloom made his Broadway debut in a 2013 production of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Despite his many achievements, the U.K. native said he still learned a lot while doing the play.
“That community of Broadway is a wonderful thing, and I hadn’t been prepared for it until I became a part of it,” he told CNN in 2013. “They really support one another, they feel like they are there for one another. The different houses, the different productions and actors see each other for drinks afterwards and it’s a hangout, and it’s not pretentious or uptight in any way. It’s a very accessible world and real and people know what they are doing.”
By the time Tom Hanks made his Broadway debut he had already won two Oscars, but he was still slightly worried about the audience’s reaction to his stage performance in the Nora Ephron play Lucky Guy.
“I’m not afraid of the end result because I think we’ll have a very good production,” he told The New York Times in 2013. “But I am afraid of blowing it myself. I’m afraid of having something being my responsibility, yet not having the wherewithal or lack of self-consciousness or stamina to pull it off. Look, I have just as impressive a track record of movies and projects that didn’t work out.”
Unsurprisingly, he didn’t blow it, and in fact received a Tony nomination for Best Actor in a Play. He lost to Tracy Letts, but he did win a Theatre World Award, which recognizes actors for debut performances on Broadway.
Keep scrolling for a look back at more stars who’ve appeared on Broadway:
The Glee alum, who last appeared on the Great White Way in the 2013 production of Annie, will star alongside Beanie Feldstein in the spring 2022 revival of Funny Girl. Lynch is set to play Mrs. Rosie Brice, the supportive mother of Feldstein’s Fanny.
“The first music I ever learned in my life was from Funny Girl. My mother was a huge fan of musicals and especially this one — we bonded on this musical,” the Marvelous Mrs. Maisel alum told The Hollywood Reporter in October 2021. “I knew every breath of the Broadway cast album before I was like 10 years old. I sang it all over the house. We were big fans of it.”
Soul Brother/Shutterstock
The Sugarland singer is set to take over for Sara Bareilles as the lead character, Jenna Hunterson, in Waitress from October to November 2021.
Evan Agostini/Invision/AP/Shutterstock
The Booksmart actress is set to star in a 2022 revival of Funny Girl — the first since the musical's original run closed in 1967.
Matt Baron/Shutterstock
The Supergirl actress made her Broadway debut in 2018 as Carole King in Beautiful: The Carole King Musical for a limited run.
Randy Holmes/Getty Images
The Scarface actor won his second Tony for his performance in The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel in the 1970s. He headed back to Broadway in 2010 for a production of Shakepeare's The Merchant of Venice.
Afro American Newspapers/Gado/Getty Images
The Scottish actor won a Tony for his performance in Cabaret in 1998. In 2014, the actor reprised his role as the Emcee in the Roundabout Theatre's production.
Heather Wines/CBS via Getty Images
The Breaking Bad actor hit the stage and made his Broadway debut in 2014 in All the Way, where he earned a Tony for his portrayal of President Lyndon B. Johnson.
Walter McBride/WireImage
The "Call Me Maybe" singer took the stage in February 2014 as Cinderella, alongside cast member Fran Drescher.
Bruce Glikas/FilmMagic
The Harry Potter actor made headlines when he appeared nude on stage in 2007 in Equus. The star went on to appear in the 2011 revival of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.
CHRIS YOUNG/AFP/Getty Images
The Remember the Titans actor has appeared in numerous plays, including Fences, for which he won a Tony in 2010. In 2014, Washington played the lead role in A Raisin in the Sun.
Walter McBride/WireImage
Drescher made her Broadway debut in Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella in February 2014 as Cinderella's stepmother.
Rommel Demano/Getty Images
The Oscar winner has made a name for himself on stage as well, including when he won a Tony for his debut Broadway role in The Boy From Oz in 2004.
John Stanton/WireImage
Menzel and Chenoweth lit up the stage in Wicked. Menzel won a Tony for her portrayal of Elphaba in 2004. Chenoweth, who won a Tony for her work in You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown, was nominated for another for her portrayal of Glinda.
Richard Corkery/NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images
O’Dowd, Meester and Franco starred alongside each other in the 2014 Broadway production of the 1937 novella.
Bruce Glikas/FilmMagic
The actor appeared nude on stage in 1995 during a production of Indiscretions.
Catherine McGann/Getty Images
Stiles and Eckhart portrayed Carol and John in David Mamet’s Oleanna in 2004.
Photoshot/Getty Images
The Dawson's Creek alum once told Vogue that she enjoys doing live theater because “it’s exciting because there’s no close-up, so a person has to use every inch of themselves. ... It’s just another opportunity to keep growing."
Jim Spellman/WireImage
Palmer became the first Black Cinderella on Broadway in 2014 in Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella.
Jenny Anderson/WireImage
The Glee actress got her start in show business in Broadway productions like Les Misérables, Ragtime and Fiddler on the Roof. In 2006, she returned to the stage in Spring Awakening and received a Drama Desk Award nomination for her portrayal of Wendla.
Stephen Lovekin/WireImage for PMK / HBH
Tomei and Hall starred alongside one another in 2014 in The Realistic Joneses, a play about next-door neighbors.
Astrid Stawiarz/Getty Images
Broderick became the youngest actor ever to receive the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play with his performance in 1983’s Brighton Beach Memoirs.
Walter McBride/Getty Images
Williams made her Broadway debut alongside Alan Cumming in the revival of Cabaret in 2014.
Walter McBride/WireImage
The talented How I Met Your Mother actor won a Tony in 2014 for his portrayal of the titular character in Hedwig and the Angry Inch.
Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Tony Awards Productions
The former Disney star made his Broadway return in 2012 in the famed play How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.
Craig Barritt/Getty Images
The Pirates of the Caribbean hunk made his Broadway debut as Romeo in a 2014 production of Romeo and Juliet. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the actor expressed how exhausting live theater is. "I slept like the dead," he admitted.
AP Photo/The Hartman Group
In 2012, Garfield starred alongside the late Hoffman in a revival of Arthur Miller’s 1949 play.
Mike Coppola/Getty Images
The real-life couple starred in Harold Pinter's Betrayal, a play about a love triangle and the pain of loss.
AP Photo/Boneau Bryan Brown
The Marvel star ditched her Black Widow getup for 2013's production of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.
Theo Wargo/WireImage
The former View co-host took her first stab at theater with her portrayal of the evil stepmother in Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella in 2014.
Jenny Anderson/WireImage
Lucky Guy, a play depicting the story of journalist Mike McAlary, served as Hanks' Broadway debut in 2013 and Nora Ephron's final work following her death.
AP Photo/Boneau/Bryan-Brown
The former Miss America winner and Ugly Betty actress has taken to the stage many times, most recently in 2014's After Midnight. The actress was nominated for a Tony award for her role in Into the Woods.
Walter McBride/WireImage
The comedian made his Broadway debut with his self-written play You're Welcome America: A Final Night with George W. Bush, in which he roasted the former president. The play broke ticket sales records and was broadcast live on HBO.
Bryan Bedder/Getty Images
Woody Allen's Bullets Over Broadway served as Braff's first Broadway role in 2014. The Garden State actor previously hit the stage in off-Broadway plays including Trust.
Walter McBride/Getty Images
0 Comments