There are so many Hollywood stars on New York theater phases or on the best way that you simply may need to degree up your stargazing sport. Why not play some bingo?
Sure, Robert Downey Jr., Daniel Dae Kim, Jim Parsons, Mia Farrow, and Katie Holmes are at present in New York, and George Clooney, Denzel Washington, Nick Jonas and Jake Gyllenhaal are on deck for spring.
But in the event you actually need to impress, why not join the celebrities, like enjoying bingo with the celebrities of “Frasier”? Catch Bebe Neuwirth (who performed chilly Lilith) now in “Cabaret” on Broadway; Dan Butler (who performed Bulldog on the TV present) within the off-Broadway play “Another Shot;” and then in a few months, see David Hyde Pierce (who played Niles) in “The Pirates of Penzance.”
If a bit of TV stardust is sufficient to persuade theatergoers to see Butler within the witty and deep restoration play “Another Shot” at The Romulus Linney Courtyard Theatre, the actor says he is sport.
“I love that it would bring people there, and you would just hope that they get bitten by that thing theater can do that no other medium can do,” he says. “Hopefully, it brings you in the doors again.”
Laura Stanczyk, a veteran casting director and producer who has solid dozens of Broadway, off-Broadway and worldwide performs and musicals, is aware of many exhibits safe a bankable star to attempt to stand out.
“When you have actors like Robert Downey Jr. who are finally showing up and participating in the New York theater scene, it becomes even more important to have someone who has some kind of notoriety,” she says.
She is producing the play that Butler is starring in by Spike Manton and Harry Teinowitz, during which a deadpan Butler performs a radio DJ in restoration. “It’s sort of like Bulldog goes to rehab,” jokes the actor.
Movie and TV celebrities have been a part of Broadway’s DNA for many years — one current massive wave was in 2010 with the arrival of Robin Williams, Chris Rock, Kiefer Sutherland, Daniel Radcliffe, Pee-wee Herman, Vanessa Redgrave, Ben Stiller and Edie Falco — however their presence this season is especially placing.
Kit Connor and Rachel Zegler are starring in “Romeo & Juliet,” Nicole Scherzinger has “Sunset Boulevard,” Peter Gallagher and Julianna Margulies are in “Left on Tenth” and Sean Astin is enjoying Santa in “Elf the Musical.”
Stanczyk says it is not too stunning to see a lot star wattage since most of the TV and film stars have their roots in theater. Margulies studied stage, and that is additionally the place Connor and Zegler acquired their begins. Scherzinger studied musical theater at Wright State University.
“People forget that these great actors got a lot of their start in theater,” she says. “I do think some directors gravitate towards that because they know those folks — it’s in their bones and there’s a common language.”
The motive “Frasier” Bingo is feasible is as a result of so many related to the present are theater veterans, beginning with James Burrows, the director who helped craft the “Cheers” spinoff. Burrows began within the theater and is the son of the legendary playwright and director Abe Burrows, behind “Guys and Dolls” and “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.”
Butler — who was just lately cheered on by Pierce throughout a go to to “Another Shot” — stated “Frasier” typically had a stage really feel. “It sort of felt like doing a short play in front of a live audience every time we filmed,” he stated.
Other TV exhibits — like “Law & Order,” “The Good Wife,” “The Gilded Age,” ”Crazy Ex-Girlfriend” and “Only Murders in the Building” — share that stage vibe since in addition they have leaned into casting from the theater.
So scorching is New York that the celebrities are even coming off-Broadway, like Adam Driver in “Hold On to Me Darling,” Marisa Tomei in “Babe,” Kenneth Branagh in “King Lear,” T.R. Knight in “The Merchant of Venice” and Christian Slater and Calista Flockhart in “Curse of the Starving Class.”
The inflow of Hollywood varieties aren’t squeezing out Broadway stars: Audra McDonald, Sutton Foster, Jonathan Groff, Patti LuPone, Megan Hilty, Jennifer Simard, Adrienne Warren and Darren Criss have all booked components.
Louis McCartney, a rising display star who shall be bringing the play “Stranger Things: The First Shadow” from London to Broadway in spring 2025, did not practice as a stage animal, however he is mesmerized.
“It’s sort of this back and forth where you give yourself up,” he says. “You give your soul every single night. And I think that’s beautiful.”
If “Frasier” Bingo is not your velocity, there’s all the time “Succession” Bingo: Jeremy Strong was on Broadway in a revival of “An Enemy of the People,” Kieran Culkin shall be in a revival of “Glengarry Glen Ross” and Sarah Snook will get the stage all to herself as she performs all 26 components in an adaptation of “The Picture of Dorian Gray” this spring. Or play an extended sport: With Clooney and Margulies, you can begin on “ER” Bingo.
Stanczyk thinks Hollywood curiosity within the stage could also be pushed by the celebrities making an attempt to push themselves professionally and to seize that distinctive buzz that life theater may give.
“Every night you’re in the theater that thing that happens hasn’t happened before. It’s a unique exchange of energy,” she says. “There’s nothing else like it in the world.”
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