NEW YORK – There are so many Hollywood stars on New York theater stages or on the way that you might want to level up your stargazing game. Why not play some bingo?
Sure, Robert Downey Jr., Daniel Dae Kim, Jim Parsons, Mia Farrow, and Katie Holmes are currently in New York, and George Clooney, Denzel Washington, Nick Jonas and Jake Gyllenhaal are on deck for spring.
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But if you really want to impress, why not connect the stars, like playing bingo with the stars of “Frasier”? Catch Bebe Neuwirth (who played chilly Lilith) now in “Cabaret” on Broadway; Dan Butler (who played Bulldog on the TV show) in 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 little TV stardust is enough to convince theatergoers to see Butler in the witty and deep recovery play “Another Shot” at The Romulus Linney Courtyard Theatre, the actor says he's game.
“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 cast dozens of Broadway, off-Broadway and international plays and musicals, knows many shows secure a bankable star to try 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, in which a deadpan Butler plays a radio DJ in recovery. “It’s sort of like Bulldog goes to rehab,” jokes the actor.
A wave of stars
Movie and TV celebrities have been part of Broadway's DNA for decades — one recent big 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 — but their presence this season is particularly striking.
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 playing Santa in “Elf the Musical.”
Stanczyk says it's not too surprising to see so much star wattage since many of the TV and movie stars have their roots in theater. Margulies studied stage, and that's also where Connor and Zegler got their starts. 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 reason “Frasier” Bingo is possible is because so many associated with the show are theater veterans, starting with James Burrows, the director who helped craft the “Cheers” spinoff. Burrows started in 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 recently cheered on by Pierce during a visit to “Another Shot” — said “Frasier” often had a stage feel. “It sort of felt like doing a short play in front of a live audience every time we filmed,” he said.
Other TV shows — like “Law & Order,” "The Good Wife," “The Gilded Age,” ”Crazy Ex-Girlfriend" and “Only Murders in the Building” — share that stage vibe since they also have leaned into casting from the theater.
So hot is New York that the stars 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 influx of Hollywood types 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 parts.
The lure of the stage
Louis McCartney, a rising screen star who will be bringing the play “Stranger Things: The First Shadow” from London to Broadway in spring 2025, didn't train as a stage animal, but he's 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 isn't your speed, there's always “Succession” Bingo: Jeremy Strong was on Broadway in a revival of “An Enemy of the People,” Kieran Culkin will be in a revival of “Glengarry Glen Ross” and Sarah Snook gets the stage all to herself as she plays all 26 parts in an adaptation of “The Picture of Dorian Gray” this spring. Or play a long game: With Clooney and Margulies, you can start on “ER” Bingo.
Stanczyk thinks Hollywood interest in the stage may be driven by the stars attempting to push themselves professionally and to capture that unique buzz that life theater can 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.”