Hollywood actors are bringing star power –– and box office returns –– to the Broadway stage, but it could have major ripple effects for the kinds of plays and actors that go on stage.
George Clooney is taking to the stage for “Good Night, and Good Luck.” Robert Downey Jr. is pondering the ethics of AI in “McNeal.” Keanu Reeves will make his Broadway debut in “Waiting for Godot.”
These days Broadway looks a lot more like Hollywood –– and it’s bringing in Hollywood box office numbers as a result. Denzel Washington and Jake Gyllenhaal’s “Othello” has shattered Broadway records, raking in $2.8 million in one week and raising ticket prices in excess of $900 for some seats.
Bringing Hollywood star power to the stage might be good for Broadway coffers, but is that good for theater itself?
Antonio Ocampo-Guzman, chair of Northeastern University’s theater department, isn’t so sure.
The hope with these star-powered plays is not only that they’ll be profitable but that they’ll potentially convert new audiences into avid theater lovers. While “Othello” might be a blockbuster, “something like people paying $900 to see ‘Othello,’ even with Denzel Washington, I don’t know that that’s going to amplify the number of people who are going to come to the theater,” Ocampo-Guzman says.
Movie stars have been appearing on Broadway for decades. “Othello” is either bringing in people who are more interested in the actors than the play or those who have already seen Shakespeare, says Ocampo-Guzman.
However, an infusion of Hollywood glamor is bringing some positive change. For years, non-musicals were a tough sell outside of the dedicated theater audience. Now, producers realize that plays that run for a shorter amount of time with a movie star on the marquee can bring in a wider audience, making them even more profitable than the expensive long-running musicals that have historically sustained Broadway, the New York Times reports.
But that idea only applies if there is a big name attached to a production. The latest surge of Hollywood talent only highlights how risk-averse Broadway has become.
“Much like in film, much like anything right now, investors are not going to invest in something that is not a sure thing,” says Dennis Staroselsky, an assistant teaching professor of theater at Northeastern and an actor with credits on stage and on screen. “These stars, for better or worse, are going to get the audiences to show up.”
For the actors who are involved in these productions, it can “give them exposure that they normally wouldn’t get,” Staroselsky adds. But for the many other working actors, it limits opportunity, as producers start to see any project without that level of star power as inherently risky.
Having a big star has always been necessary for Broadway shows on some level, but that used to include actors with theater bonafides, not movie stars and influencers.
“We’re just five or 10 years removed from when Mark Rylance, who is not a household name, could lead a play like ‘La Bete,’ which was completely done in rhyming couplets, with David Hyde Pierce and Joanna Lumley and it would be a perfect hit on Broadway,” Staroselsky says.
That shift goes beyond Broadway, which has always been driven by star power. Staroselsky recalls appearing in an Off-Broadway production of “An Early History of Fire,” which was written by Tony-winning playwright David Rabe and starred a cast of relative unknowns. Despite positive reviews, it flopped and by the end of its run couldn’t fill seats.
“The artistic director said, ‘That’s the last time I do something without a name in it,’” Staroselsky says.
For working actors like Staroselsky, the ripples caused by dropping Gyllenhaal onto the stage are huge and made worse by the lingering impact of the actors’ strike.
“Once the strike was over … the top 1% go back to their things, and they’re not worried about anything,” Staroselsky says. “Then we kind of trickle it down, and people who would normally already be on a show, because the amount of production has dried up, they’re now being offered the parts that I would normally audition for. Then we trickle it down, trickle it down, trickle it down.”
How far-reaching these impacts are on the theater world has yet to be seen. It’s unclear if this is just a momentary shift or a true evolution of what, and who, theatergoers can expect to see on the stage.
“Anything we can do to show success and to show the relevance, even if it’s just the relevance of the creative industries propelling the economy of New York City forward, all of that is good news in this current day and age,” Ocampo-Guzman says.