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Updated on: May 15, 2024
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.
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:
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Stars on Broadway! Celebrities Who’ve Taken the Stage
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. 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:
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Darren Criss, ‘Maybe Happy Ending’
After taking over lead roles in How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying and Hedwig and the Angry Inch, the Emmy winner will finally originate a role in a Broadway musical in fall 2024. He and Helen Shaw are set to lead the musical rom-com Maybe Happy Ending.
“Taking a dive into the future with MAYBE HAPPY ENDING, a new musical coming to Broadway this fall, by way of my ol’ pal [Michael Arden],” Criss shared via Instagram in May 2024. “Wonderful story, wonderful score, and wonderfully original.”
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Maia Reffico, ‘Hadestown’
The Pretty Little Liars: Summer School star will make her Broadway debut in Hadestown as Eurydice in July 2024.
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Nicole Scherzinger
The Pussycat Dolls alum will make her Broadway debut in the 2024 revival of Sunset Boulevard, portraying leading lady Norma Desmond. Scherzinger is currently playing the role in London’s West End.
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Sarah Paulson and Elle Fanning, ‘Appropriate’
Paulson and Fanning shared the stage in Broadway’s Appropriate, a play written by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, which premiered in December 2023. The show, which was Fanning’s Broadway debut, follows a dysfunctional family who returns to Arkansas to battle over the inheritance left by their late patriarch.
Credit: Joe Scarnici/FilmMagic
Grant Gustin, ‘Water for Elephants’
The Flash alum made his Broadway debut in the Water for Elephants musical based on the best-selling novel by Sara Gruen. Gustin portrayed Jacob Jankowski, a role previously played by Robert Pattinson in the book’s 2011 film adaptation.
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Eddie Redmayne, ‘Cabaret’
The Oscar winner announced his plans in October 2023 to star as the Emcee in the upcoming Broadway revival of Cabaret. Redmayne previously won a Tony for his role in the play Red. He scored another Tony nomination within weeks of Cabaret opening in spring 2024.
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Jordan Fisher, ‘Hadestown’
The actor announced in October 2023 that he will return to the Great White Way in Hadestown starting in November 2023. He previously appeared in Sweeney Todd, Dear Evan Hansen and Hamilton.
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Daniel Radcliffe, ‘Merrily We Roll Along’
The Harry Potter star helped bring the highly anticipated revival of Merrily We Roll Along to Broadway in fall 2023. He made his Broadway debut in the 2008 play Equus and then showed off his musical chops for the first time in 2011’s How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. Radcliffe also starred in 2014’s The Cripple of Inishmaan and 2018’s The Lifespan of a Fact.
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Casey Cott, ‘Moulin Rouge!’
The CW actor will join Moulin Rouge! on Broadway for a limited engagement from August 1, 2023, to December 3, 2023.
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JoJo, ‘Moulin Rouge!’
The “Too Little, Too Late” singer’s Broadway debut was announced in February 2023. Beginning that April, the Aquamarine actress will play the role of Satine in Moulin Rouge for a 14-week limited engagement. She will star opposite returning cast member Derek Klena as Christian.
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Gaten Matarazzo, ‘Dear Evan Hansen’
Before returning to Hawkins for the final season of Stranger Things, Matarazzo will head to the Great White Way to star in Dear Evan Hansen as the lead character’s friend, Jared Kleinman beginning July 19, 2022. “Words could never express how truly honored I am to be a part of this company,” he said in a statement to Deadline. “This show has taught me so much about myself and to be able to participate in any capacity, let alone on Broadway, makes me want to melt. I am ecstatic to be back on stage and eternally grateful for the opportunity.” Matarazzo has previously appeared in 2011′s Priscilla Queen of the Desert and in 2014′s Les Misérables.
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Pamela Anderson, ‘Chicago’
The Baywatch alum made her Broadway debut in April 2022 as Roxie Hart in Chicago. “I just threw myself into rehearsals,” she told CNN ahead of her first show. “And it was six, seven, maybe eight hours a day. I was doing four hours of dance, one hour voice, two hours of acting … And it’s incredible because I didn’t realize — obviously, your voice, it’s a muscle, and so every day my voice is getting stronger and stronger to the point where I’m just looking behind me going, ‘Who’s singing like that?'”
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Julianne Hough, ‘POTUS: Or, Behind Every Great Dumba– are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive’
The former Dancing With the Stars pro will make her Broadway debut alongside Lilli Cooper, Lea DeLaria, Rachel Dratch, Suzy Nakamura, Julie White and Vanessa Williams. The play, written by Selina Fillinger, premieres in April 2022.
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Tina Fey, ‘Freestyle Love Supreme’
“We’ve got the queen of comedy, Tina Fey, coming to play with us on December 16th,” the official Twitter account for Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Freestyle Love Supreme wrote in December 2021 days before she joined the improv cast on the Great White Way stage.
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Greg Kinnear, ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’
The Oscar nominee is set to make his Broadway debut in Aaron Sorkin’s adaptation of To Kill a Mockingbird, taking over the role of Atticus Finch from Jeff Daniels in January 2022.
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Noah Reid, ‘The Minutes’
The Schitt’s Creek star is set to replace Armie Hammer in The Minutes, which will be coming to Broadway in April 2022. The Call Me by Your Name actor originally dropped out following allegations of sexual harassment allegations, which he denied.
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Jane Lynch, ‘Funny Girl’
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.”
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Jennifer Nettles, ‘Waitress’
The Sugarland singer is set to take over for Sara Bareilles as the lead character, Jenna Hunterson, in Waitress from October to November 2021.
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Beanie Feldstein, ‘Funny Girl’
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.
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Melissa Benoist, ‘Beautiful’
The Supergirl actress made her Broadway debut in 2018 as Carole King in Beautiful: The Carole King Musical for a limited run.
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Al Pacino, ‘The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel’
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.
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Alan Cumming, ‘Cabaret’
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.
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Bryan Cranston, ‘All the Way’
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.
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Carly Rae Jepsen, ‘Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella’
The “Call Me Maybe” singer took the stage in February 2014 as Cinderella, alongside cast member Fran Drescher.
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Daniel Radcliffe, ‘Equus’
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.
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Denzel Washington, ‘A Raisin in the Sun’
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.
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Fran Drescher, ‘Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella’
Drescher made her Broadway debut in Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella in February 2014 as Cinderella’s stepmother.
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Hugh Jackman, ’The Boy From Oz,’ ‘The Music Man’
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. In February 2022, the X-Men star once again graced the Great White Way, starring opposite Sutton Foster in The Music Man.
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Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth, ‘Wicked’
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.
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Chris O’Dowd, Leighton Meester and James Franco, ‘Of Mice and Men’
O’Dowd, Meester and Franco starred alongside each other in the 2014 Broadway production of the 1937 novella.
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Jude Law, ‘Indiscretions’
The actor appeared nude on stage in 1995 during a production of Indiscretions.
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Julia Stiles and Aaron Eckhart, ‘Oleanna’
Stiles and Eckhart portrayed Carol and John in David Mamet’s Oleanna in 2004.
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Katie Holmes, ‘Dead Accounts’
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.”
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Keke Palmer, ‘Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella’
Palmer became the first Black Cinderella on Broadway in 2014 in Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella.
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Lea Michele, ‘Spring Awakening’
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.
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Marisa Tomei and Michael C. Hall, ‘The Realistic Joneses’
Tomei and Hall starred alongside one another in 2014 in The Realistic Joneses, a play about next-door neighbors.
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Matthew Broderick, ‘It’s Only a Play’
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.
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Michelle Williams, ‘Cabaret’
Williams made her Broadway debut alongside Alan Cumming in the revival of Cabaret in 2014.
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Neil Patrick Harris, ‘Hedwig and the Angry Inch’
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.
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Nick Jonas, ‘How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying’
The former Disney star made his Broadway return in 2012 in the famed play How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.
Credit: AP Photo/The Hartman Group
Orlando Bloom, ‘Romeo and Juliet’
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.
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Philip Seymour Hoffman and Andrew Garfield, ‘Death of a Salesman’
In 2012, Garfield starred alongside the late Hoffman in a revival of Arthur Miller’s 1949 play.
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Rachel Weisz and Daniel Craig, ‘Betrayal’
The real-life couple starred in Harold Pinter’s Betrayal, a play about a love triangle and the pain of loss.
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Scarlett Johansson, ‘Cat on a Hot Tin Roof’
The Marvel star ditched her Black Widow getup for 2013’s production of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.
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Sherri Shepherd, ‘Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella’
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.
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Tom Hanks, ‘Lucky Guy’
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.
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Vanessa Williams, ‘After Midnight’
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.
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Will Ferrell, ‘You’re Welcome America: A Final Night with George W. Bush’
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.
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Joey Fatone, ‘Rent,’ ‘Little Shop of Horrors’
The ‘NSync singer got his Broadway beginnings in 2002 by playing the lead character, Mark, in Rent. A year later, he scored another starring role — this time as Seymour in Little Shop of Horrors.
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Zach Braff, ‘Bullets Over Broadway’
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.
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Diddy, ‘A Raisin in the Sun’
The entrepreneur starred in his one and only Broadway show in 2004, portraying Walter Lee in A Raisin in the Sun.
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Jake Gyllenhaal, ‘Constellations,’ ’Sunday in the Park With George’
The Zodiac actor made his Broadway debut in 2015 with Constellations, later following it up in 2017 by playing the titular character in Sunday in the Park With George. He returned to the stage in 2019 for Sea Wall/A Life.
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Sutton Foster, ‘Thoroughly Modern Millie,’ ‘Little Women,’ ‘The Music Man,’ and More
Foster is a bonafide Broadway baby. She’s starred in multiple hit shows, including Thoroughly Modern Millie, Little Women, The Drowsy Chaperone, Young Frankenstein, Shrek the Musical, Anything Goes and more. The Bunheads alum is the recipient of two Tony Awards for Best Actress in a Musical: one for her role as the titular character in Thoroughly Modern Millie and the other for portraying Reno Sweeney in Anything Goes. She currently stars in The Music Man with Jackman.
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