The Top A-List Actors Headlining On and Off-Broadway This Season, from Robert Downey Jr. to Denzel Washington | Entertainment

With star-studded casting bulletins dropping one after the opposite, this season in New York City is shaping up to be filled with celebrities, each on and Off-Broadway. To provide help to resolve which stars you need to see in individual, and funds accordingly, Playbill has compiled a listing of A-listers who're set to hit the New York stage (the “Mecca” of theatre, in McNeal star Robert Downey Jr.'s phrases) within the coming months. 

For the aim of preserving this listing concise, we have omitted theatre stars (sorry, Audra McDonald, Idina Menzel, Bernadette Peters, and all the opposite Broadway divas on stage this season). While lots of the actors listed on this article aren't any strangers to the theatre, they're higher recognized for his or her appearances in movie, tv, or music. And a number of are making their Broadway or Off-Broadway debuts. Below are the various, many stars of the season.

Robert Downey Jr. (McNeal)

Academy Award winner Robert Downey Jr. is making his Broadway debut in Lincoln Center Theater's world premiere of Ayad Akhtar's McNeal (alongside a “highly realistic Metahuman Digital Likeness” of himself). As a local New Yorker who first received bitten by the performing bug at Stagedoor Manor, Downey says Broadway was a pure place to return.

“[McNeal is a] dream job,” Downey instructed Playbill. “[The] script is so good, the subject matter is so timely, and then the execution is so sophisticated, that the only weak link is me…I like it when I feel like I have to scramble to rise to the occasion of the opportunity I have. I think it activates neuro pathways that make you remember where you came from. I'm a New York kid. I'm a theatre lover…not that L.A. doesn't have a theatre scene, because it's pretty great. But come on! This is Mecca.” 

Daniel Dae Kim (Yellow Face)

Daniel Dae Kim (recognized for roles in Lost, Hawaii Five-0, and extra) is making his return to Broadway as David Henry Hwang's fictionalized doppelgänger DDH within the currently-in-previews Yellow Face on the Todd Haimes Theatre. Kim, who was final seen on Broadway in 2016 because the King of Siam in The King and I, stated his private connection to the play's material was a motivation to take the position. 

WATCH: Yellow Face on Broadway Is Filled With Easter Eggs for ‘Theatre Nerds'

“The play resonated with me pretty deeply, because, you know, I have some experience in the area,” Kim says of his advocacy work round Asian American illustration and the way it connects to the play—which dramatizes the real-life Miss Saigon casting controversy. “I just admire David a lot, because the controversy over the Miss Saigon casting was really the first time I remember Asian Americans in my lifetime galvanizing, coming together to stand up for ourselves. So the fact that David was doing this in the 1980s before it was trendy or topical, says a lot about who he is as a person. And I know from personal experience the toll it can take. So I just have a lot of respect for what he did, and I think more people should know about it.”

Jim Parsons, Zoey Deutch, and Katie Holmes (Hold On to Me Darling) 

A brand new revival of Thornton Wilder's Our Town is at the moment in performances on the Barrymore Theatre, with a number of stars of the display screen amongst its firm members. Jim Parsons, recognized for enjoying Sheldon Cooper in CBS' The Big Bang Theory, stars because the omniscient Stage Manager, with Zoey Deutch as Emily Webb, and Katie Holmes as Mrs. Webb. Deutch is making her Broadway debut within the Our Town revival. On display screen, she's been seen in initiatives together with TV comedies Not Okay and The Politician (alongside Ben Platt), and movies together with Set It Up and Before I Fall. But Parsons and Holmes have each been on stage earlier than.

Parsons was seen on Broadway simply final season as Carl in Paula Vogel's Mother Play through Second Stage Theater, a efficiency that earned the actor his first Tony Award nomination for Best Featured Actor. Parsons started his profession Off-Broadway earlier than transitioning to tv, however finally carried out in Broadway productions together with The Normal Heart, Harvey, An Act of God, and The Boys within the Band. Speaking to Playbill, Parsons says that he had to say sure to Our Town as a result of he wished to put his personal tackle the basic: “The big, big thing was the chance to say these words of this play. It's so well-known and so highly regarded in many corners for a reason. To me, it's one of those plays as an actor, like Glass Menagerie…It's just one of those [plays] that it's like, I have to say yes to this—good, bad, or ugly.”

Holmes rose to fame enjoying Joey Potter in Dawson's Creek, and has since been seen on display screen in Batman Begins, The Giver, and extra. Holmes made her Broadway debut as Ann Deever within the 2008 revival of All My Sons. Our Town will likely be her first return to Broadway since 2012, when she originated the position of Lorna in Theresa Rebeck's Dead Accounts. She was simply on stage Off-Broadway final 12 months in The Wanderers. Speaking to Playbill, Holmes identified that Our Town hadn't been completed on Broadway in over 20 years: “I'd say the whole journey of the play and Emily is—are we really present in our lives, and that's a really beautiful statement to make…It's the right time to do it.” She additionally added, “To be honest, I'm an actor, I've always felt grateful for every job I've been lucky enough to get. And this production, at this time in the world, feels like such a gift.”

Alyssa Milano (Chicago)

TV star Alyssa Milano—of Who's the Boss? and Charmed fame—made her Broadway debut within the Tony-winning revival of Chicago September 16. Her restricted engagement as Roxie Hart will proceed by November 10. 

READ: How Alyssa Milano's Daughter Inspired Her to Audition for Chicago

It's a long-awaited return to the stage for Milano. “When I was eight years old, I was in the second national touring company of Annie for 18 months. That was my very first professional gig,” Milano instructed Playbill. “And then I got off the road from Annie, and I did a play at Second Stage, and then I did something at Ensemble Studio Theatre…And then I got Who's The Boss?”

She says that returning to theatre has been thrilling. “And when I say thrilling, I mean terrifying, exciting. I feel so blessed. I love the work, I love the people. I love Roxie Hart, I love theatre. And it's a gift that my daughter gave me because she started doing musical theatre a couple years ago. I just had a lightbulb moment of, ‘Oh, there's that!'” 

Adam Lambert and Auli'i Cravahlo (Cabaret)

Pop singer Adam Lambert and display screen star Auli'i Cravahlo (Moana, Mean Girls) made their respective Broadway debuts because the Emcee and Sally Bowles in the continuing Cabaret revival September 16. For each artists, theatre was a long-held dream. 

“I'm excited to get back to theatre,” Lambert instructed Playbill forward of opening evening. “This was the trajectory I was on. My childhood dream was to do Broadway. I think the closest thing I came to it was rehearsing for the first national [tour] of Wicked here in New York, 42nd Street Studios. But that was almost 20 years ago, so I took the fork in the road, and [I've] been doing the pop music thing, which I will still continue to do. But this is, like, a childhood dream. I love it, and I've always loved this show.” As for enjoying the Emcee, an element made well-known by Joel Grey and Alan Cumming, Lambert stated the position's been on his bucket listing: “This is a part that's been on a short list for me, because he's weird, and wild. And I'm enjoying being a sleazy little German horn dog with pencil-thin eyebrows and lipstick. It kind of all just fits what I love.”

Read: For Adam Lambert and Auli'i Cravalho, Cabaret Is an Opportunity to Redefine Themselves

As for Cravahlo, she admitted, “I'm nervous. Theatre feels like the final boss. I started singing, and then voiceover work, and then on-camera work—theatre feels like the amalgamation of all the difficult things: projecting my voice to the back of the room. But also, what do I do with my hands? And what does my posture reveal about my character? All of these thoughts that truly, I have to do my homework. Then once I get on that stage opening night…I have to let it all go. So I'm excited to be challenging myself in this way.”

Adam Driver (Hold On to Me Darling at Lucille Lortel Theatre)

Film star Adam Driver will make a stage return in a brand new revival of Kenneth Lonergan's Hold On to Me Darling, enjoying Off-Broadway's Lucille Lortel Theatre starting September 24. Driver will star as nation music icon Strings McCrane, who abandons the limelight to return to his small Tennessee hometown after the loss of life of his mom. Though Driver is thought for his display screen work in Star Wars and Girls, he did choose up a Tony nomination for his Broadway work in 2019's Burn This. And Sondheim followers might keep in mind that he sang “Being Alive” from Company for the 2019 movie Marriage Story (which, little doubt, is what led to him getting an Oscar nomination for that movie).

Julianna Margulies and Peter Gallagher (Left on Tenth)

Peter Gallagher (recognized for enjoying a wide range of fathers on tv, most famously in The O.C.) and Emmy winner Julianna Margulies (CBS' The Good Wife) will star reverse one another in Left on Tenth. The play from Delia Ephron is predicated on her memoir of the identical title—the place Ephron recounted how she fell again in love with a person from her previous. Gallagher has completed Broadway earlier than (he was final seen on the Main Stem in 2015 in On the Twentieth Century). Margulies has not been seen on Broadway since 2006 when she starred in Festen. 

It's a screen-inspired collaboration as a result of Ephron can also be primarily recognized for her movie work, most notably as a screenwriter and producer alongside her sister, the late Nora Ephron—collectively they created among the finest trendy movie rom-coms, together with You've Got Mail and Sleepless in Seattle. Their play Love, Loss, and What I Wore ran for over two years Off-Broadway, so it's greater than applicable that Ephron could be coming again to the stage with one other romantic story. Left on Tenth will start performances September 26 on the James Earl Jones Theatre.

Emmy Rossum (Walden at Second Stage Theatre)

Emmy Rossum first discovered fame enjoying Christine Daaé within the 2004 movie adaptation of the musical The Phantom of the Opera. So it is stunning that the actor (who additionally starred within the long-running sequence Shameless) has taken this lengthy to do stage work—although Walden, starting October 16 at Off-Broadway's Tony Kiser Theatre, isn't a musical (that we all know of). Rossum will star reverse Zoë Winters as a pair of estranged sisters whose father wished them to be astronauts. 

Kit Connor and Rachel Zegler (Romeo + Juliet) 

It could also be onerous to consider that Rachel Zegler is making her Broadway debut within the upcoming revival of William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet. The Golden Globe winner has been endearing herself to the theatre neighborhood for years now, whether or not she was starring as María in Steven Spielberg's 2021 movie remake of West Side Story or sharing Broadway covers on her well-liked YouTube channel. Zegler will likely be enjoying Juliet reverse Kit Connor's Romeo. The Emmy-winning Connor (recognized for Netflix's Heartstopper) may also be making his Broadway debut within the play. That's not all, this new manufacturing will function music by Grammy winner Jack Antonoff (a frequent Taylor Swift collaborator) and motion by Tony winner Sonya Tayeh. Romeo + Juliet begins performances September 26 at Circle within the Square Theatre.

Nicole Scherzinger (Sunset Blvd.)

She's come residence eventually! Nicole Scherzinger is recognized primarily because the lead singer of the woman group The Pussycat Dolls and as a decide on The X Factor. But she's been slowly build up her stage profession, courtesy of composer Andrew Lloyd Webber. She starred as Grizabella in Cats within the West End in 2015, which earned her her first Olivier Award nomination. Her efficiency as Norma Desmond final 12 months within the West End revival of Sunset Blvd. introduced her the Olivier Award. She is about to reprise her position as Norma within the Broadway switch of Sunset Blvd, which can start previews on the St. James Theatre September 28. 

READ: To Nicole Scherzinger, Sunset Blvd. Is the Perfect Musical for Her Broadway Debut

Scherzinger instructed Playbill, in an in-depth interview, that she may have come to Broadway a decade in the past for Cats, however she wished to look forward to the appropriate time, and the appropriate musical to showcase the depths of her expertise. “It just didn't align with my life at the time,” she stated of Cats on Broadway. “It wasn't the appropriate time. And now, after 46 years that I've been ready to hit that Broadway stage, now the timing is the whole lot, and it is divine. This is the manufacturing, that is the timing, that is the position, that is the musical that I'm supposed to be making my debut on Broadway.”

Neil Patrick Harris, Jane Krakowski, Debra Messing, and Constance Wu (Shit. Meet. Fan. at MCC Theater) 

Robert O'Hara's Shit. Meet. Fan begins a bought out, already-extended run at MCC Theater October 10 with an organization filled with A-list stars: Neil Patrick Harris, Jane Krakowski, Debra Messing, and Constance Wu are all a part of the forged. 

Throughout Harris' acclaimed profession, he is starred in TV exhibits How I Met Your Mother, Doogie Howser, M.D., and A Series of Unfortunate Events, to title a number of. Harris has been no stranger to the Broadway stage, as nicely—the actor made his debut in Proof in 2000, and has since appeared in Cabaret, Assassins, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, and, most lately, Peter Pan Goes Wrong. Along with receiving a Tony Award for his efficiency in Hedwig, Harris has hosted the Tony ceremony 4 instances, incomes an Emmy Award for his work every time. 

Tony winner Krakowski is actually a Broadway favourite, however non-theatre followers could also be most conversant in her four-time Emmy-nominated efficiency as Jenna Maroney in NBC's Saturday Night Live send-up 30 Rock. Krakowski obtained a fifth Emmy nomination for portraying Jacqueline White within the Netflix comedy Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. Krakowski made her Broadway debut in Starlight Express in 1987, and went on to star in Company, Once Upon a Mattress, Funny Girl, Nine, and extra. She was most lately seen on Broadway as Ilona Ritter within the 2016 revival of She Loves Me. 

Messing, recognized for her Emmy-winning efficiency as Grace Adler in NBC's Will & Grace, made her Broadway debut in 2014 as Rosemary Muldoon in Outside Mullingar. Messing returned to the Broadway stage to star as Ernestine in Birthday Candles, and additionally performed Jessica in Netflix's 2022 movie adaptation of 13: The Musical. 

Constance Wu, who starred as Jessica Huang in ABC's Fresh Off the Boat and Rachel Chu within the 2018 movie Crazy Rich Asians, is returning to the Off-Broadway stage after making her debut final 12 months as Audrey within the long-running revival of Little Shop of Horrors. Although Wu began her performing profession in tv, she has expressed that theatre was at all times a objective. 

“I was trying to be a classical theatre actress,” Wu instructed Playbill in a 2023 interview. “I like to say that I wanted to be a theatre actress all along, but I had to become a film and TV star in order to book theatre work…The thing I love about theatre is the constant evolution. Every night is different, based on the audience, based on what covers are going on. Theatre is alive, and it gets to keep growing. Whereas in film, and TV, you get to have that scene. And once you hit it, you hit it, and you never have to do it again. I like a challenge. I like the pressure. I like things that evolve.”

Kenneth Branagh (King Lear at The Shed)

Oscar-winning actor Kenneth Branagh has spent the previous few years enjoying Hercule Poirot on display screen, most lately in A Haunting in Venice. But whereas the beloved actor has an extended relationship with Agatha Christie, he has arguably an extended relationship with Shakespeare—having completed many of the Bard's work within the West End (and within the much-loved movie adaptation of 1993 Much Ado About Nothing). King Lear at The Shed is barely Branagh's third New York stage credit score (earlier ones have been Macbeth Off-Broadway and The Play What I Wrote on Broadway). But King Lear is particular as a result of not solely is Branagh starring within the title position, he is additionally directing. King Lear begins Off-Broadway at The Shed October 26. Sigh no extra, Branagh followers, sigh no extra!

Shailene Woodley, Zachary Quinto, Barbie Ferreira (Cult of Love) 

It was introduced simply September 18 that Golden Globe nominee Shailene Woodley (Big Little Lies) and Euphoria star Barbie Ferreira will every make their Broadway debuts in Second Stage Theater's upcoming manufacturing of Emmy nominee Leslye Headland's play Cult of Love. They will star alongside Emmy-nominated actor Zachary Quinto, who's equally recognized for his display screen profession (Star Trek, Heroes, American Horror Story) as he's for his stage credit (Angels in America, The Glass Menagerie). 

Trip Cullman will direct the play, which facilities on the 4 grownup kids of the Dahl household and their companions as they return residence for a rocky vacation gathering. Cult of Love begins previews November 20, with opening evening set for December 12.

John Mulaney (All In: Comedy About Love)

Comedian John Mulaney (Saturday Night Live, John Mulaney & the Sack Lunch Bunch) made his Broadway debut in 2016 when he starred reverse Nick Kroll within the zany two-hander Oh, Hello. Mulaney will return to Broadway starting December 11 on the Hudson Theatre for All In: Comedy About Love, which is tailored from Simon Rich's tales about love, heartbreak, relationship, and marriage that have been first revealed within the New Yorker. The present may also star Fred Armisen, Renée Elise Goldsberry (by December 30), and Richard Kind. Basically, it is a Co-Op the musical reunion.

Brendan Fraser (Grangeville at Signature Theatre)

Last 12 months, Brendan Fraser made his performing comeback in The Whale, which was based mostly on the play by Samuel D. Hunter. Playing an overweight man who by no means leaves his home earned Fraser an Oscar. So it isn't a shock that his follow-up to The Whale could be one other Hunter work, this time on the stage. Fraser will star in Grangeville, a brand new play starting February 4, 2025, at Off-Broadway Signature Theatre. The play follows two half-brothers who tentatively reconnect over the care of their ailing mom. Fraser performs the older Jerry, who nonetheless lives in Grangeville, whereas Brian J. Smith performs Arnold, an artist now dwelling in Rotterdam, drawn again into his previous. It will likely be Fraser's first return to the New York stage since he was final on Broadway in 2010 in Elling. Hopefully it will not be one other 15 years for followers to see him once more. 

Marissa Tomei (Babe on the New Group) and Calista Flockhart, Cooper Hoffman and Christian Slater (Curse of the Starving Class on the New Group)

A trio of display screen actors will play members of the family on this Off-Broadway revival of Sam Shepard's play. Calista Flockhart (Ally McBeal), Cooper Hoffman (son of Philip Seymour Hoffman and star of Licorice Pizza), and Christian Slater (Heathers) will play members of the Tate household, who're struggling to maintain ahold of their rundown household farm. The manufacturing will run in winter 2025, produced by The New Group, and will run on the Signature Center. 

Plus, Marissa Tomei (My Cousin Vinnie) will return to the stage courtesy of The New Group enjoying a report producer in Babe, written by Jessica Goldberg. Tomei was final seen on the stage within the Broadway revival of The Rose Tattoo in 2019. Someone get The New Group's rolodex as a result of its 2024–25 season is star-studded!

Denzel Washington and Jake Gyllenhaal (Othello)

After he opens the Gladiator sequel, followers will likely be in a position to see two-time Oscar winner Denzel Washington stay when he performs the title position in Othello, reverse Jake Gyllenhaal's Iago. The efficiency will likely be Washington's first time again on the boards since starring in a 2018 revival of The Iceman Cometh. Gyllenhaal discovered fame on the display screen in movies like Brokeback Mountain, however in recent times, he is been spending extra time on the stage—he starred within the title position of Sunday within the Park With George and earned a Tony nomination for Sea Wall/A Life. Othello will start February 24, 2025, on the Ethel Barrymore Theatre.

Nick Jonas (The Last Five Years) 

Nick Jonas, who rose to fame as one of many Jonas Brothers trio and as a Disney channel star, will quickly return to the stage as Jamie in the first-ever Broadway manufacturing of Jason Robert Brown's The Last Five Years in spring 2025. Jonas will star alongside Tony winner Adrienne Warren as Cathy, with Tony nominee Whitney White on the helm. 

Jonas began his Broadway profession as a toddler actor, serving as an alternate for Gavroche in Les Misérables and Chip in Beauty and the Beast, and later enjoying Little Jake in Annie Get Your Gun. In 2011, he stepped into the position of J. Pierrepont Finch in How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. 

WATCH: Soon-to-Be Broadway Last Five Years Star Nick Jonas Is a Theatre Kid

Most lately, in 2023, the Jonas Brothers performed a five-night live performance residency at Broadway's Marquis Theatre, with every evening devoted to certainly one of their six albums. 

George Clooney (Good Night, and Good Luck)

Two-time Academy Award winner George Clooney will make his Broadway debut in spring 2025 in a stage adaptation of the 2005 movie Good Night, and Good Luck. Clooney and Grant Heslov have tailored their screenplay for the stage, with David Cromer directing. The historic drama facilities on a conflict between famed journalist Edward R. Murrow and notorious U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy, of anti-communist HUAC fame. Clooney starred on display screen as Murrow's co-producer, Fred W. Friendly. 

“I'm honored, in any case these years, to be coming again to the stage and particularly, to Broadway, the artwork kind and the venue that each actor aspires to,” Clooney stated in an earlier assertion.

Kieran Culkin, Bob Odenkirk, Bill Burr (Glengarry Glen Ross)

This spring, Broadway audiences may spot not only one however two Succession stars on the stage (extra on the second later). Kieran Culkin (who performed Roman Roy in Succession) will star in a revival of Glengarry Glen Ross, reverse fellow display screen stars Bob Odenkirk (Better Call Saul) and comic Bill Burr. Odenkirk and Burr will each make their Broadway debuts with the manufacturing. Culkin beforehand made his Broadway debut in 2014's This Is Our Youth. A theatre and a date has not been introduced, although it is scheduled for spring 2025.

Sarah Snook (The Picture of Dorian Gray)

Speaking of Succession, Emmy winner Sarah Snook will likely be on stage all by herself in spring 2025 for The Picture of Dorian Gray. Based on the Oscar Wilde e-book, Snook will play 26 characters (with the assistance of some video variations of herself). Snook first carried out the present within the West End, incomes an Olivier Award. And now Broadway simply wants Jeremy Strong and Alan Ruck to come again to have a full Roy sibling reunion.

Playbill will proceed to replace this listing as extra stars are introduced. And if anybody is questioning when Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter are coming to Broadway, that is subsequent season (and an entire different listing).

Also, click on right here for upcoming Broadway exhibits and right here for upcoming Off-Broadway exhibits.