With star-studded casting announcements dropping one after the other, this season in New York City is shaping up to be packed with celebrities, both on and Off-Broadway. To help you decide which stars you should see in person, and budget accordingly, Playbill has compiled a list of A-listers who are set to hit the New York stage (the "Mecca" of theatre, in McNeal star Robert Downey Jr.'s words) in the coming months.
For the purpose of keeping this list concise, we've omitted theatre stars (sorry, Audra McDonald, Idina Menzel, Bernadette Peters, and all the other Broadway divas on stage this season). While many of the actors listed in this article are no strangers to the theatre, they are better known for their appearances in film, television, or music. And several are making their Broadway or Off-Broadway debuts. Below are the many, 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 native New Yorker who first got bitten by the acting bug at Stagedoor Manor, Downey says Broadway was a natural place to return.
"[McNeal is a] dream job," Downey told 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 (known for roles in Lost, Hawaii Five-0, and more) is making his return to Broadway as David Henry Hwang's fictionalized doppelgänger DDH in the currently-in-previews Yellow Face at the Todd Haimes Theatre. Kim, who was last seen on Broadway in 2016 as the King of Siam in The King and I, said his personal connection to the play's subject matter was a motivation to take the role.
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 around Asian American representation and how 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 (Our Town)
A new revival of Thornton Wilder's Our Town is currently in performances at the Barrymore Theatre, with several stars of the screen among its company members. Jim Parsons, known for playing Sheldon Cooper in CBS' The Big Bang Theory, stars as the omniscient Stage Manager, with Zoey Deutch as Emily Webb, and Katie Holmes as Mrs. Webb. Deutch is making her Broadway debut in the Our Town revival. On screen, she's been seen in projects including TV comedies Not Okay and The Politician (alongside Ben Platt), and films including Set It Up and Before I Fall. But Parsons and Holmes have both been on stage before.
Parsons was seen on Broadway just last season as Carl in Paula Vogel's Mother Play via Second Stage Theater, a performance that earned the actor his first Tony Award nomination for Best Featured Actor. Parsons began his career Off-Broadway before transitioning to television, but eventually performed in Broadway productions including The Normal Heart, Harvey, An Act of God, and The Boys in the Band. Speaking to Playbill, Parsons says that he had to say yes to Our Town because he wanted to put his own take on the classic: "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 playing Joey Potter in Dawson's Creek, and has since been seen on screen in Batman Begins, The Giver, and more. Holmes made her Broadway debut as Ann Deever in the 2008 revival of All My Sons. Our Town will be her first return to Broadway since 2012, when she originated the role of Lorna in Theresa Rebeck's Dead Accounts. She was just on stage Off-Broadway last year in The Wanderers. Speaking to Playbill, Holmes pointed out that Our Town hadn't been done 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 also 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 in the Tony-winning revival of Chicago September 16. Her limited engagement as Roxie Hart will continue through 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 told 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 screen star Auli'i Cravahlo (Moana, Mean Girls) made their respective Broadway debuts as the Emcee and Sally Bowles in the ongoing Cabaret revival September 16. For both artists, theatre was a long-held dream.
"I'm excited to get back to theatre," Lambert told Playbill ahead of opening night. "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 playing the Emcee, a part made famous by Joel Grey and Alan Cumming, Lambert said the role's been on his bucket list: "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 new revival of Kenneth Lonergan's Hold On to Me Darling, playing Off-Broadway's Lucille Lortel Theatre beginning September 24. Driver will star as country music icon Strings McCrane, who abandons the limelight to return to his small Tennessee hometown after the death of his mother. Though Driver is known for his screen work in Star Wars and Girls, he did pick up a Tony nomination for his Broadway work in 2019's Burn This. And Sondheim fans may remember that he sang "Being Alive" from Company for the 2019 film Marriage Story (which, no doubt, is what led to him getting an Oscar nomination for that film).
Julianna Margulies and Peter Gallagher (Left on Tenth)
Peter Gallagher (known for playing a variety of fathers on television, most famously in The O.C.) and Emmy winner Julianna Margulies (CBS' The Good Wife) will star opposite each other in Left on Tenth. The play from Delia Ephron is based on her memoir of the same name—where Ephron recounted how she fell back in love with a man from her past. Gallagher has done Broadway before (he was last 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 because Ephron is also primarily known for her film work, most notably as a screenwriter and producer alongside her sister, the late Nora Ephron—together they created some of the best modern film rom-coms, including 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 is more than appropriate that Ephron would be coming back to the stage with another romantic story. Left on Tenth will begin performances September 26 at the James Earl Jones Theatre.
Emmy Rossum (Walden at Second Stage Theatre)
Emmy Rossum first found fame playing Christine Daaé in the 2004 film adaptation of the musical The Phantom of the Opera. So it's surprising that the actor (who also starred in the long-running series Shameless) has taken this long to do stage work—though Walden, beginning October 16 at Off-Broadway's Tony Kiser Theatre, is not a musical (that we know of). Rossum will star opposite Zoë Winters as a pair of estranged sisters whose father wanted them to be astronauts.
Kit Connor and Rachel Zegler (Romeo + Juliet)
It may be hard to believe that Rachel Zegler is making her Broadway debut in the upcoming revival of William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet. The Golden Globe winner has been endearing herself to the theatre community for years now, whether she was starring as María in Steven Spielberg's 2021 film remake of West Side Story or sharing Broadway covers on her popular YouTube channel. Zegler will be playing Juliet opposite Kit Connor's Romeo. The Emmy-winning Connor (known for Netflix's Heartstopper) will also be making his Broadway debut in the play. That's not all, this new production will feature music by Grammy winner Jack Antonoff (a frequent Taylor Swift collaborator) and movement by Tony winner Sonya Tayeh. Romeo + Juliet begins performances September 26 at Circle in the Square Theatre.
Nicole Scherzinger (Sunset Blvd.)
She's come home at last! Nicole Scherzinger is known primarily as the lead singer of the girl group The Pussycat Dolls and as a judge on The X Factor. But she's been slowly building up her stage career, courtesy of composer Andrew Lloyd Webber. She starred as Grizabella in Cats in the West End in 2015, which earned her her first Olivier Award nomination. Her performance as Norma Desmond last year in the West End revival of Sunset Blvd. brought her the Olivier Award. She is set to reprise her role as Norma in the Broadway transfer of Sunset Blvd, which will begin previews at the St. James Theatre September 28.
READ: To Nicole Scherzinger, Sunset Blvd. Is the Perfect Musical for Her Broadway Debut
Scherzinger told Playbill, in an in-depth interview, that she could have come to Broadway a decade ago for Cats, but she wanted to wait for the right time, and the right musical to showcase the depths of her talent. "It just didn't align with my life at the time," she said of Cats on Broadway. "It wasn't the right time. And now, after 46 years that I've been waiting to hit that Broadway stage, now the timing is everything, and it's divine. This is the production, this is the timing, this is the role, this is the musical that I'm supposed to be making my debut on Broadway.”
Neil Patrick Harris, Jane Krakowski, Debra Messing, Constance Wu, and Billy Magnussen (Shit. Meet. Fan. at MCC Theater)
Robert O'Hara's Shit. Meet. Fan begins a sold out, already-extended run at MCC Theater October 10 with a company full of A-list stars: Neil Patrick Harris, Jane Krakowski, Debra Messing, and Constance Wu are all part of the cast.
Throughout Harris' acclaimed career, he's starred in TV shows How I Met Your Mother, Doogie Howser, M.D., and A Series of Unfortunate Events, to name a few. Harris has been no stranger to the Broadway stage, as well—the actor made his debut in Proof in 2000, and has since appeared in Cabaret, Assassins, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, and, most recently, Peter Pan Goes Wrong. Along with receiving a Tony Award for his performance in Hedwig, Harris has hosted the Tony ceremony four times, earning an Emmy Award for his work each time.
Tony winner Krakowski is certainly a Broadway favorite, but non-theatre fans may be most familiar with her four-time Emmy-nominated performance as Jenna Maroney in NBC's Saturday Night Live send-up 30 Rock. Krakowski received a fifth Emmy nomination for portraying Jacqueline White in 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 more. She was most recently seen on Broadway as Ilona Ritter in the 2016 revival of She Loves Me.
Messing, known for her Emmy-winning performance 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 also played Jessica in Netflix's 2022 film adaptation of 13: The Musical.
Billy Magnussen starred in the 2013 play Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike where he received a Tony nomination. In recent years, he's pivoted to screen work where he memorably starred in a number of movie musicals (Aladdin and Into the Woods) and the comedy Game Night.
Constance Wu, who starred as Jessica Huang in ABC's Fresh Off the Boat and Rachel Chu in the 2018 film Crazy Rich Asians, is returning to the Off-Broadway stage after making her debut last year as Audrey in the long-running revival of Little Shop of Horrors. Although Wu started her acting career in television, she has expressed that theatre was always a goal.
“I was trying to be a classical theatre actress,” Wu told 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."
Michelle Williams (Death Becomes Her)
Out of all the members of the '90s girl-group Destiny's Child, Michelle Williams is the one that has kept a foot in the theatre world. The new musical Death Becomes Her will mark her fourth Broadway credit—she was last seen in 2018 in the Once On This Island revival. And it seems that this latest project will lean fully into Williams' pop diva persona—she will play the beautiful and mysterious Viola Van Horn, who offers up an immortality potion. We'd take that potion. Death Becomes Her begins performances at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre October 23.
Kenneth Branagh (King Lear at The Shed)
Oscar-winning actor Kenneth Branagh has spent the past few years playing Hercule Poirot on screen, most recently in A Haunting in Venice. But while the beloved actor has a long relationship with Agatha Christie, he has arguably a longer relationship with Shakespeare—having done most of the Bard's work in the West End (and in the much-loved film adaptation of 1993 Much Ado About Nothing). King Lear at The Shed is only Branagh's third New York stage credit (previous ones were Macbeth Off-Broadway and The Play What I Wrote on Broadway). But King Lear is special because not only is Branagh starring in the title role, he's also directing. King Lear begins Off-Broadway at The Shed October 26. Sigh no more, Branagh fans, sigh no more!
Shailene Woodley, Zachary Quinto, Barbie Ferreira (Cult of Love)
It was announced just September 18 that Golden Globe nominee Shailene Woodley (Big Little Lies) and Euphoria star Barbie Ferreira will each make their Broadway debuts in Second Stage Theater's upcoming production of Emmy nominee Leslye Headland's play Cult of Love. They will star alongside Emmy-nominated actor Zachary Quinto, who is equally known for his screen career (Star Trek, Heroes, American Horror Story) as he is for his stage credits (Angels in America, The Glass Menagerie).
Trip Cullman will direct the play, which centers on the four adult children of the Dahl family and their partners as they return home for a rocky holiday gathering. Cult of Love begins previews November 20, with opening night 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 opposite Nick Kroll in the zany two-hander Oh, Hello. Mulaney will return to Broadway beginning December 11 at the Hudson Theatre for All In: Comedy About Love, which is adapted from Simon Rich's stories about love, heartbreak, dating, and marriage that were first published in the New Yorker. The show will also star Fred Armisen, Renée Elise Goldsberry (through December 30), and Richard Kind. Basically, it's a Co-Op the musical reunion.
Brendan Fraser (Grangeville at Signature Theatre)
Last year, Brendan Fraser made his acting comeback in The Whale, which was based on the play by Samuel D. Hunter. Playing an obese man who never leaves his house earned Fraser an Oscar. So it's not a surprise that his follow-up to The Whale would be another Hunter work, this time on the stage. Fraser will star in Grangeville, a new play beginning February 4, 2025, at Off-Broadway Signature Theatre. The play follows two half-brothers who tentatively reconnect over the care of their ailing mother. Fraser plays the older Jerry, who still lives in Grangeville, while Brian J. Smith plays Arnold, an artist now living in Rotterdam, drawn back into his past. It will be Fraser's first return to the New York stage since he was last on Broadway in 2010 in Elling. Hopefully it won't be another 15 years for fans to see him again.
Marissa Tomei (Babe at the New Group) and Calista Flockhart, Cooper Hoffman and Christian Slater (Curse of the Starving Class at the New Group)
A trio of screen actors will play family members in 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 family, who are struggling to keep ahold of their rundown family farm. The production will run in winter 2025, produced by The New Group, and will run at the Signature Center.
Plus, Marissa Tomei (My Cousin Vinnie) will return to the stage courtesy of The New Group playing a record producer in Babe, written by Jessica Goldberg. Tomei was last seen on the stage in the Broadway revival of The Rose Tattoo in 2019. Someone get The New Group's rolodex because its 2024–25 season is star-studded!
Denzel Washington and Jake Gyllenhaal (Othello)
After he opens the Gladiator sequel, fans will be able to see two-time Oscar winner Denzel Washington live when he plays the title role in Othello, opposite Jake Gyllenhaal's Iago. The performance will be Washington's first time back on the boards since starring in a 2018 revival of The Iceman Cometh. Gyllenhaal found fame on the screen in films like Brokeback Mountain, but in recent years, he's been spending more time on the stage—he starred in the title role of Sunday in the Park With George and earned a Tony nomination for Sea Wall/A Life. Othello will begin February 24, 2025, at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre.
Nick Jonas (The Last Five Years)
Nick Jonas, who rose to fame as one of the Jonas Brothers trio and as a Disney channel star, will soon return to the stage as Jamie in the first-ever Broadway production 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 at the helm.
Jonas started his Broadway career as a child actor, serving as an alternate for Gavroche in Les Misérables and Chip in Beauty and the Beast, and later playing Little Jake in Annie Get Your Gun. In 2011, he stepped into the role 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 recently, in 2023, the Jonas Brothers played a five-night concert residency at Broadway's Marquis Theatre, with each night dedicated to 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 film Good Night, and Good Luck. Clooney and Grant Heslov have adapted their screenplay for the stage, with David Cromer directing. The historical drama centers on a clash between famed journalist Edward R. Murrow and infamous U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy, of anti-communist HUAC fame. Clooney starred on screen as Murrow's co-producer, Fred W. Friendly.
"I am honored, after all these years, to be coming back to the stage and especially, to Broadway, the art form and the venue that every actor aspires to,” Clooney said in an earlier statement.
Kieran Culkin, Bob Odenkirk, Bill Burr (Glengarry Glen Ross)
This spring, Broadway audiences might spot not just one but two Succession stars on the stage (more on the second one later). Kieran Culkin (who played Roman Roy in Succession) will star in a revival of Glengarry Glen Ross, opposite fellow screen stars Bob Odenkirk (Better Call Saul) and comedian Bill Burr. Odenkirk and Burr will both make their Broadway debuts with the production. Culkin previously made his Broadway debut in 2014's This Is Our Youth. A theatre and a date has not been announced, though it's scheduled for spring 2025.
Sarah Snook (The Picture of Dorian Gray)
Speaking of Succession, Emmy winner Sarah Snook will be on stage all by herself in spring 2025 for The Picture of Dorian Gray. Based on the Oscar Wilde book, Snook will play 26 characters (with the help of some video versions of herself). Snook first performed the show in the West End, earning an Olivier Award. And now Broadway just needs Jeremy Strong and Alan Ruck to come back to have a full Roy sibling reunion.
Playbill will continue to update this list as more stars are announced. And if anyone is wondering when Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter are coming to Broadway, that's next season (and a whole other list).
Also, click here for upcoming Broadway shows and here for upcoming Off-Broadway shows.
