For the past several months, Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe has been stunning audiences in Broadway’s How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, not to mention getting them there in the first place, as he proves to be perhaps the biggest New York box-office draw ever, especially for the die-hard fans of the young wizard he portrays on screen. And Brooke Shields’ recent arrival at the creepy, kooky musical The Addams Family has certainly given the show a shot in the arm. But their arrivals to the mecca of theatre is just the beginning of this year’s lineup of stars set to tread the boards.
Potter fans will see another familiar face on Broadway this season. Alan Rickman (who played the misunderstood Professor Snape) will be portraying a brilliant writer teaching a master class that turns hostile in Seminar. Meanwhile, Samuel L. Jackson (Pulp Fiction) and Angela Bassett (How Stella Got Her Groove Back) will be starring in The Mountaintop, a creative re-telling of the events that occurred the night before the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Frank Langella (who channeled former president Richard Nixon in the 2008 film Frost/Nixon) will be playing sociopathic businessman Gregor Antonescu in the revival of Terence Rattigan’s Man and Boy.
Fans of the hit HBO show Sex and the City will be pleased to see two of its stars leading Broadway plays. Kim Cattrall (who portrayed the bawdy Samantha) will be starring in the revival of Noel Coward’s Private Lives, a case study in self-destructive romantic relationships. Cynthia Nixon (who played cynical lawyer Miranda) will be leading a production of Margaret Edson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play Wit, about an English professor who reflects on her life as she dies of ovarian cancer. Fans of the edgy show Weeds will recognize Hunter Parrish (returning to Broadway after a run in the hit musical Spring Awakening) in the revival of composer Stephen Schwartz’s first musical, Godspell, coincidentally playing right next door to his latest musical, the blockbuster Wicked.
As if this group of stars weren’t big enough, there are even more famous faces to be seen on Broadway this season. Stockard Channing (Grease, The West Wing) will appear in the family dramedy Other Desert Cities while Harry Connick, Jr. (Will & Grace, P.S. I Love You) will star in the supernatural musical On a Clear Day You Can See Forever. The collection of three family-focused one-act plays Relatively Speaking will feature both Steve Guttenberg (Police Academy, The Poseidon Adventure) and Marlo Thomas (Friends, That Girl), and the Alicia Keys-produced modern comedy of manners Stick Fly will star Mekhi Pfifer (ER, 8 Mile), Tracie Thoms (Rent, Cold Case), and Dule Hill (The West Wing, Psych).
With so many Hollywood actors gracing the stage this year, it looks like Broadway will be busy. Order your tickets now to make sure you get your piece of these stars!
