Two major movie stars breaking Broadway box office records first gained national attention playing doctors on TV: Denzel Washington, currently the title role in Kenny Leon’s production of Othello, rose to fame as a medical resident on the acclaimed 1980s series St. Elsewhere, and George Clooney, who cowrote and stars in a new stage adaptation of his 2005 film Good Night, and Good Luck, famously starred on the ’90s favorite ER.
As more and more artists at all stages of their careers and of all stripes have turned to network, cable, and streaming services, producing what many consider a new golden age of television, the difference in stature between big-screen and small-screen stars has shrunk considerably. This spring, a number of the latter — several of whom are also nurturing film careers — are joining Clooney and Washington in treading the boards.
Fans of the late, great HBO series Succession were able to catch one of its stars, Jeremy Strong, in a revival of Ibsen’s An Enemy of the People around this time last year; now they can check out two actors who played his TV character’s rivalrous siblings to scathingly hilarious effect. A new adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray starring Succession alumna Sarah Snook, just opened at the Music Box Theatre, after earning rave reviews abroad and an Olivier Award for the Emmy-winning Australian actress, who juggles 26 roles in her Broadway debut.
Over at the Palace Theatre, Snook’s Succession costar Kieran Culkin, also an Emmy winner — he recently added an Oscar to his trophy collection, for his performance in Jessie Eisenberg’s A Real Pain — is appearing in a starry revival of David Mamet’s Glengarry Glen Ross. Culkin plays real estate shark Richard “Ricky” Roma, a part previously tackled on stage and screen by such revered actors as Joe Mantegna, Liev Schreiber, and Al Pacino.
Culkin’s costars include Broadway newbie Bob Odenkirk, an alumnus of two popular and widely praised series: AMC’s Breaking Bad and its spinoff, Better Call Saul, which focused on the character Odenkirk had introduced in the original—a lawyer and con man who aspired, often comically, to emulate Roma’s slickness. In Glengarry, Odenkirk is cast as the washed-up salesman Shelley Levene, a sadder figure. Comedian and TV and movie veteran Bill Burr, also making his Broadway bow, plays Dave Moss, an angrier colleague.
Stranger Things devotees also have much to look forward to. As the final season of that Netflix hit approaches, not only is Broadway hosting the prequel Stranger Things: The First Shadow — now in previews for an April 22 opening at the Marquis Theatre, where it has transferred after scoring an Olivier on the West End — it’s welcoming Stranger Things star Sadie Sink in the new play John Proctor Is the Villain, also in previews and opening April 14 at the Booth Theatre.
In Proctor, by Kimberly Belflower, Sink is cast as Shelby Holcomb, one of several high school students reading Arthur Miller’s The Crucible (in which Proctor is more of a hero) during the #MeToo era. The production marks Sink’s third Broadway gig: She made her debut as a standby and replacement in the 2012 revival of Annie, and portrayed a young Elizabeth II in 2015’s The Audience. The young actress has other notable TV and movie credits, including the screen adaptation of Samuel D. Hunter’s acclaimed play The Whale, in which she costarred with Oscar winner Brendan Fraser.
In addition, Jonathan Groff, who delighted Broadway audiences in the original cast of Spring Awakening but found wider recognition on Fox’s Glee and Netflix’s Mindhunter, returns to Broadway for the second consecutive season. After winning a Tony for 2023’s revival of Merrily We Roll Along, he stars as Bobby Darin in the musical homage Just in Time, in previews and opening April 23 at Circle in the Square.
Another stage and screen veteran, David Hyde Pierce, forever loved by TV fans for playing psychiatrist Dr. Niles Crane on Frasier, is back as well, as the major general in Pirates! The Penzance Musical, a jazzy new take on the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta, which began performances April 4 and opens April 24. Pirates! will also feature Jinkx Monsoon as the pirate maid Ruth. Monsoon sashayed to national prominence more than a decade ago as winner on season five of RuPaul’s Drag Race, and placed first again in the show’s all-star competition in 2022 — the year before she made her Broadway debut, as Mama Morton in Chicago.
Of course, there’s also the long-awaited arrival of SMASH, based on the TV series that followed a Broadway musical, in previews for an April 10 opening at the Imperial Theatre. The series, created by playwright and screenwriter Theresa Rebeck, was itself a showcase for several leading Broadway performers, among them Megan Hilty, Christian Borle, Jeremy Jordan, Brian d’Arcy James, Leslie Odom Jr., Ann Harada, and Krysta Rodriguez.
Hilty, who played one of two actresses competing for the role of Marilyn Monroe on the television show, returned to Broadway herself this season, to glowing notices, in the hit musical adaptation Death Becomes Her, playing the aging diva introduced in the original film by Meryl Streep. In the stage version of SMASH, Hilty’s role is being inherited by Tony nominee Robyn Hurder (A Beautiful Noise, Moulin Rouge! The Musical), while Rodriguez joins the company in a different role.
Like the small-screen version, the stage musical also features the songs of Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman; Tony-nominated choreographer Joshua Bergasse (2014’s On the Town, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) is also once again on board, now teaming with celebrated director Susan Stroman.
And on May 24, Jean Smart, the Emmy-winning star of Hacks, an HBO Max comedy series beloved by many a theater fan, will begin performances in Jamie Wax’s Call Me Izzy. Set to open June 12 at Studio 54, it’s sure to be the first of numerous shows in the 2025–2026 season that will either bring popular TV performers back to Broadway — where Smart last appeared in a 2000 revival of The Man Who Came to Dinner — or provide them with a new home there.