Collage of celebrities in Broadway plays

See these Broadway plays starring celebrities

Broadway plays in 2022 are studded with stars of film, TV, stage, music, and comedy.

Gillian Russo
Gillian Russo

Watching a celebrity in your favorite movie or TV show is fun, but nothing beats seeing a star you love perform live. At the movies, you see perfectly curated camera shots, but onstage, you get to see the unedited, raw talent of celebrities on Broadway as they disappear into their characters and weather whatever spills and surprises may come during a live performance. And you get to share in that one-of-a-kind experience — being in the same room as an A-list celebrity is just the icing on the cake.

This Broadway season, there are plenty of opportunities to see celebrities onstage. The big Broadway musicals get a lot of hype, but it's the Broadway plays that often have major stars in the leading roles, and usually for a limited time. Award-winning stars are returning to the Broadway stage this season, and plenty of other screen stars are making their Broadway debuts.

See star power on stage by going to these Broadway plays featuring celebrities — now's your chance to see them live before they step away from the stage for a while. You might discover your new favorite show while you're at the theatre.

Get tickets to a Broadway play on New York Theatre Guide.

An Enemy of the People

Less than a year after the Jessica Chastain-led revival of A Doll's House hit Broadway, another starry revival of an Ibsen play moves onto the stage. Succession's Jeremy Strong will play the title role, opposite The Sopranos's Michael Imperioli as Peter Stockmann and You's Victoria Pedretti as Petra Stockmann, in Ibsen's An Enemy of the People, about a doctor who becomes a public target after exposing contaminated water in a town's lucrative spa baths.

The show marks Imperioli's and Pedretti's Broadway debuts, and Strong's first time on Broadway since his 2008 debut and since Succession made him an Emmy- and Golden Globe-winning household name.

Get An Enemy of the People tickets now.

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Appropriate

Branden Jacobs-Jenkins's family comedy-drama marks the Pulitzer-nominated writer's Broadway debut. Appropriate also marks the return of Sarah Paulson to the stage for the first time in 10 years. Paulson has earned acclaim for her screen work in American Horror Story, American Crime Story, and more in the meantime. Now, she plays Toni in this show about a family uncovering dark secrets as they settle their late patriarch's estate.

Get Appropriate tickets now.

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Mother Play

Jessica Lange, Jim Parsons, and Celia Keenan-Bolger are the family of a Broadway theatregoer's dreams, if not their characters' dreams. Lange plays Phyllis, the mother to Carl and Martha, adults who are not abiding by the strict set of rules she laid out for their success — and that's something they all have to grapple with as their world changes.

Lange, an Oscar and Tony winner, is best known for roles in Tootsie on screen and Long Day's Journey into Night on stage. Parsons, of The Big Bang Theory, is also a stage vet who just led the 2022 Off-Broadway revival of A Man of No Importance, and Keenan-Bolger won a Tony for playing Scout Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird on Broadway.

Get Mother Play tickets now.

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Doubt

There are two Tony Award winners and a two-time nominee in this play, so it's undoubtedly packed with talent. Amy Ryan, replacing the originally announced Tyne Daly, was nominated for Uncle Vanya and A Streetcar Named Desire on top of being Oscar-nominated for Gone Baby Gone. Liev Schreiber won for Glengarry Glen Ross amid his prolific screen career. Now, they co-star in the first revival of a Pulitzer- and Tony-winning play by John Patrick Shanley about a nun with her own doubts about a priest's improper conduct — or not — at a Catholic school.

Get Doubt tickets now.

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Mary Jane

In 2017, Carrie Coon took on the title role of this Amy Herzog play about a struggling single mother. Now, Oscar nominee Rachel McAdams steps into the demanding role for the play's Broadway debut. McAdams makes her own Broadway debut with the play, adding to a stacked screen resume that includes films like Spotlight (which earned her an Oscar nomination), The Notebook (which is getting a Broadway musical adaptation in spring 2024), and The Time Traveler's Wife (which just received a London musical adaptation in 2023).

Get Mary Jane tickets now.

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Patriots

Michael Stuhlbarg hasn't been on Broadway since 2005, when he earned a Tony Award nomination for starring in The Pillowman. Now, the Call Me By Your Name, Boardwalk Empire, and A Serious Man star returns to the stage in a new political drama by The Crown creator Peter Morgan. Stuhlbarg plays Boris Berezovsky, the man who put Vladimir Putin in power and later turned against him.

Get Patriots tickets now.

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Uncle Vanya

In Anton Chekhov's play, a man and his niece have their quiet countryside lives upended when family comes to visit. And what a family there is in this Broadway revival. The Office star Steve Carell makes his Broadway debut as Vanya, starring alongside Alfred Molina (Spider-Man), Anika Noni Rose (The Princess and the Frog), William Jackson Harper (The Good Place), Jayne Houdyshell (The Music Man), and more.

Check back for information on Uncle Vanya tickets on New York Theatre Guide.

Othello

Denzel Washington and Jake Gyllenhaal are both fierce acting talents, and now, they join forces in the Kenny Leon-directed revival of Othello in spring 2025.

Tony and Oscar winner Washington (Fences, Glory, Training Day) stars as the title military officer, and Golden Globe and Tony nominee Gyllenhaal (Sea Wall/A Life, Nightcrawler, Love & Other Drugs) makes his Shakespearean debut as Iago, the man who plots to take him down.

Check back for information on Othello tickets on New York Theatre Guide.

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